Building a multiracial society
Lessons from a “model” country on how to, and how not to.
By Sholto Byrnes Published 09 January 2011 11:33
How do you build a multiracial society? According to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, you should look east, to Malaysia, for inspiration. It "has much to teach the world about how to construct a vibrant, multiracial, multi-ethnic, multicultural society", he said in 2007. Its success "should be studied both by those looking for economic prosperity and those seeking to understand how people live together, not just with tolerance, but with respect".
This 28-million-strong country, made up ethnically of roughly 50 per cent Malays, 25 per cent Chinese, 8 per cent Indians and the balance indigenous peoples and others, makes much of its diversity in its glossy "Malaysia, Truly Asia" tourism advertisements. But there is another side to this happy picture, with the freedom of worship and equality before the law of all guaranteed by the constitution often appearing to be mere ciphers.
Malay chauvinists still refer to Chinese and Indians as "pendatang" – immigrants – 53 years after independence, and one of the WikiLeaks cables quoted a Singaporean official warning that interracial tension could get so bad that Chinese would "flee" Malaysia and "overwhelm" its city-state neighbour to the south.
I've recently been investigating this for the National, the United Arab Emirates' leading English-language newspaper, and the resulting 3,000-word essay has just been published. (You can find it here. It's currently the second most viewed article on the National's website.) I bring this to your attention first because Malaysia has a unique mix of races and religions, and how it works or doesn't work could provide lessons about how to manage harmonious relations elsewhere; second because many readers have noted – and queried – my interest in the country; and third because it is a former British colony, and the roots of some of its problems lie during that period of occupation.
My conclusion is that, with some violent bumps on the way, Malaysia is and has mostly been a very successful plural society. But it is not and has never been an integrated, united society – which is one of the reasons why the flagship policy of the current prime minister, Dato Sri Najib Tun Razak, is called 1Malaysia. A genuinely Malaysian identity has yet to be created.
The phenomenon was described by the south-east Asia scholar Anthony Milner in his 2008 study, The Malays, as "different communities living side by side without mingling". This was a pattern actively encouraged and enforced by the British, and which troubles the country to this day.
There is a "silo mentality", as an MP tipped as a future prime minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, put it to me. And it is ingrained to the point that, when I asked the former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, a reformist and now leader of a new opposition party, when he thought Malaysia would be ready for a non-Malay prime minister, he replied: "Not in my lifetime."
I won't go into further detail, as the essay provides greater depth (though even that space did not allow me to consider properly how religion and the legal system have become intertwined, nor examine the situation in the northern, Borneo parts of the country). However, as Sudan looks to separate and other units – such as the former Czechoslovakia and maybe even Belgium – either split or show the strain of forces pulling them apart, Malaysia's continued stability is an impressive achievement: even if one element of nation-building – the creation of a common identity, regardless of race or religion – has a very long way to go.
Readers who have accused me of painting an overly rosy picture of the country in the past may find some answers in the essay. If they have further questions or points to make, I will be happy to answer them, either on this thread or, if too many queries come in at once, in a longer reply that I will post later this week.
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12 comments
Really hit the jackpot this time, didn't I? Fascist! Scaremonger! Xenophobe!
Well, so were Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Cochis, Caractacus, Leonidas, Vercingetorix and Cetewayo - and I'm proud to be assocociated with them.
Vive las Resistance! Down with the invaders!
Am British, have lived in UK, France, Germany, Belgium and am now settled in Netherlands. Went on holiday to Malaysia last year and was blown away by the way that all races and religions live together in apparent harmony. Europe - at least - can definitely learn a great deal from Malaysia.
Why on earth would anyone want to build a multi-racial society? Especially when it always means that the culture and traditions of the host nation will eventually be destroyed.
@EnragedBrit
Because we're not all a bunch of un-reconstructed fascists? Where is the inherent value in a culture or tradition which cannot withstand exposure to alternatives? Why do you associate the traditions and culture of one ethnic group with the nation they inhabit, instead of simply the ethnic group? Why are fellow citizens, fellow humans, only 'guests' in the 'host' nation? Why/how does multi-racial/culturalism lead to the destruction of cultures?
Translation of what EnragedBrit said-
'Herp derp derp xenophobic scaremongering bullshit'
@EnragedBrit
You are confusing 'race' with 'culture'. There's no problem with a 'multiracial' or 'multiethnic' society, as long as its members all subscribe to basic cultural values. The problem comes when you have diffferent cultures with values that are not compatible with each other.
I don't see the merits of the Malaysian example *for us* over the Canadian example. Of course there is a number of problems with Canadian system too, but firstly, that "mingling" element seems to have worked better in this North American multicultural society. (Especially when it comes to big cities such as Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver). And beside that it doesn't have the strange side of the Malaysian politics which has shown extreme favoritism for the Malay race.... I do applaud what has been achieved in Malaysia, especially given all the other failures around the world, but I think if Malaysia is a good example for a developing country's multiculturalism (we should note that the harmony was achieved through the prospect of the development horizon). Canada, on the other hand, is a closer example for developed nations to see how open gates and open hearts can build up a reasonably harmonious multicultural nation.
Sorry for the messy sentences! Wrote and submitted without editing...
We are often told by many liberal/left wing commentators that cultural and racial diversity has made an immensely positive contribution to life in the UK. The late Robin Cook spoke of how chicken tikka masala has become the nation dish of Britain; Tony Benn said the fact that some 20% of schoolchildren coming from ethnic minority backgrounds provide ‘a wonderful snapshot of multicultural Britain’.
However what about the politics of race and multiculturalism? Nowadays freedom of speech is curtailed for the sake of ‘multicultural harmony’ under the fascist restriction of political correctness. This has undermined British identity in many ways including those labour controlled councils of Hounslow and Lewisham who refuse to fly the Union Jack from their council buildings on the charge that the union jack is ‘socially divisive’. The very British feature of humour has also been undermined. For instance do we see Bernard Manning, Alf Garnett or Jim Davidson on TV anymore? These comics have been replaced by the less inspiring left –wing personalities such as Marcus Bridgstock, Jonathon Ross, Jo Brand and Frank Skinner who will dare offend no one -other than white heterosexual right wing males!
We are told by politicians of the economic benefits of mass immigration to the UK. Indeed it is true that mass immigration has provided a cheap supply of labour to businesses, which has kept prices and inflation low and has helped employers to fill positions where apparently British workers have not had adequate skills to fulfil the role.
However, the cheap supply of labour provided by mass immigration has kept the minimum wage low, helping to sustain higher profits for employers but thereby making the gap between high and low income earners more profound and kept the lowest income earners in a cycle of poverty. The ability of employers to recruit skilled workers from abroad has robbed British workers of the opportunity to be trained to have the skills to undertake certain employment.
In housing the Labour Government has failed to build enough council houses meaning that the supply of housing has been inadequate to meet the need of the settled population to the extent where there are some 1.6 million people waiting for council accommodation. This problem is of course exacerbated by mass immigration where newcomers often seek cheap private and council housing.
The way that attitudes to assimilation into UK life for immigrants has been mismanaged. Indeed look at areas of Luton, Bradford, Birmingham and East London where immigrant communities have transformed the area to match their way of life to the country from which they came. It seems that there is too much emphasis from immigrants on the country from which they are from –and not the one they are in! It has got to the point where a recent opinion poll found that 40% of all Muslims in the UK want to live under Sharia Law, which is in effect holding the established laws of the UK in contempt.
In conclusion, I feel that the Labour obsession with mass immigration and diversity has helped to undermine both our democracy, the British way of life, the economic standing of the working classes and our cohesion as a society.
Absence of house flies in KL and Penang is wonderful but how is that achieved when all tropical countries have house flies everywhere? Is there some stealthy activity over it? There is a public outcry about dogs being shot, even those that are licensed pets. The most surprising one is the Shia Muslim gathering in December 2010, all 200 of them at their mosque, were mass arrested during their Ashura evening. No country anywhere stifles Ashura, the commemoration of a profound martyrdom that brought down the Ummayad dynasty and trembles tyrants anywhere even today. The maltreatment of Anwar, the opposition politician is a great paradox in a supposedly progressive and multicultural society. The Chinese inhabitants of Malaysia are full of sense of insecurity. Everyone says there is an under-current and it is palpable.
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