Category: Ethnic & Ethnic Relations

The Tamils form a distinct minority group in multiracial Malaysia enjoying political and economic participation in the country. However, nationalism and modernization have brought about an erosion, real and imagined, in the continuity of language, literature, and culture. Ethnic Tamil newspapers, which have always played a role in the cultural continuity of the community, are… Continue reading The Role of Tamil Newspapers in Ethnic Cultural Continuity in Contemporary Malaysia

The history of Malay nationalism traces a path from secular issues before World War II to religious issues in the post-independence period. Before the war, Malay nationalists were concerned with the encroachment upon their freedom by British colonialists and non-Malay immigrants. The establishment of Malay political power after the war effected important economic changes, creating… Continue reading The state, religious nationalism, and ethnic rationalization in Malaysia

The author based his study on the experiences of Malaysia and Latin America. The article challenges the view that expressions of ethnicity and class are inversely proportional to one another, and that, with the rise of capitalist economies and their associated classes, ethnicity as the more “retrogressive” mode of organization will necessarily wane, but proposes… Continue reading The Status of Ethnicity and the Ethnicity of Status: Ethnic and Class Identity in Malaysia and Latin

The purpose of this article is to make a few tentative comments on current sociological and socio-historical findings related to the Chinese minority position in South-East Asia. Since the achievement of independence by all South-East Asian nations in the decade of 1950, which coincided with the emergence of a powerful Chinese Communist State on the… Continue reading The changing trade position of the Chinese in South-East Asia

In the heterogeneous society of the state of Sabah, formerly the British colony of North Borneo and since 1963 a state of Malaysia, the Murut tribe has had a special place. A series of censuses showed that the country’s indigenous population as a whole was rowing at a slow rate, so that in the year… Continue reading The Decline and Recovery of the Murut Tribe of Sabah.

The application of survey research techniques to the study of the internal organization of attitudes has resulted in findings that vary from the results of recent experimental inquiry. The behavioral and affect components of attitudes have exhibited a high correlation for both Chinese and Malay ethnic groups living in George Town, Malaysia. It has not… Continue reading Affective, Cognitive, And Behavioral Consistency Of Chinese-Malay Interracial Attitudes

This paper distinguishes Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian language) and Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) according to type and function and summarizes their development as the national languages of Malaya, Singapore, and Indonesia. It presents a short, historical account of the spread, through religious and educational activities, of the English language in Malaya and Singapore and the Dutch… Continue reading Cultural Aspects of Language Imposition in Malaya, Singapore, and Indonesi

This article gives a statistical picture of the central problems of inequality, employment and earnings in Malaysia. Cultural characteristics of Malaysia; Ethnic and geographical structure of the population; Religion.  [Download]

The article focuses on the paper “Incentive Schemes and Foreign Investment in the Industrialization of Malaysia,” by N.D. Karunaratne, and M.B. Abdullah. The basic message of this article is that tax incentives have not significantly influenced foreign companies to invest in Malaysia and they represent an unproductive tax income loss.  [Download]

The article presents information on Malay population in the nineteenth century. So far as British Malaya as a whole is concerned, the first comprehensive census was taken in 1911 when the total population was enumerated to be about 2,650,000, of whom 46.8 percent were Malay, 6.4 percent Malaysian, 34.7 per cent Chinese, 10.1 percent Indian… Continue reading Malay Peninsula in the 19th Century, with Special Reference to the East Coast States