Abstract
With heritage discourse becoming steadily politicised in Malaysia, the term is another means to privilege inclusion—and validate “otherisation”. Recognising its social, economic, political and ideological value, as well as its role in nation-making, this chapter subjects “heritage”—as concept, lived experience and discourse—to careful examination. It argues that although state discourses endorse fixed representations of heritage, the latter is also an outcome of informal cultural practices. By “postcolonialising” heritage and foregrounding the various uses to which heritage has been put, continues to be put and can be put, the chapter points to the complex status of heritage as a cultural and political construct. The key question it raises is—What is at stake and who is empowered when heritage is invoked?
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Notes
- 1.
Malaysia is a multiethnic society with a population of about 32.6 million. Malays constitute the majority ethnic community, both numerically and politically. According to government statistics, 62.5% of Malaysians are Bumiputera (“indigenous”), a category which mostly includes Malay Muslims but also indigenous peoples of the peninsula and of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia, 20.5% are Chinese, 6.2% Indian and about 1% Others; 9.8% of the population is made up of non-citizens (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2019).
- 2.
The Bangsa Malaysia (“Malaysian Nation”) policy was introduced by Mahathir Mohamad in 1990, during his first term as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, to create an inclusive national identity for all inhabitants of Malaysia. Mahathir described it as Malaysians “being able to identify themselves with the country, speak Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) and accept the Constitution”. His aspiration, at least on a rhetorical level, was for Malaysians to identify as Malaysians first and not by their ethnic, religious or regional identities. 1Malaysia (or One Malaysia) was coined during the premiership of Najib Razak in 2010 as “a concept that encapsulates the very idea of unity in diversity, and […] the importance of national unity regardless of race, background, or religious belief” (1Malaysia website).
- 3.
Malaya attained Independence from British rule in 1957 and was renamed “Malaysia” in 1963 with the amalgamation of the Federation of Malaya, the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, and Singapore.
- 4.
For a fuller discussion, see Ting, Helen. 2013. The Battle Over the Memory of the Nation: Whose National History? In Controversial History Education in Asian Contexts, ed. Mark Baildon, Kah Seng Loh, Ivy Maria Lim, Gül İnanç, and Junaidah Jaffar, 41–57, Routledge: London.
- 5.
Peninsular Malaya and Singapore were loosely united under British colonialism from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965.
- 6.
In early August 2019, the government announced that it would introduce khat (Malay-Arabic calligraphy) to the Malay language syllabus for all schools, upsetting non-Malay groups and stirring fears of growing Islamisation. Political analysts also saw the move as a bid by the ruling Pakatan Harapan government to court the Malay vote. The Malaysian education minister subsequently announced that while the government will proceed with introducing khat in Chinese and Tamil primary schools, it will be an optional lesson and one that will not be tested in exams.
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Gabriel, S.P. (2020). Postcolonialising Heritage and the Idea of “Malaysia”. In: Gabriel, S. (eds) Making Heritage in Malaysia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1494-4_1
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