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ABSTRACT
A lasting legacy of colonial rule across the world is the political salience of ethnicity in many modern postcolonial nation-states. Upon independence, these nation-states had to grapple with the challenging task of nation-building amidst often tense inter-ethnic group relations. This article examines and compares the state approaches towards ethnic diversity of two former British colonies in Southeast Asia – Myanmar and Malaysia. It finds that in both countries, the key similarity is that the state has favoured the numerically dominant ethnic group in its policies. However, while the main ethnic divisions in Myanmar are within the indigenous ethnic groups, the Malaysia’s ethnic divisions lie along an indigenous/non-indigenous dichotomy. Given the long histories of these ethnic divisions, any long-term solution will be challenging, but is arguably not impossible. A closer analysis of nationalist concepts in Myanmar and Malaysia suggests that moving towards a more civic form of nationalism is possible.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Dr. Mohamed Effendy Abdul Hamid for his invaluable guidance, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and useful comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Kong and Law, “Introduction,” 1506.
2. Wolf, “Perilous Ideas,” 4–5.
3. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 5.
4. Wolf, “Perilous Ideas,” 6.
5. Jenkins, “Imagined but Not Imaginary,” 117.
6. Ibid.
7. Van den Berghe, Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective, 9–10.
8. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 1.
9. Ibid.
10. Jenkins, “Imagined but not Imaginary,” 127.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 119.
13. Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice, 303.
14. Ibid., 304.
15. Ibid., 307.
16. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 6.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. McGarry and O’Leary, “The Political Regulation of National and Ethnic Conflict,” 95.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., 94.
23. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 14.
24. Ibid., 26.
25. Ibid., 27.
26. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 3.
27. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 21.
28. Ibid., 34.
29. Ibid., 14.
30. Ibid., 13.
31. Ibid., 34.
32. Ibid., 14.
33. Ibid., 19.
34. Jaskulowski, “Western (civic) versus Eastern (ethnic) Nationalism,” 290.
35. Spencer and Wollman, Nationalism, 96–97.
36. Ibid.
37. Smith, “Dating the Nation,” 56.
38. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 35.
39. Ibid., 31.
40. Ibid., 35.
41. Taylor, “Refighting Old Battles, Compounding Misconceptions,” 3.
42. Taylor, “Do states make nations?” 264.
43. Cho, “Ethnicity and Identity,” 43.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid., 44.
46. Ibid., 45.
47. Ibid., 45.
48. Taylor, “British Policy towards Myanmar,” 74.
49. Ibid., 75.
50. Ibid., 75.
51. Ibid., 75.
52. South, Ethnic Politics in Burma, 22.
53. Bertrand, Pelletier and Thawnghmung, “First Movers, Democratization and Unilateral Concessions,” 1.
54. See note 52 above.
55. Taylor, “British Policy towards Myanmar,” 76.
56. Government of The Republic of The Union of Myanmar, Ministry of Immigration and Population, Department of Population, “The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census: The Union Report.”
57. Aung, “Still No Date for Release of Census Findings on Ethnic Populations.”
58. Central Intelligence Agency, “Burma, CIA World Factbook 2019.”
59. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar “National Races” Came,” 471.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid., 470.
63. Cheesman, “Seeing “Karen” in the Union of Myanmar,” 215.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid., 216.
66. Ibid., 217.
67. Ibid. 217.
68. South, Ethnic Politics in Burma, 26.
69. Ibid., 27.
70. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar ‘National Races’ Came,” 464.
71. Walton, “The Disciplining Discourse of Unity,” 1.
72. Ibid., 2.
73. Cheesman, “Seeing ‘Karen’ in the Union of Myanmar,” 217.
74. Ibid.
75. Walton, “Nation-Building”, 396.
76. Farzana, “Boundaries in Shaping the Rohingya Identity,” 297.
77. Walton, “The ‘Wages of Burman-ness’,” 12.
78. Cheesman, “Seeing ‘Karen’ in the Union of Myanmar,” 219.
79. Ibid.
80. Farzana, Memories of Burmese Rohingya Refugees, 46.
81. See note 59 above.
82. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 74.
83. Ibid., 75.
84. Taylor, “Refighting Old Battles, Compounding Misconceptions,” 4.
85. Zarni and Brinham, ‘Reworking the Colonial-Era Indian Peril,’ 63.
86. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar “National Races” Came,” 473.
87. Alam, “The Rohingya of Myanmar,” 197.
88. BBC, Myanmar Rohingya: What You Need to Know about the Crisis.
89. McGarry and O’Leary, “The Political Regulation of National and Ethnic Conflict,” 105.
90. See note 53 above.
91. Kesby, The Right to Have Rights.
92. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 134.
93. Xia, Lee and Halim, “The Elites’ Collective Subjectivities,” 179.
94. Wade, “The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia.”
95. Xia, Lee and Halim, “The Elites’ Collective Subjectivities,” 169.
96. Ibid.
97. Gabriel, “The Meaning of Race in Malaysia,” 788.
98. See note 93 above.
99. Gabriel, “The Meaning of Race in Malaysia,” 789.
100. Ibid., 790.
101. Ibid., 790.
102. Ibid., 791.
103. Xia, Lee and Halim, “The Elites’ Collective Subjectivities,” 170.
104. Cheah, “Sino-Malay Conflicts in Malaya, 1945–1946,” 108.
105. Ibid., 109.
106. Central Intelligence Agency, “Malaysia, CIA World Factbook (2019).”
107. Tay, “Dimensions of Ketuanan Melayu,” 48.
108. Ibid.
109. Xia, Lee and Halim, “The Elites’ Collective Subjectivities,” 170.
110. Tay, “Dimensions of Ketuanan Melayu,” 50.
111. Ibid.
112. Ibid., 52.
113. Wade, “The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia,” 8.
114. Tay, “Dimensions of Ketuanan Melayu,” 52.
115. Ibid., 67.
116. Aljunied, “A Theory of Colonialism in the Malay World,” 19.
117. Ambikaipaker, “Anti-polarization identity politics in Malaysia,” 345.
118. Ibid., 346.
119. Wade, “The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia,” 23.
120. Ibid., 27.
121. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 127.
122. Ibid.
123. Ibid., 132.
124. Ibid., 133.
125. Ibid.
126. McGarry and O’Leary, “The Political Regulation of National and Ethnic Conflict,” 106.
127. Ibid.
128. Selway, “Turning Malays into Thai-men,”,54.
129. Ahmad and Kadir, “Ethnic Conflict, Prevention and Management,” 59.
130. Pietsch and Clark, “Citizenship Rights in Malaysia,” 308.
131. Yow, “Ethnic Chinese in Malaysian Citizenship.”
132. See above 3., 122.
133. Dickinson, Globalization and Migration: A World in Motion, 4.
134. Thawnghmung, “The Politics of Indigeneity in Myanmar,” 527.
135. Ibid., 528.
136. Ibid., 541.
137. Suryadinata, The Making of Southeast Asian Nations, 61.
138. Farrelly, “Cooperation, Contestation, Conflict,” 264.
139. Walton, “The ‘Wages of Burman-ness’,” 22.
140. Jolliffe, “Peace and Reconciliation,” 368.
141. See note 53 above.
142. Ibid.
143. Ibid., 9.
144. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar ‘National Races’ Came,” 477.
145. Thawnghmung, “The Politics of Indigeneity in Myanmar,” 543.
146. Ware and Laoutides, “Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ Conflict,” 70.
147. Oh, “Rohingya or Bengali?”
148. Taylor, “Refighting Old Battles, Compounding Misconceptions,” 13.
149. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar ‘National Races’ Came,” 470.
150. Ibid., 469.
151. Suryadinata, The Rise of China and the Chinese Overseas, 131.
152. Ibid., 132.
153. Haque, “Rohingya Ethnic Muslim Minority,” 457.
154. Ahmad and Kadir, “Ethnic Conflict, Prevention and Management,” 42.
155. See note 92 above.
156. Ibid.
157. Rahman, “Was it a Malay Tsunami?” 673.
158. Ibid., 678.
159. Ibid., 669.
160. Embong, “Ethnicity and Class,” 284.
161. Ibid.
162. Ibid.
163. Milner and Ting, “Race and its Competing Paradigms,” 49.
164. Ibid.
165. Ibid.
166. Ibid.
167. Slater, Ordering Power, 119.
168. Ibid., 118.
169. Ibid., 118.
170. Chua, Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore, 106.
171. Ibid.
172. Mutalib, “Singapore Muslims,” 57.
173. Mutalib, “The Singapore Minority Dilemma,” 1156.
174. See note 1 above.
175. See note 19 above.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ivan Yan Chao Ng
Ivan Ng (黄彦超) is a postgraduate student research assistant at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is a candidate for a Master of Science in Strategic Studies. He holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Arts (Southeast Asian Studies) from the National University of Singapore. His research interests broadly span ethnic politics, security and migration.