6 - Ethnic Politics, National Development and Language Policy in Malaysia

Summary

INTRODUCTION

One could argue that Malay nationalism, after the Japanese Occupation, was largely one that imagined the nation in terms of a people sharing a common culture and language; that is, the nation as a culturally and linguistically homogenous entity. While this led the Malay nationalists to take for granted that the future Malay(si)an national culture and identity should be fashioned out of their own, nevertheless, various factors and circumstances prevented them from pursuing an unambiguously assimilationist policy. This paper indeed will trace how language and education policy in post-Independence Malay(si)a became circumscribed and shaped by the politics of inter-ethnic bargaining, or “consociational politics”, that arose in the post-World War Two period and became, subsequently, the dominant political form in the country.

In a nutshell, conflicts over the language and education issues had oscillated between the Malays’ aims to consolidate the status of their mother tongue as the sole official language and main medium of instruction on the one hand, and the Chinese's insistence on their language rights as Malaysian citizens, including a state-funded Chinese- medium primary and secondary education system, on the other hand. In a sense, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister, accurately observed that the language controversies have never been over Malay language as the sole national language, as everyone accepts this, but rather about Malay as the sole official language and main medium of instruction.

The first two sections of this paper examine the language and education issues prior to the achievement of political independence; the formation of a multilingual society and multilingual education system prior to World War Two, and then how the emerging politics of consociation shaped the language and education discourses and policies. The third section focuses on the immediate post-Independence period's escalating passionate language and education controversies. The fourth section examines the rise of Malay dominance and the institutionalization of Malay language as the sole official language and main medium of instruction.