Ethnic arithmetic and the challenges of nation building : a study of Malaysian education policy for national integration, 1970 to present

This study investigates education policy since 1970 in Malaysia aimed at achieving
national integration across ethnic groups. The approach adopted is critical policy
sociology; the study thus utilised historical analysis and semi-structured interviews
with 'policy players' across the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia. The analyses
are framed by theoretical considerations of ethnicity, nation, nation-building and
plural society and the role of education policy in relation to them. The historical
analyses demonstrated the ongoing effects of colonial residues in contemporary
education policy and the ongoing ethnic-based contestation around the policy and
accommodative state strategies utilised. The interview analyses demonstrated the
contested nature of the concept of integration, tensions in the application of a
bumiputera/non-bumiputera binary in policy, Malay concerns over their rights and
economic opportunities, and Chinese and Indian concerns for language and cultural
maintenance. The articulated Malay position was one tending towards assimilation
and demanding recognition of their status as 'sons of the soil', while the Chinese and
Indian stances tended towards multiculturalism. Language of instruction in schooling
was shown to be central to these contested ideologies. These ethnic groups also
worked with different constructions of the nation. The analyses demonstrated how in
Appadurai's (1996) terms the nation (ethnic cultures and languages) and the state
(politics and policy) have remained the project of each other in Malaysian education
policy aimed at national integration. The analyses also showed how changing global
contexts have challenged ethnic politics through the demand for better education for
all, irrespective of ethnicity, socio-economic background and urban-rural location.
English and Mandarin have taken on different policy salience in education in this
global context. Human rights discourses have also to some extent reframed ethnic
politics, as has recognition that socio-economic status might be a better focus for
education policy for national integration. The research showed that concern for
national integration has retained meta-policy status within Malaysian education.