RETHINKING ETHNICITY AND NATION-BUILDING Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Fiji in Comparative Perspective t)S5C{1, 2. RA-<S t:p rat ]Sit ... r¥i .sa rat :¥e. [iJ1t 1t ':)_oo}, 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 3 0620 02 009155 8 RETHINKING ETHNICITY AND NATION-BUILDING Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Fiji in Comparative Perspective edited by Abdul Rahman Embong Persatuan Sains Sosial Malaysia (Malaysian Social Science Association) http://pssmalaysia.tripod.com/ CONTENTS Cetakan Pertama I First Printing, 2007 Hak cipta I Copyright Penulis I Author Persatuan Sains Sosial Malaysia 2007 Abbreviations 7 List of Tables 8 Preface 9 Hak cipta terpelihara. Tiada bahagian daripada terbitan ini boleh diterbitkan semula, disimpan untuk pengeluaran atau ditukarkan ke dalam sebarang bentuk atau dengan sebarang alat juga pun, sama ada dengan cara Rethinking Ethnicity and Nation Building 12 elektronik, gambar serta rakaman dan sebagainya tanpa kebenaran bertulis ~roduction daripada ABDUL RAHMAN EMBONG Persatuan Sains Sosial Malaysia terlebih dahulu. PART I APPROACHES All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical . v'pter I Approaches to Inter-ethnic Accommodation: including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval A Comparative Perspective 20 system, without permission in writing from Malaysian Social Science DONALD HOROWITZ Association. PARTII ENVISIONING THE NATION AT THE TJl\tiE OF Diterbitkan di Malaysia oleh I Published in Malaysia by Persatuan Sains Sosial Malaysia INDEPENDENCE P.O.Box 104,43007 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia Laman web: http:llpssmalaysia.tripod.com Chapter 2 Malaysia: Envisioning the Nation at the Time E-mail: [email protected] ofindependence 40 CHEAH BOON KHENG Dicetak di Malaysia oleh I Printed in Malaysia by Vinlin Press Sdn.Bhd Chapter 3 Firstness, History, Place and Legitimate Claim No.2 Jalan Meranti Permai l, to Place-as-Homeland in Comparative Focus 57 Meranti Permai Industrial Park, MICHAEL ROBERTS Batu 15, Jalan Puchong, 47100 Puchong, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Chapter 4 Between the Rock and the Hard Place: Fiji at Independence 91 Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Data-Pengkatalogan-dalam-Penerbitan I BRIJ LAL Cataloguing-in-Publication Data PART Ill CRAFTING THE NATION, BUILDING THE STATE: Rethinking and nation-building : Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Fiji in comparative PUBLIC POLICIES AND ETHNIC RELATIONS perspective I edited by Abdul Rahman Embong. ISBN 978-983-43647-4-8 (Hard cover) ~pter5 Fostering Ethnic Unity and Enhancing Ethnic ISBN 978-983-43647-3-1 (Soft cover) Accommodation: The Role of Poverty 1. Ethnicity--Sri Lanka. 2. Ethnicity--Fiji. 3. Ethnicity--Malaysia. [email protected] PoJicies in Malaysia 114 4. Group identity--Sri Lanka. 5. Group identity--Fiji. 6. Group identity-­ SULOCHANA NAIR Malaysia. 7. Sri Lanka--Social conditions. 8. Fiji--Social conditions. 9. Malaysia--Social conditions. I. Abdul Rahman Embong, 1944-. 305.805493 Chapter 6 Policy, State, Nation-state and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka 152 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS YUVI THANGARAJAH & S. T. HEITIGE Chapter 7 Crafting the Nation, Building the State: AFTA ASEAN Free Trade Area Ethnicity and Public Policies in Fiji 186 AIM Arnanah lkhtiar Malaysia (an NGO based on the concept ALUMITA L. DURUTALO of Grameen Bank) APDC Asia-Pacific Development Centre PART IV BACK TO THE FUTURE PUBLIC ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations RE-IMAGININGS OF THE NATION EPU . Economic Planning Unit Felda Federal Land Development Authority Qhapter 8 Reconnecting 'the Nation' and 'the State': The GCC Great Council of Chiefs V Malaysian Experience 204 IADP Integrated Agriculture Development Projects SHAMSUL A.B. ICT information communication technology IMP Independence of Malaya Party .JChapter9 Identity Matters: Ethnic Salience and JHEOA Jabatan Hal-ehwal Orang Asli (Department of Orang Asli Perceptions in Malaysia 216 Affairs) ONG PUAY LIU-~ KUA Kuala Lumpur International Airport LTIE Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam ~Chapter 10 Politicisation of Ethnicity, Ethnicisation of the MCA Malaysian Chinese Association Sri Lankan State and'Hegemony, and Anti­ :MIC Malaysian Indian Congress hegemony}n Antagonistic Nationalist MPAJA Malayan People'~ Anti-Japanese Army Reimaginings 235 MP Member of Parliament KALINGA TUDOR SILVA NDP National Development Policy NEP New Economic Policy Chapter 11 The Future of National Reconciliation in Fiji 252 NGO non-governmental organisation TEVITA BALEIWAQA NLC National Land Commission NVP National Vision Policy PLI poverty line income List of Contributors 268 PUIFRA-AMOA Pusat Tenaga Rakyat-All Malaya Council of Joint Index 270 Action UMNO United Malays National Organisation UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNP United National Party UPAM United Plantation Association of Malaysia TULF Tamil United Liberation Front WTO World Trade Organization YBK Yayasan Basmi Kemiskinan (Poverty Eradication Foundation) YPEIM Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Malaysian Islamic Economic Development Foundation) j .~ LIST OF TABLES PREFACE This idea of this book originated in Bangkok when I-in my capacity as Table5.1 Sectoral dimensions of poverty the President of the Malaysian Social Science Association- was attending Table5.2 Ethnic profile of poverty the UNESCO's Regional Consultation on Social Science Issues in Asia­ Table6.1 Ability to Speak Tamil Pacific on 10-12 December 2001. At that meeting, it was decided that Table6.2 Ability to Speak Sinhalese UNESCO should "encourage comparative research on local processes, Table6.3 Ability to Speak English structures and public policies in areas such as education, language, and Table6.4 Class Self-identification among youth Table6.5 Self-identity of Sri Lankan Youth social policies which engender harmony and disharmony in multiethnic Table6.6 Sector of employment preferred by youth societies in the Asia-Pacific region." It was on the sidelines of this meeting ·Table6.7 Sense of private sector discrimination among youth by that the three of us, viz., my two distinguished friends, Professor Siri ethnicity Hettige from Sri Lanka, and Professor Brij Lal from Fiji (currently Table6.8 Is Society Just? teaching at the ANU) and myself from Malaysia, discussed the need Table6.9 Caste discrimination in the area for collaborative endeavour to seriously study in a comparative manner, Table6.10 Who Benefits Most from Development? issues of ethnicity and nation-building involving our three countries. With Table6.11 Equality of Opportunity for Youth that as our agenda, we immediately approached Dr Malama Maleisea Table6.12 Ideological Commitment of Youth who was then UNESCO's Regional Advisor on social and human Table 7.1 Fiji Residents Departures 1998-2001 Table 10.1 Population of Sri Lankan by Ethnicity, .1981 / sciences in Asia-Pacific who was very supportive of the idea. It was these moves that subsequently gave birth to our collaboration in the form of a three-day conference-cum-book project organised in Malaysia on 26-28 February 2003. The Malaysian Social Science Association took the lead, working in close collaboration with the Institute ofMalaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; the Department of Sociology, University of Colombo; and the Department of History, Australian National University to organize the conference on the theme, "Rethinking Ethnicity and Nation Building: Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fiji In Comparative Perspective". The conference was supported by UNESCO Bangkok Office as well as the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Bangkok. In my opening address at the conference, I stressed that while colonialism was instrumental in transforming the demographic composition of the region it colonised, it did not put the task of transforming the diverse society into a unified polity in these countries on its agenda, thus leaving the unenviable task to the nationalist elites who took over the reins of power with the dismantling of colonial rule. Nevertheless, lacking not only in vital resources such as capital and technology, the newly independent states were also short of their own social science experts who could independently formulate theories to advance critical and constructive scholarship as well as to help craft policies to build the new 10 /Abdul Rahman Embong Preface I 11 nation. This task was thus taken over by foreign experts. The study of at the 4th International Malaysian Studies Conference (MSC4), organised ethnicity and nationhood in those years became the sole prerogative or by the Malaysian Social Science Association in August 2004. As the monopoly of foreign scholars who no doubt have contributed significantly paper addresses the key issue of reimagining the nation, namely the to the corpus of knowledge as well as to policy advice to the policy­ contestations in nation-building in Malaysia, it is also included in this makers· of these countries regarding the possible path to take and the volume after the necessary revision and addition have been made. road map to the future. The contribution of these foreign scholars should This book was initially planned to be published much earlier, but due be warmly welcome. to unforeseen circumstances, it is only now that it is able to see the light However, while having its strength, this somewhat 'top-down' or of day. Whilst the delay is regretted, it does not affect the substantive 'foreign experts' approach should be complemented by an approach arguments