Legacy from British Malaya

Information from Lily Zubaidah Rahim's 'Whose Imagined Community? The Nation-State, Ethnicity and Indigenous Minorities in Southeast Asia', conference paper on Racism and Public Policy presented at Durban, South Africa, 3-5 September 2001 (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development). Link (pdf)

…The more they remain the same. After the alternating periods of colonialism and the Second World War, the damage wrought by the various colonial powers – whether British, Dutch or Japanese – had been seared into local culture, leading to one of those curious but probably not unique phenomena of colonised states: the embedding of ethnic stereotyping and complex psychological-religious conditions, especially amongst the Malays.Indeed, colonial racist discourses were actually internalised and amplified after the colonial powers left. Ethnic stereotypes like the "lazy native, opportunistic Chinese, drunken Indian" were just a few examples "transmorgrified" and propagated, in various degrees, into the public policies of Malaysia and Singapore (the two post-colonial states that arose out of British Malaya after a brief and acrimonious marriage).This has been proven by both former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed and Singapore’s first prime minister and statesman Lee Kuan Yew. Never the best of friends in the best of times, they nevertheless found sufficient common ground to express their strangely – or not-so-strangely – similar "controversial racial views and writings."National myths of Malaysia and SingaporeIn Malaysia, politicians of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), senior partner in the country’s ruling coalition, "have a long tradition of admonishing Malays for their cultural shortcomings and paternalistically advising them to reform." Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed actually used the "biological and cultural deficit arguments" of British colonial administrators "to explain the socio-economic marginality of the Malay community."To that end, UMNO has attempted to address this problem, but the road to hell is always paved with good intentions. Its supposedly affirmative-action bumiputera** policy of uplifting the Malay and other indigenous peoples in Malaysia by favouring them in tangible ways has instead resulted in inequality amongst these very peoples, as well as a system creating and largely benefiting an elite class among the bumiputera.In Singapore’s case, its pre-colonial identity has consistently been downplayed in favour of its colonial heritage. In a pincer development, Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has used its ideology of "multiracialism" as a divide-and-rule tactic to ensure its continued dominance over political life in the country. This political party has since declared itself a national movement and created a national myth, allowing the state to "claim a neutral status that is above ethnic partisanship".Singaporeans are assigned to one of four racial categories: Chinese Malay, Indian and Others. Among other things, this "systematic promotion of ethnic consciousness and maintenance of rigid ethnic boundaries while engendering a cohesive national identity" may seem contradictory and paradoxical. One possible explanation is that the Chinese-majority leadership was only performing another feat of radical logic comparable to the actions of their British predecessors. Insult was added to injury in the most ironic way; these were the so-called anti-colonial pioneers of an independent Singapore – largely British-educated lawyers, doctors, engineers and others formed the first generation of the PAP government’s core.Within the framework of their irrefutable logic, Singaporeans of Sri Lankan or Pakistani descent "are classified as Indians and accorded Tamil as their mother tongue even though they may not speak it" as their native language. Similarly, the "distinctively rich and unique" Peranakan culture was subsumed into the Chinese racial category. This pattern of racial classification is "based on the premise that it is both natural and desirable for each citizen to belong to one race", and the "situational selection of race and ethnicity [is] not encouraged by the state."In contrast, the Malay people have a more inclusive and flexible "understanding of identity which is linked to Islam and adat (custom)". This means that it is "theoretically possible to masuk Melayu (become Malay) by embracing Islam and practicing Malay adat."However, this begs the first of many questions: why has Islam become synonymous with being Malay?Did this phenomenon originate from the blatantly racist divide-and-rule policies of the British colonialists? Was this further reinforced by the conditions imposed upon the Malay community by the non-Malay, non-Muslim, Chinese-dominated PAP government? Was this a gradually-evolved complex psychological reaction because they were (and still are) an ethnic and religious minority? These are questions that need to be asked; efforts must be made to answer them.

***To be concluded.*