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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia
- The Role of Dominant Ethnicity
저자
Authors)
In-Jin Yoon, Chich Thiang Koo
출처
Source)
아세아연구 58(2), 2015.6, 274-310 (37 pages)
The Journal of Asiatic Studies 58(2), 2015.6, 274-310 (37 pages)
발행처
Publisher)
고려대학교 아세아문제연구소
Asiatic Reaserch Institute, Korea University
URL
http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Article/NODE06366308
APA Style
In-Jin Yoon, Chich Thiang Koo (2015). Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia.
아세아연구, 58(2), 274-310.
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Claiming National Membership
in Multiethnic MalaysiaThe Role of Dominant Ethnicity
1)
In-Jin Yoon
Korea University
Chich Thiang Koo
Kedah Korean Language Center
Ⅰ. Introduction
In multi-ethnic Malaysia, the non-Malays are allowed to maintain theirethnic identities while enjoying the privileges of Malaysian citizenship.
However, the issue of social integration remains unsolved. Ironically, the
policies promoting social integration seem to have invoked conflict and
mistrust among ethnic groups and worsened the situation. For instance,
the New Economic Plan launched for the purpose eliminating the wealth
gap between the Malays and the non-Malays and promoting social in-tegration has become one of the major sources of conflict between the
Malays and the non-Malays. Its emphasis on one national language and
※ This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded
by the Korean Government (NRF-2013S1A3A2055251). We thank anonymous
reviewers for their constructive comments.
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 275
national education failed to win support from the non-Malays and further
disintegrated them from the Malays. It exacerbated the on-going conflict
between the Malays and the non-Malays on the issue of vernacular
school preservation, a prolonged struggle triggered by the establishment
of Malay language as the national language. Our study suggests that the
insensitivity of such policies is rooted in the failure to construct a mutual
understanding between the Malays and the non-Malays on the meaning
of national membership, which serves as the condition for becoming a
genuine Malaysian. To prove our argument, we will demonstrate that the
Malays and the non-Malays have different meanings of national member-
ship, and that the cultural hegemony of the Malays and struggle against it
by the non-Malays are the main cause of different interpretations of na-
tional membership.
Membership is often equated with oneness, sameness, belonging and
identity. It is crucial to distinguish between state membership and na-tional membership, although they are sometimes interchangeable. The
more familiar term for state membership is citizenship, which entails well
codified obligation and social and political rights, whereas national mem-
bership is relative and subjective in nature. According to Brubaker
(2010), it is possible to analytically distinguish the politics of citizenship
in the nation-state and the politics of belonging to the nation-state.Hence a person with formal state membership could contest his/her sub-
stantive status as a full member of the nation. Nonetheless, in its most ra-
tional form, national membership may resemble state membership. Here,
we define national membership as the state of being a member of a na-
tion which involves a sense of belonging to and identity with a nation.
Because in a multi-ethnic nation-state, a nation is a political entity that
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276 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
consists of multiple ethnic groups, ethnic membership is defined as the
state of being a member of an ethnic group that has unique cultural tradi-
tions and a sense of belonging.
As reflected in the ‘cricket metaphor’ (Yuval-Davis 2006, 210), the dis-
tinction is more remarkable in the entitlement of membership. Unlike
state membership, there is no explicit way to exhibit the qualification of
national membership. In 1990, Norman Tebbit, a British politician and a
member of the Conservative Party, suggested that, ‘if people watched a
cricket match between Britain and the team of the country from which
they or their family originated and cheered the latter team, it meant that
those people did not really “belong” to the British collectivity’
(Yuval-Davis 2006, 210). In this sense, the criteria of becoming a genuine
national member may vary along ethnic lines. Thus, an ethnic group may
regard itself as the national member but it may not be recognized as such
by other groups.In Malaysia, the Malays are the dominant ethnic group and attempt to
impose their own cultural principles as the criteria for membership, while
other ethnic groups tend to promote unity by downplaying cultural
difference. In most cases, the non-Malays regard themselves as true
members of nation Malaysia by claiming their emotional attachment and
belongingness to the nation regardless of ethnicity. For them, it is notcultural markers such as language preference, religion and Islamic his-
tory, but nationality, modern law, contribution, and the history of war
against enemies and nation-building that have constructed the nation.
Chinese and Indian students often complain about the overemphasis of
Islamic history in both subjects of World History and National History.
These students also urge that for the sake of national development and
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 277
globalization, English should be stressed over Malay language.
On the other hand, as shown in the Malay proverb used as prop-
aganda for the national language campaign, ‘bahasa jiwa bangsa’ (literally
meaning ‘language as the spirit of nation’), Malay language is an indis-
pensable component of the nation for the Malays. Together with Islamic
principles and Islamic history, they form the core of nation Malaysia
based on Malay's principles of culture. The Islamic elements penetrate
through every important national feature such as the symbolic power of
the King, national anthem, national flag, national history and ‘Rukun
Negara’ (National Principles). In order to become a true member of the
nation, Chinese and Indians confine their ethnic features to the private
sphere but conform to the ‘national’ features in public. For instance,
many Malays urge Chinese and Indian parents to send their children to
national schools instead of vernacular ones. Chinese and Indians are also
encouraged to speak with each other in Malay language rather than
English or their mother tongue.
In this context, Chinese and Indians are likely to be seen and treated
as ‘secondary citizens’. They are often labeled as ‘pendatang’ (immigrant)
because they are assumed to be not fluent in Malay language and not
ready to integrate into Malay culture and society. Consequently, the
non-Malays have doubts about their status as full-fledged national mem-bers in Malaysia. It is obvious that national membership claimed by the
non-Malays differs from that by the Malays, as the latter tend to include
the cultural criteria based on their own ethnicity. Here, the refusal of
Chinese and Indians to give up vernacular schools and be absorbed into
national education is a sign that they demand national membership that
is not based on specific Malay traits.
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278 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
The main cause of the different interpretations of national member-
ship rests on cultural hegemony of one group over the others in the
process of nation-building. The understanding of nation as a form of cul-
tural hegemony (Smith 1986) underlies this argument. In this context,
dominant ethnicity emerged when a core ethnic group played a leading
role in the process of nation formation (Kaufmann 2004). Dominant eth-
nicity is a key concept to understand how a dominant ethnic group de-
fines national membership. National membership defined by other ethnic
groups could be theoretically based on the definition of the dominant
ethnic group. Dominant ethnicity is distinguished from political or eco-
nomic domination because it is a sense of collectivity that cuts across so-
cial classes in an ethnic group, whereas political and economic domi-
nation are largely confined to upper-class ethnic members (Husin 1984).
From this perspective, we may expect that the dominant ethnic group
tends to de-emphasize the distinction between national and ethnic iden-tity and defines a nation in terms of ethnicity - as the continuation of the
precursor ethnic community. In opposition to the dominant group, dia-
sporic communities like Chinese and Indians in Malaysia strategically at-
tach themselves to the nation by endorsing national membership that is
constructed by non-ascriptive common features shared across all groups,
such as nationality, modern law, and contribution to the nation. By doingso, they could claim national membership without losing their ethnic
identity. This is a strategy to survive within an alien cultural hegemony,
and in this process their object of loyalty or obligation is transferred from
the origin society to the local society while preserving their root culture.
In a multi-ethnic society, these two modes of national membership
are incompatible with each other. This explains why policies of social in-
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 279
tegration frequently fail to serve the interest of the non-Malays. The
Malays do not understand why Chinese and Indians refuse to accept
‘national language’ and ‘national education’, whereas the non-Malays do
not understand why they are not considered as genuine national mem-
bers by the Malays.
Our study will demonstrate that national membership perceived by
the non-Malay is not the same as that of the Malays. To support our argu-
ment, we employ social identity theory to predict the relationship be-
tween identity and attitudes (Tajfel 1978; Turner 1982). If national mem-
bership correlates with exclusive ethnicity, stronger identification to the
nation will increase social distance with other ethnic groups. On the oth-
er hand, if national membership is constructed along with other common
features such as nationality and contribution to nation, it should embrace
all the Malays, Chinese and Indians. In other words, stronger identi-
fication with the nation will entail intimacy with members of other ethnicgroups that belong to the nation (Fleischmann et al 2011; Verkuyten and
Khan 2012).
Ⅱ. Theoretical Framework
1. Formation of Dominant Ethnicity and National Identity
According to Kaufmann (2004), dominant ethnicity emerges when a
particular ethnic group exercises cultural and symbolic dominance within
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280 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
a nation. The dominant ethnic group is the core ethnic group that played
a leading role in the process of nation-state formation. The domination
normally entails political dominance but is not necessarily accompanied
by economic dominance. This observation is based on Anthony Smith's
(1991) concept of ‘core ethnie’, which links the asymmetric nature of eth-
nicity to the formation of nation.
A dominant ethnic group never ceases from manifesting its domi-
nation in contemporary nation after its pre-modern predecessors and re-
tains its ethnicity(Kaufmann and Zimmer 2004). One remarkable modern
characteristic of dominant ethnicity is the tendency to conceal its eth-
nicity in nationalist discourse, while imposing its ethnic practices on to
others. In his study of American ethnicity, Kaufmann (2006) shows how a
dominant ethnic group in the United States absorbs diverse immigrant
populations to its ethnic core while maintaining its ethnic boundaries.
The process is occasionally concealed by the ideological value ofliberalism. Meanwhile, Juteau (2004) criticized the trans-ethnic citizen-
ship that was promoted by the dominant ethnic group in Canada. By
adopting the trans-ethnic citizenship, the dominant group in Canada
might think that they had overcome ethnicity and no longer regard them-
selves as an ethnic group. However, evidence showed that ethnic iden-
tity of the dominant group in Canada persists and is still operative on theground level.
The above observation suggests that as a core ethnic group in a na-
tion, the dominant ethnic group tends to correlate national identity with
ethnic identity and identifies ‘authentic’ national member on the basis of
exclusive dominant ethnicity while claiming inclusive national identity.
Though ethnicity is concealed underneath national identity, it is what
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 281
functions in reality. In this context, diasporas like Chinese have no choice
but to strategically endorse the national membership that separates their
ethnicity from national identity.
2. Dominant Ethnicity in Malaysia
The Malays, Chinese, and Indians constitute the major population of
the Malaysia Peninsula. The state leaders are ambitious in constructing a
national identity that embraces all ethnic groups. For instance, former
Prime Minister Mahathir's idea of ‘Vision 2020’ aims at a truly united
‘Malaysian race’ by 2020. Despite the ambitious vision, Malay's domi-
nance never ceases to prevail in the state defined national identity. Ethnic
relations in Malaysia are diagnosed to be still in a “worrying and fragile
state” or in the state of “stable tension” (Shamsul and Yusoff 2011, 5-7).Existing literature lists several events that contributed to the con-
temporary social configuration and the status of dominant Malay.
Hirschman (1987) and Banton (1994) emphasized the role of the
Colonial Office in shaping ethnic divisions before independence. The
British Colonial Office had adopted the ‘divide and rule’ policy on the
Malay Peninsula. This included the arbitrary assignment of ethnic cat-egory to the population according to physical appearance and country of
origin. Segregated residential areas were deliberately planned to avoid
direct contact between ethnic categories. Division of labor was artificially
drawn along ethnic lines, where most of Malays were confined to coun-
tryside agriculture and high strata colonial administrative office. Chinese
were concentrated in mining, business and trading, while Indians were in
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small estates and low strata colonial administrative office. Malay rulers
held symbolic power. Nonetheless, the rise of multiethnic middle-class
during the 1980s has significantly relieved occupational segregation
along ethnic lines.
On the contrary, Khoo (2009) argued that the British did not deliber-
ately separate the ethnic groups. Evidences show that Malays and
Chinese immigrants had little social intercourse with each other at places
where their communities lived in quite close proximity, even before the
era of British administration. Due to different values and religion, the two
groups only had superficial social intercourse in the marketplace, offices,
non-ethnic clubs, English-medium schools and during sports activities.
The British might have taken for granted the social configuration to favor
their rule and further crystallized the division of ethnic groups.
Then how ethnic Malays turned into the dominant group and later
transformed to the Malay nation? Shamsul (as quoted in Yusoff 2011) ex-amined the epistemological aspect of colonial inheritance. Colonial
knowledge, including concepts of census, map, ethnic difference and na-
tionalism, influenced the Malay intelligentsia and the way they con-
structed modern social reality. Before the post-war period, Chinese and
Indians had no political and social interests on the Malay Peninsula.
Instead, they endorsed nationalism in their mother countries of Chinaand India. On the contrary, influenced by colonial knowledge and in re-
sponse to the growing ethnic cleavages, the Malay intellectuals started to
assert their indigenousness. Around the post-war period, there was mas-
sive ethnic mobilization among the Malays, initiated by Malay
intellectuals. Shamsul (1998) and Milner (1998) illustrated debates about
national identity between factions of Malay intellectuals on the press. It
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 283
was possible to distinguish between acculturationist discourse and assim-
ilationist discourse. The former asserted a non-ascriptive and inclusive
notion of nation. Nonetheless, the fear of losing ethnic identity was evi-
dent in both discourses.
The year 1946 marks the most critical event in the history of Malay
dominance. The Colonial Office proposed the plan of ‘Malayan Union
State’, but they were strongly opposed by Malay nationalists on the
ground that the plan would offer equal citizenship to the non-Malays.
Aligning with the Malay nationalism movement, the Colonial Office dis-
carded the Malayan Union and drafted the Federation of Malaya made up
of only Malay representatives. It is not clear why Chinese and Indians
were excluded from the committee, but there is strong historical evi-
dence showing that the British were in favor of the Malay (Wade 2009).
In the framework of the Federation, the Constitution stated the privilege
status of the Malay. The Constitution, which continues to privilege theMalay's dominant status, took effect on 15 August 1957. The status of
dominance manifests in the form of social consensus, where non-Malays
recognize Malay primacy in exchange for equal citizenship rights.
Malay nationalism entered another phase when Mahathir proposed
the notion of ‘Malaysian race’. His earlier notion of ‘the new Malays’ in-
tended to liberate the Malays from the inferior image. In his ambitiousnational identity project, ‘the new Malays’ would be embedded in the
modern and highly industrialized nation flourished with economic
achievements. In other words, the national identity serves to locate Malay
ethnic identity in a rapidly developing globalized world, while recogniz-
ing the other ethnic identities as parts of it. Peculiarly, any form of
non-Malay nationalism never exists on the Malaysia Peninsula.
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In fact, we have witnessed a transition from ethno-nation to civic na-
tion during the late 1990's when Mahathir successfully instilled the uni-
versal values such as tolerance, harmony and peace to the national
identity. The effort was accompanied by the slogan ‘Malaysia Can’, which
boasted the psychological state for being a confident Malaysian regard-
less of ethnic group. Consequently, the Malays, Chinese and Indians
share a common identity as Malaysian. However the national identity di-
verges when it has to inevitably deal with the issues of religion, lan-
guage, and culture.
Non-Malays endorse a multi-lingual nation, in which vernacular edu-
cation would be embraced in the national framework. This is especially
true for the Chinese. The Chinese educationists started lobbying for mul-
ti-lingual policy since 1940. It would grant full sponsorship on all types of
vernacular school from the government. In response to the Chinese
movement, radical Malays stressed the government to secure the status ofMalay language as the sole national language. Eventually, the govern-
ment never passed the bill but in contrast restricted the establishment of
new vernacular school.
Today, Malay dominance retains its form in an unchallengeable
‘ketuanan Melayu’ (literally meaning Malay supremacy) discourse. It
claims Malay's indigenousness and the unconditional way of definingMalaysian nation with Malay ethnicity. The discourse not only embodies
Malay dominance in history textbooks (Ting 2009), but also in symbolic
resources such as sultanate, mythology, national language, and religion.
Cultural features of other ethnic groups are in turn downplayed within
the national framework.
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 285
3. Social Distance and Identification
The criteria for belonging inevitably entail a process of inclusion and
exclusion that generates a range of emotional distance. The concept of
‘social distance’ (Bogardus 1933) helps explicate emotional distance.
Social distance is ‘the sympathetic understanding that exists between per-
sons, between groups, and between a person and each of his groups …
[social distance] may take the form of either farness or nearness. Where
there is a little sympathetic understanding, social farness exists. Where
sympathetic understanding is great, nearness exists’ (Bogardus 1993,
268). Social distance is not limited to spatial distance. Evaluation of social
distance is possible even when the target is physically far from the
evaluator.
Karakayali (2009) distinguishes four dimensions of social distance: af-
fective, normative, interactive, and cultural. Because this study examinesa sense of belonging, we focus on the affective dimension and
aimstomeasuresubjectiveintimacybetweenindividuals.
The indicator of Bogardus social distance scale is how much social
contact the informants from one social group are willing to have with
members of other specific social groups. The Bogardus Scale is built on
the implicit assumption that informants have a general, collective under-standing of ‘who belong and does not belong to their own group.’ This
suggests that informants already perceive the target as being intimate
with or distinct from their own group. This in turn allows the detection of
how informants define who belongs to their own group and who does
not.
Social identity not only links self to social group, but also differ-
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entiates between in-group and out-group (Tajfel 1978; Turner 1982).
According to social identity theory, social identities are cognitively con-
structed through the processes of self-categorization and self-enhance-
ment. The self cognitively distinguishes significant categories such as
gender, ethnicity, and nationality; and divides them into in-group and
out-group based on the self's locus. Self-enhancement is then achieved
though social comparison by accentuating differences between in-group
and out-group, whereby one favors membership to his/her own group.
In effect, the self develops a strong attachment and commitment towards
the in-group and increases distinction from the out-group.
This indicates that the process of identification leads to the separation
of members and non-members. This is followed by the affective evalua-
tion of increased intimacy among in-group members compared to
out-group members. The affective evaluation, however, is only valid as
long as it is used for the purpose of comparison. An absolute evaluationis misleading because an individual may feel intimate with a stranger, as
rightly pointed out by Karakayali (2009).
Other studies have explained the variance of social distance by nu-
merous other factors. Odell, Korgen, and Wang (2005) compared the role
of college students' grade, year, experience of staying in hostel and num-
ber of friends from other ethnic groups, based on the contact hypothesis.The result showed that only the number of friends from other ethnic
group had a statistically significant effect. Westie (1952) confirmed that
both occupations of informant and target were positively related with the
degree of intimacy. Meanwhile, Gonzalez et al. (2008) identified per-
ceived symbolic threat as a significant predictor of prejudice towards
Muslims, but the predictor variable was influenced by identification with
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 287
in-group. That is, a stronger identification with in-group generated more
perceived symbolic threat, and in effect increased prejudice towards
Muslims. On the other hand, Pettigrew (1960) found that stronger au-
thoritarianism led to greater social distance. Other factors such as gender,
education level, and frequency of visiting oversea country showed incon-
sistent association with social distance (Hello et al. 2006; Muir and Muir
1988; Parrillo and Donogue 2005; Randall and Delbridge 2005).
Based on the above theoretical and historical reviews, we propose
the following hypotheses regarding relationships among ethnic identity,
national identity, and social distance.
Hypothesis (1): The degree to which a person identifies with his/her ethnic
group is positively associated with social distance towards
other ethnic groups. The stronger ethnic identification one
has, the greater social distance he/she feels towards other
ethnic groups.
Hypothesis (2): The degree to which a person identifies with nation is differ-
entially associated with social distance towards other ethnic
groups depending on his/her ethnicity.
Hypothesis (2a): For Malays, the stronger national identification one has, the
greater social distance he/she feels towards Chinese and
Indians.Hypothesis (2b): For Chinese, the stronger national identification one has, the
smaller social distance he/she feels towards Malays and
Indians.
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Ⅲ. Data and Methods
1. Demographic Analysis
The study collected data by conducting a survey-study in three na-
tional universities in Malaysia: University Malaya, University Putra
Malaysia, and National University of Malaysia. University students were
chosen for this study because we could control for their age, income, and
other individual characteristics that could affect their perceptions and re-
lationships with members of other ethnic groups. We fully understand,
however, this sample has limited generalizability because they are more
likely to have a higher level of education and more liberal views than or-
dinary people. In some sense, they can be viewed as a group that ex-
hibits the upper limit in terms of perceptions of national membership.The three national universities were chosen because they offer broad
ranges of disciplines including natural, humanities, and social sciences.
Also, unlike private universities that attract a particular ethnic group at a
higher rate, these three universities accept the Malays, Chinese, and
Indians without any special preference to a specific ethnic group. In oth-
er word, the university college students are exposed to a multi-ethnic en- vironment, in which they make choices among various ethnic groups in
their daily lives. Five hundreds and eighty one students from various eth-
nic groups participated in the survey. A sample of respondents was ob-
tained from lecture halls where the lecturers accepted our request to con-
duct the survey during the lectures. Quota sampling was used as a sam-
pling method to represent the ethnic composition of the Malays, Chinese
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 289
and Indians in Malaysia. The intended sample size was 600 persons,
where 58.1% Malays, 28.2% Chinese and 10.0% Indians would be
included. The numbers of respondents actually drawn from University
Malay, University Putra Malaysia and National University of Malaysia
were 262, 209, and 110, respectively. Female participants constituted
74.5% of the total sample, which corresponds to the higher ratio of fe-
male students in the three universities. Three hundred and twenty four
respondents (56% of the total sample) identified themselves as ethnic
Malay, 157 (28% of the total sample) Chinese and 63 (11% of the total
sample) Indian. The remainder identified with other ethnicities such as
Iban, Dusun, Melanau, Sikh among others. These proportions resemble
the actual ethnic composition of Malaysia. However, those who identi-
fied themselves as Iban, Dusun, Melanau and Sikh were not included in
the analysis because it would require another chapter to examine the re-
lationship between the native minorities and the Malays. Although thesample was not a probability sample and hence has limited ability to
generalize the findings, we believe it can still help us understand how
university students of the three ethnic groups feel towards each other
and how ethnic/national identity affects social distance toward other eth-
nic groups.
A comparison among the three ethnic groups in <Table 1> indicatesthat the Malay respondents are culturally more homogenous than their
Chinese and Indian counterparts, especially in terms of religion and
language. For example, 98% of Malay respondents speak Malay and
100% of them believe in Islam, while Chinese and Indian respondents
have more diverse language use patterns and religions. There is no clear
hierarchy in social status among the groups, although the Malays show
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290 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
<Table 1> Descriptive Characteristics of Respondents
Malay
(N=319)
Chinese
(N=157)
Indian
(N=63)
GenderMale 23.8% 31.9% 12.7%
Female 76.2% 68.2% 87.3%
Household
gross
income
Less than RM1000 29.0% 15.9% 15.9%
RM1000~RM2000 30.9% 34.4% 33.3%
RM2000~RM3000 14.8% 23.6% 23.8%
RM3000~RM5000 12.7% 16.6% 22.2%
More than RM5000 12.3% 9.6% 9.5%
Family social
class
Lower class 12.0% 9.6% 6.3%
Middle class 87.3% 89.8% 93.7%
Upper class 0.7% 0.6% 0.0%
Language
Malay(97.8%)
English(1.9%)Melanau(0.3%)
English(6.4%)
Mandarin(79.6%)Others(14.0%)
Tamil(84.1%)
English(11.1%)Malay(3.2%)
Telugu(1.6%)
Religion
Islam(100.0%) Buddhism(73.2%)
Protestant(15.3%)
Taoism(8.3%)
Others(3.2%)
Hinduism(87.3%)
Catholic(6.3%)
Baha'l(4.8%)
Islam(1.6%)
greater income difference within the group than Chinese and Indians.
Except for income, there is no remarkable difference in socioeconomic
status among the three ethnic groups in this sample.
2. Measurement of Variables
The dependent variable in this study is relative social distance, whichis also used as a tool to measure member intimacy. Social distance was
measured by using a modified Bogardus social distance scale (Bogardus
1933). The original Bogardus scale is one-dimensional and Gutmann
scale that comprised of seven statements extracted through Thurstone's
extraction method. The original statements were modified because they
do not reflect the students' everyday life. The modified statements are as
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 291
follows: 1. To marry with; 2. To date with; 3. To live in the same room; 4.
To live in the same house; 5. To eat on same table in a cafeteria; 6. To do
group assignment together; 7. To sit beside in class; 8. To attend the
same university.
The original Gutmann scale was changed to a six-level Likert scale
because it was proved that a cultural factor does play an important role
especially in non-White society (Ogundale 1980; Weinfurt and
Moghaddam 2001). The original scale is grounded in the assumption of
the statements' hierarchy, and the hierarchy is constructed based on
White's judgment. Meanwhile, if the assumption of Gutmann scale is cor-
rect, we can conclude that a respondent who scores higher for a group is
socially closer to the group.
Social distance was measured for the three target groups: the Malays,
Chinese, and Indians. Factor analysis of the eight statements measured
for the three target groups showed that all of the statements could form asingle factor. Cronbach's a coefficient of the eight items ranged from
0.831 to 0.964, indicating high reliability. Mean scores were obtained for
each target group, with higher score indicating closer relationship. Mean
social distance for other ethnic group was deducted from mean social
distance for respondent's ethnic group, yielding two relative social dis-
tance variables for each ethnic group. Higher score means larger relativedistance, hence less intimacy.
Means and standard deviation of relative social distance are summar-
ized in <Table 2>. The results indicated that on average people felt more
intimate with co-ethnic members than members of other ethnic groups.
The independent variables in this study are identification with ethnic
group and identification with nation. Both of the variables are measured
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292 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
by using a modified scale of Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure –
Revised (MEIM-R) (Phinney and Ong 2007). To compare both identi-
fications, ethnic identification and national identification were measured
by using exactly the same scale by changing the subject (i.e. ethnic group
or nation).
The original scale consists of six items: 1. I have spent time trying to
learn about my ethnic group, such as its history, traditions, and customs;
2. I have often done things that will help me understand my ethnic back-
ground better; 3. I have often talked to other people in order to learn
more about my ethnic group; 4. I have a strong sense of belonging to my
own ethnic group; 5. I understand pretty well what my ethnic group
membership means to me; 6. I feel a strong attachment towards my own
ethnic group.
Two statements were added to the original scale: I have often put pri-
ority to learn my mother tongue than other languages; I am happy that Iam a member of the ethnic group I belong to. The eight items were used
to measure identification with nation by changing ‘ethnic group’ to
‘nation’ or ‘Malaysia’. The corresponding item for mother tongue was re-
phrased to match national identification: I have put effort to learn Bahasa
Malaysia because it is my ‘bahasa kebangsaan’ (national language). Items
were measured by the four-level Likert scale.Factor analysis showed that the eight items construct a factor for both
ethnic and national identification. Cronbach's α coefficient of the eight
items ranged from 0.819 to 0.901, indicating high reliability in both cases.
The eight items were then summed up to construct two variables of eth-
nic identification and national identification. Representative score was
obtained through mean score of the eight items ranging from 1 to 4,
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 293
<Table 2> Distributions of Dependent, Independent and Control Variables
Malay (N=319) Chinese (N=157) Indian (N=63)Remark
Means S.D Means S.D Means S.D
Gender 1.76 .429 1.68 .467 1.87 .336 Nominal
Household gross
income2.50 1.357 2.69 1.202 2.40 1.314 5-Likert
Frequency of
going to other
countries
.84 1.537 2.32 3.254 .68 1.156 Open-end
Experience of
staying with other
ethnic group
1.64 .502 1.39 .489 1.32 .469 Nominal
Frequency of
talking with other
ethnic group
2.83 .745 2.99 .767 3.41 .663 4-Likert
Perceived threat 2.05 .521 2.15 .474 1.94 .502 4-Likert
Ethnic
identification3.16 .376 3.05 .386 3.42 .469 4-Likert
Nation
identification3.37 .414 2.97 .405 3.40 .467 4-Likert
Social distance
Malay5.08 .802 - - - - 6-Likert
Social distance
Malay-Chinese1.25 1.112 - - - - -5~5
Social distance
Malay-Indian1.63 1.183 - - - - -5~5
Social distance
Chinese- - 5.33 .743 - - 6-Likert
Social distance
Chinese-Malay- - 1.97 1.183 - - -5~5
Social distance
Chinese-Indian- - 2.06 1.288 - - -5~5
Social distance
Indian- - - - 5.50 .728 6-Likert
Social distance
Indian-Malay- - - - 1.63 1.046 -5~5
Social distance
Indian-Chinese- - - - 1.20 1.036 -5~5
Note: S.D = Standard deviation
where higher score means higher degree of identification.
The distribution of ethnic identification and national identification for
the three ethnic groups is shown in <Table 2>. It is quite surprising that
the Indian respondents scored the highest means for both ethnic identi-
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294 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
fication and national identification. However, a closer examination re-
veals that the standard deviations of both variables for the Indian re-
spondents are also the greatest. This could be explained by larger in-
dividual differences among the Indian respondents. The difference be-
tween the Malay and Chinese respondents is quite noticeable: the Malay
respondents have higher national identification than ethnic identification
whereas the opposite is true for the Chinese respondents. Among the
three groups, Chinese have the lowest score of national identification.
The two types of identities are strongly correlated with each other for the
Malay respondents with Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.643
(significant at the 0.01 level), while the corresponding correlation co-
efficient for Chinese is only 0.183 (significant at the 0.01 level). This result
shows that both ethnic and national identification overlap for the Malay
respondents while they do not coincide for the Chinese respondents.
The control variables of this study include gender, family income, fre-quency of going to other countries, experience of staying with other eth-
nic group member, frequency of talking with other ethnic group mem-
bers, and perceived threat. According to existing literature, these varia-
bles are known to affect social distance between different racial and eth-
nic groups. A more detailed explanation and operationalization of these
variables are provided in a later section of this article. Methods of meas-urement, means and standard deviations for each control variable are dis-
played in <Table 2>.
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 295
Ⅳ. Results
1. Correlation Analyses
In Malays-Chinese relation, correlation test showed that Pearson cor-
relation coefficients of relative social distance with ethnic identification
and national identification were 0.184 and 0.161, respectively. Both were
significant at the 0.01 level. While in Malays-Indians relation, results in-
dicated that Pearson correlation coefficients of relative social distance
with ethnic identification and national identification were 0.167 and
0.098, respectively. However, only ethnic identification was significant at
the 0.01 level. This means ethnic identification was positively correlated
with both Malays-Chinese and Malays-Indians social distance, but na-
tional identification was positively correlated only with Malays-Chinesesocial distance. In other words, the Malay respondents who had stronger
identification with co-ethnic group felt less intimacy with Chinese and
Indians; while those who had stronger identification with nation felt less
intimacy with Chinese but not with Indians.
In Chinese-Malays relation, Pearson correlation coefficients of relative
social distance with ethnic identification and national identification were0.307 and -0.226, respectively. Both were significant at the 0.01 level.
While in Chinese-Indians relation, Pearson correlation coefficients of rela-
tive social distance with ethnic identification and national identification
were 0.312 and -0.195, respectively. Both were also significant at the
<0.05 level. This suggests that the Chinese respondents who had stronger
identification with co-ethnic group felt less intimacy with Malays and
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296 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
Indians, while those who had stronger identification with nation felt
more intimacy with Malays and Indians.
Finally, in Indians-Malays relation, Pearson correlation coefficients for
ethnic identification and national identification were 0.229 and 0.070,
respectively. While in Indians-Chinese relation, Pearson correlation co-
efficients for ethnic identification and national identification were 0.218
and 0.178, respectively. All were not statistically significant. This means
that both types of identification were not correlated with relative social
distance for the Indian respondents. As mentioned earlier, the Indian re-
spondents consisted of many different sub-ethnic groups and thus in-
ternal variation in characteristics and social attitudes were greater than
the Malay and Chinese respondents. In this regard, it is worth mentioning
the report of Lee and Rajoo (1987) who found that varieties of factors
such as caste system, regional origins, religious affiliation and socio-
economic status interwoven with sub-ethnicity make Indian identity com-
plex and heterogeneous.
2. Multiple Regression Analyses
We conducted multiple regression analyses to test the independenteffect of either ethnic or national identification on relative social distance
between a pair of ethnic groups. Other variables known to affect relative
social distance between ethnic groups were included in the analyses as
control variables. They were gender, family income, frequency of going
to other countries, experience of staying with other ethnic group mem-
ber, frequency of talking with other ethnic group member, and perceived
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 297
threat.
According to the contact hypothesis, as opportunities to contact
members of other ethnic groups increase, prejudice against them is likely
to decrease when contacts are continuous and made on equal terms.
Three variables were used as measures of contact: frequency of going to
other countries, experience of staying with members of other ethnic
groups, and frequency of talking with members of other ethnic groups.
Frequency of going to other countries was an open-ended question while
the experience of staying with members of other ethnic groups was cod-
ed as ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘not sure’. Frequency of talking with members of oth-
er ethnic groups was a 4-Likert scale variable. Means and distribution are
listed in <Table 2>.
Perceived ethnic threat was included as a control variable because it
is known to transform prejudice and stereotypes against a particular eth-
nic group into antagonism against it (Blalock 1967; Coenders et al. 2003;Noel 1968; Reijman and Semyonov 2004; Stephan and Stephan 2001).
Measurement of perceived ethnic threat was adapted from Scheepers,
Gijsberts, and Coenders's (2002) study on ethnic exclusionism. The scale
was constructed out of five items: 1. In schools where there are too many
children from other ethnic groups, the quality of education becomes low;
2. People from other ethnic groups abuse the system of social benefits; 3.The religious practices of people from other ethnic groups threaten our
way of life; 4. The presence of people from other ethnic groups is a
cause of insecurity; 5. The presence of people from other ethnic group
increases unemployment in Malaysia. Each item was measured by a
four-level Likert scale ranged from ‘1-strongly disagree’, ‘2-disagree’,
‘3-agree’, and ‘4-strongly agree’. Factor analysis showed that the five items
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298 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
<Table 3> Multiple Regression Analysis for Social Distance between the Malays and Chinese
Model I Model II Model III Model IV
Gender .052 .058 .073 .069
Household gross income .083 .076 .085 .080
Frequency of going to other
countries.-.160** -.158** -.159** -.158**
Frequency of talking with other
ethnic group -.254*** -.274*** -.272*** -.277***
Experience of staying with
other ethnic group .130* .119* .120* .118*
Perceived ethnic threat .129** .168** .192** .183**
Ethnic identification .200*** .127(.071)
Nation identification .198*** .116(.104)
Number of cases 287 287 286 286
Adjusted R2 .155 .195 .192 .202
F 8.579*** 9.640*** 9.467*** 8.763***
Note: Values shown areβ, significant level in parentheses; *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001
were valid in constructing a single factor. Cronbach's a coefficient rangedfrom 0.692 to 0.767 for the three ethnic groups, indicating satisfactory
reliability.
The five items were then summed up and their means obtained,
where higher score showed stronger perceived threat. Means and stand-
ard deviations for each ethnic group are summarized in <Table 2>.
The result of multiple regression analysis for Malays-Chinese relationis summarized in <Table 3>. In model I, only control variables were
loaded. The adjusted R 2 for the model was 0.195 and the model was sig-
nificant at the 0.001 level. Gender and household gross income were not
significantly related with the relative distance between the Malay and
Chinese respondents. Contact-related variables were all significantly re-
lated with the dependent variable, but the directions of relationships
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 299
<Table 4> Multiple Regression Analysis for Social Distance between the Malays and Indians
Model I Model II Model III Model IV
Gender .042 .047 .055 .050
Household gross income .022 .017 .024 .019
Frequency of going to other
countries .-.050 -.048 -.049 -.048
Frequency of talking with other
ethnic group -.203** -.221*** -.214*** -.222***
Experience of staying with
other ethnic group .113* .105 .107 .104
Perceived ethnic threat .174** .177** .191** .180**
Ethnic identification .170** .155*
Nation identification .124* .024
Number of cases 287 287 286 286
Adjusted R2 .105 .133 .119 .133
F 5.451*** 6.112*** 5.381*** 5.329***
Note: Values shown areβ; *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001
were different for each variable. The frequency of going to other coun-tries and frequency of talking with members of other ethnic groups tend-
ed to reduce the relative social distance between Malays and Chinese,
but the experience of staying with members of other ethnic groups in-
creased the relative social distance. As expected, perceived threat was
positively related with the dependent variable, indicating that fear of
threat from another ethnic group widens social distance between the twogroups.
In model II and III, ethnic identification and national identification
were added to the control variables, alternately. The size and direction of
regression coefficients of the control variables remained basically the
same with the addition of either ethnic or national identification variable.
Both ethnic and national identification variables were positively and sig-
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300 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
<Table 5> Multiple Regression Analysis for Social Distance between Chinese and the Malays
Model I Model II Model III Model IV
Gender -.040 -.016 -.081 -.065
Household gross income -.115 -.109 -.104 -.094
Frequency of going to other
countries .039 .003 .053 .014
Frequency of talking with other
ethnic group -.174* -.164* -.135 -.109
Experience of staying with
other ethnic group-.014 .016 -.017 .019
Perceived ethnic threat .254** .200* .244** .175*
Ethnic identification .241** .296***
Nation identification -.191* -.256**
Number of cases 149 149 149 149
Adjusted R2 .134 .187 .166 .242
F 3.647** 4.626*** 4.009*** 5.593***
Note: Values shown areβ; *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001
nificantly related with the dependent variable, indicating that the Malayrespondents who identified more strongly with co-ethnicity and nation
were more likely to feel less intimate with Chinese.
Finally, in model VI, where both ethnic and national identification
variables were added, the coefficients of the two variables became stat-
istically insignificant, suggesting multicollinearity between the two. In
fact, the Pearson correlation coefficient between the two was 0.653. Thisresult indicates that the Malay respondents who strongly identified with
co-ethnicity also strongly identified with nation and felt less intimate with
Chinese.
Similar patterns emerged when we analyzed Malays-Indians relations.
As we can see in <Table 4>, both ethnic and national identification tend-
ed to increase relative social distance between the Malay and Indians.
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 301
<Table 6> Multiple Regression Analysis for Social Distance between Chinese and Indians
Model I Model II Model III Model IV
Gender -.046 -.021 -.083 -.068
Household gross
income-.122 -.116 -.112 -.101
Frequency of
going to other
countries
.039 .001 .052 .011
Frequency of
talking with other
ethnic group
-.113 -.102 -.077 -.050
Experience of
staying with other
ethnic group
-.021 .011 -.024 .013
Perceived ethnic
threat .212* .155 .203* .132
Ethnic
identification .251** .302***
Nation
identification-.173* -.239**
Number of cases 149 149 149 149
Adjusted R2 .090 .147 .116 .196
F 2.328* 3.481** 2.651* 4.266***
Note: Values shown areβ; *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001
When these two variables were added simultaneously, only ethnic identi-
fication became significant, suggesting that ethnic identification has a
greater effect on relative social distance. This result suggests that the
Malay respondents who strongly identified with Malay ethnicity felt less
intimate with Indians. When we analyzed Chinese-Malays and Chinese-Indians relations,
however, quite different patterns emerged. Not only were both ethnic
and national identification significant when each variable was added re-
spectively, but they also remained significant when added together in the
regression model as shown in <Table 5>. This means that unlike the
Malay respondents who showed strong multicollinearity between ethnic
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302 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
and national identification, the Chinese respondents had somewhat in-
dependent conceptions of ethnic and national identification. We also
need to pay attention to the different signs of regression coefficients of
the two variables. The positive sign of ethnic identification means that
the Chinese respondents who strongly identified with co-ethnicity felt
less intimate with Indians, but those who strongly identified with nation
felt more intimate with the Malays.
The same pattern is true with Chinese-Indians relations. As we can
see in <Table 6>, identification with Chinese ethnicity widened relative
social distance from Indians while identification with nation reduced so-
cial distance from Indians.
Ⅴ. Conclusion
While much research has paid attention to the role of government in
ethnic relations in Malaysia, in this study we focus on the social psycho-
logical dimension of ethnic relations. The results of statistical analyses
support the three hypotheses regarding the relationships between eth-
nic/national identification and relative social distance. We found thatthose who strongly identified with their own ethnic group felt less in-
timate with members of other ethnic groups. This is true for the Malay,
Chinese, and Indian respondents. We also found that national identi-
fication had different effects on relative social distance depending on
ethnicity. For the Malay respondents, those who strongly identified with
nation felt less intimate with Chinese and Indians. For Chinese, however,
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 303
strong identification with nation reduced social distance from Malays and
Indians. These results suggest that the Malays do not distinguish clearly
between ethnicity and nation, and their ethnic identity often takes the
form of national identity. On the contrary, Chinese have differential con-
ception of ethnicity and nation, and national membership claimed by
them embraces all Malays, Chinese, and Indians, regardless of ethnicity.
For them, ethnicity, which embodies cultural features, is not the utmost
criterion in determining national membership.
The findings also imply that ethnic identity and national identity are
not always a clear cut dichotomy. Instead, national identity may contain
ethnic identity and appears as a hybrid of sense of local and ethnicity.
This happens because the dominant ethnic group employs national iden-
tity as an instrument to safeguard its ethnic identity. Fearing of losing
their ethnic identity, elites of the dominant ethnic group employ the re-
source and coercion power of the state to impose their ethnic identityonto members of the dominated ethnic groups. In response, diaspora
groups that are often the dominated ethnic groups challenge the domi-
nant ethnic group to protect their ethnic identities from being ignored or
lost. In most cases, the dominant ethnic group has upper hands over the
diaspora groups in nationalizing their own ethnic features. However,
some diaspora groups that possess sufficient bargaining power over thedominant group in terms of population size and political and economic
power, like the Chinese in Malaysia, try hard to keep nationhood and na-
tional identity from being too parochial and ascriptive and instead make
them as universal and rational as possible in order to be recognized and
treated as full national members. Other dominated diaspora groups that
have less bargaining power are less likely to challenge the status quo and
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304 아세아연구 제58권 2호 (2015년)
more likely to take the course of assimilation into the dominant culture.
The limitation of this study is that it has a limited generalizability due
a sample of university students who are likely to have a higher level of
education and more liberal views than ordinary people. We may need a
separate and larger-scale research to determine how ordinary people per-
ceive national membership and their relationships with members of other
ethnic groups. Despite this limitation, our research demonstrated that
university students have different understanding of national membership
according to their ethnicity. It also highlights a significant effect of differ-
ent interpretation of national membership on social distance between
members of different ethnic groups. Based on our research finding we
question the effectiveness of social integration policy of the government.
Understanding the way that both the dominant ethnic group and dia-
spora groups define national membership helps us distinguish differential
meanings of national membership and national identity and comprehendhow national identity could become so instrumental in protecting ethnic
identity. The difference between national membership and national iden-
tity is very significant, and social scientists and policy makers should ad-
dress this issue when they deal with social integration in a multiethnic
society. They should also make efforts to find principles of inclusive na-
tional membership and solidarity that embrace all members of a nationand provide them with equal opportunities for participation and con-
tribution to the nation.
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 305
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Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia : The Role of Dominant Ethnicity 309
Abstracts
Claiming National Membership in Multiethnic Malaysia
The Role of the Dominant Ethnicity
In-Jin Yoon
Chich Thiang Koo
In multiethnic Malaysia, policies promoting social integration seem to
have evoked conflict and mistrust among ethnic groups. Our study sug-
gests that such policy failures rooted in their insensitivity towards the dif-
ferent meaning national membership possesses for Malays and
non-Malays. Because Malays are the dominant ethnic group, they often
do not distinguish between nation and ethnicity and hence tend to in-
clude Malay cultural features as part of national membership. Non-Malays
strategically endorse a national membership that embodies only non-as-
criptive criteria. To examine the relationships among ethnic and national
identifications, and relative social distance, we conducted a sample sur-
vey of 581 college students from three Malaysian universities with differ-
ent ethnic backgrounds. Our results show that a strong identification with
ethnicity creates a distance from members of other ethnic groups. On the
contrary, while a strong national identification makes Malays somewhat
remote from Chinese and Indians, it brings Chinese closer to Malays and
Indians.
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Key word : National membership, Ethnic identification, National
identification, Dominant ethnicity, Social distance
(투고일: 2015. 4. 10,심사일: 2015. 5. 29,게재확정일: 2015. 6. 15)