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Many scholars have contributed to a broad spectrum of explanation to understand Malaysians' ethnic consciousness. Some scholars engage the historical materialism approach. Other scholars use the social construction approach. There are also scholars who use both approaches to explain the phenomenon. This paper intends to reconsider all these approaches and propose an approach that will explain Malaysians' ethnic consciousness more concisely. In order to do so, eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in Malaysian public universities. The FGDs were conducted to investigate the Malaysian Malay and Chinese students' interpretations concerning their ethnic consciousness. Judging from the outcomes of the FGDs, the social construction or the ‘bottom-up’ approach emerged as the more concise analytical method with which to analyse the nature of students' ethnic consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Anxieties over the position of Malay identity have often spilled over into locally-produced popular materials. Such anxieties are reflected particularly in portrayals of Malay-Muslim womanhood. Malay-Muslim women are a significant target audience for these concerns, specifically in their assumedly natural roles as nurturers of a family unit. Despite this focus on Malay-Muslim women, however, theirs is a voice that is rarely heard as Malaysia advances towards an Islamic modernity. This article examines how urban Malay-Muslim women negotiate these tensions in their consumption and interpretation of local popular culture. Borrowing from Michel de Certeau’s framework on everyday resistance, this article argues that these practices are in turn indicative of the interviewees’ desire to be a part of a forward-looking Islamic modernity narrative and global community or ummah, and ultimately leave behind anxieties over Malay identity by choosing to construct their subjectivity in religious rather than ethnic terms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on ethnic Chinese as cultural citizens of the nation, this paper examines national identity in the context of generational change. In so doing, it connects to colonialist conceptions of identity the dominant framework of ethnicity that operates in Malaysia. It argues that this framework allows for the nationalist imagining of ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ as ‘outsiders’. In probing the complex conceptual relationship between ethnicity, national identity and cultural citizenship, this article asks: How does ‘ethnicity’ enter into negotiations over the ‘national’ in the cultural realm? What are the notions of cultural difference and national otherness that operate in the negative dualisms by which nation and ethnicity are defined? How are these dualisms tied to notions of authenticity and cultural citizenship? Using the novel The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian author Tash Aw to address these questions, this paper argues the need to rethink current policies and narratives of ethnic and national identity in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates intercultural misunderstandings between Koreans and Malays at work that may prevent Korean companies from becoming key players in global collaboration. It utilizes "sociology of knowledge" developed by Karl Mannheim and the sociocultural value orientation of Fons Trompenaars to understand the root cause and sources of conflicts in industrial settings. Korean society has always emphasized homogeneity as a basic feature of its cultural identity and integration. To outsiders, however, this may be viewed as Koreans' ethnocentricity. Experience suggests that the more Korean companies invest overseas, the more intercultural communication problems crop up in their international interactions, which can be attributed to lack of understanding of intercultural differences and diversity. In this respect, this research could contribute towards conflict resolution through mutual understanding. It concludes that one of the main causes of conflict is the different perspectives of various groups on how they look at reality and nature, which influence their understanding of problems and circumstances, or what Mannheim terms the "definition of the situation." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the national tendencies of diasporic communities. It focuses on the development of another form of identification and allegiance among the diasporic groups to illustrate the translocative effects of diaspora, and examines the literary works of K. S. Maniam about the national and cultural identity in Malaysia. It also explores the challenges posed by Maniam's writings and cultural politics to the hegemonic notion of diaspora.

The relationship between religious, ethnic and national identities in Malaysia has long been fraught with uncomfortable tensions—especially for the 50 percent of Malaysians who are outside the dominant Malay-Muslim communal grouping. Until the accession of Dr Mahathir to the prime ministership at the beginning of the 1980s, it was clear that ethnic identity trumped religious identity, even though being Muslim was already intrinsic to being accepted as Malay. Being a non-Malay Malaysian was to accept a subordinate, but not a drastically uncomfortable role in the nation. Since the 1980s, however, religious identity appears to have replaced ethnicity as the central element of nation identity as the society has been systematically—even aggressively—Islamised. Yet appearances can be deceiving, and there is a strong case to be made that Islamisation in Malaysia is basically a variation of the original Malay ethnonationalism, using the nearly complete symbiosis between Malay and Muslim identity as the point of articulation that allows religious nationalism to serve as a cipher for ethnonationalism—but a version of ethnonationalism that is much less accommodating of minorities than was traditional Malay nationalism. This article places contemporary events in a historical context and then focuses on just one aspect of Malaysia's program of Islamisation that is both contemporary and central to national identity—developments in the education system, and particularly within the secondary school history curriculum—to demonstrate that in this instance at least, religious nationalism is operating as a surrogate for ethnic nationalism and has, in fact, intensified ethnic nationalism by raising the stakes for the communities that are outside the core national group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The March 2008 general elections in Malaysia have been characterized as a political "tsunami" with opposition parties enjoying stunning electoral success both at the federal and state levels. In the aftermath of these elections further upheavals in the Malaysian political landscape have taken place. However, is Malaysia witnessing a truly progressive moment, one that is long-term and structural, or is this instead a short- term, regressive, "restorative" moment? More specifically, what do the 2008 elections mean as far as the continuing evolution of Malaysia's national identity is concerned? By adopting a Gramsican perspective and drawing upon some of Gramsci's key concepts this article endeavours to offer a more nuanced analysis of the recent elections and their meaning vis-à-vis (re)conceptions of national identity. In the process, this article seeks to explore the development and complex operation of hegemony with particular reference to notions of national identity in contemporaly Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National identity in Malaysia is defined by Malay culture and politically associated with ethno-nationalism whose goal is material advancement of bumiputera in general and Malay-bumiputera in particular. The process entailed a restructuring strategy to transform the ethnically defined occupational structure and increase bumiputera ownership of the country's corporate wealth to 30 per cent by 1990. To be sure, Malaysia had by turn of the century entered the services stage and expanded the ranks of the middle class. The continued popularity of UMNO (United Malays National Organization) indicates that Malay ethno-nationalist aspirations and its definition of national identity is still relevant. Malaysia thus remains a nation with a divided polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the significance of the church's ministry in the nation building and national integration in Malaysia. Characteristics of the civilization in the country; Role partaken by the church in the development of the nation; Moves made by the country in the process of nation building.