The Dynamics of Malay Identity PDF Download

Author: Mohd. Aris Hj. Othman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Malays
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Author: Rosila Bee Mohd Hussain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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[Truncated abstract] Malay-Muslims have distinctive ideas of who they are: as an ethnic group and as Muslims. In the opening of the twenty-first century, it was predicted that with modernization there would be an increasing separation of state and religion, and that religious issues would probably become somewhat less important (Means 1978; Rosenthal 1965). Yet, Peletz (2002) notes that Malays are increasingly referring to themselves as Muslim people (religious identity) rather than Malay people (ethnic identity). Indeed, Shamsul A.B. (1997b) has redefined Malay ethnicity through emphasizing Islam as a pillar of Malayness, with the idea of Malay ethnicity as centre stage in politics and society. Although Malay-Muslims in Malaysia were once more conscious of ethnic than religious identity, the beginning of Islamic revivalism in the 1970s involved the idea of religious identity becoming more important instead of Malay identity. Yet, over the last decade, Malay ethnic identity has been again gaining its importance as a more politicised identity compared to religious identity in Malaysia. Malay-Muslims have since then been continuously confronted by the changes that have been underway within Islam especially within the 'Malay community in Malaysia. However, at the international level, Malay-Muslims who have studied abroad have alternate conceptions of Malay-Muslim identity compared to the local version as well as links to outsiders. This thesis focuses on the key emblematic features of ethnic and religious identity and the idea of 'Malayness' outside Malaysia at a time when Islamic identity has become increasingly important in the global arena. It is revealed in this study how religion has become a powerful basis of personal and collective identification for Malay-Muslim postgraduate students in Western Australia. Although all Malay-Muslim postgraduate students are distinct in their own ways, most of the experiences they face initially hark back to their Malay culture/'adat' and Islamic values. When Malay-Muslims exhibit agreement, compliance or submission in regard to their ethnic and religious identity in Australia, they do not disregard their religious beliefs, values and practices. In relation to other Muslims, Malay-Muslims emphasize their distinctive ethnic heritage as Malays. In relation to non-Muslims, they emphasize how they are Muslim. On the boundaries of ethnic and religious identity, I attempt to explore the relational dynamics of Malay ethnic and religious identity beyond Malaysia's borders and provide some holistic accounts of the students' prior lives in Malaysia compared to their experiences in Western Australia. These Malay-Muslim postgraduate students from the four major universities in Western Australia have been identified as having considerable awareness of their ethnic and religious identity. While their ethnic identity is more flexible and situational, their religious identity is revealed as more rigid and seldom negotiable. Malay-Muslims students in this research tend to invoke religion, culture, language, nationality, status, or descent in defining their identity. I have employed an ethnographic approach in my research, using participant-observation methods and semi-structured interviews with my thirty main informants...

Author: Mohammad Bakri Musa
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1583483675
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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The Malay Dilemma Revisited is a critical and balanced analysis of Malaysia's preferential race policy and its impact on the nation's delicate race dynamics and economy. Unlike America's affirmative action, Malaysia's version is far more aggressive and pervasive and has been remarkably successful in creating a sizable and stable Bumiputra (indigenous group) middle class. The price tag is significant: distortion of freemarket dynamics and consequent inefficiency. Perversely, the policy impairs rather than strengthens Bumiputras' ability to compete. In contrast to quotas and other set-aside programs that are the hallmark of the current policy, the writer presents an alternative strategy aimed primarily at enhancing Bumiputra competitiveness. The proposed approach would not negatively impact the economy nor interfere with the freemarket. Equally important, it would not arouse resentment from other Malaysians. The first objective would be to modernize the nation's archaic educational system to emphasize English, mathematics, the sciences, and technical training. Secondly, the influences of religious and royal institutions must be curtailed, and the rates of urbanization and population growth reduced. The primary objective is in enhancing competitiveness, not on meeting arbitrarily picked numerical goals and targets.

Author: Humairah Zainal
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000521443
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Humairah and Kamaludeen examine contemporary Malay national identity in Singapore and Malaysia through the lens of ‘primordial modernity’, taking on a comparative transnational perspective. How do Malays in Singapore and Malaysia conceptualise and negotiate their ethnic identity vis-à-vis the state’s construction of Malay national identity? Humairah and Kamaludeen employ discourse analyses of both elite and mass texts that include newspaper editorials, school textbooks, political speeches, novels, movies, and letters in local newspapers. Extending current notions of Malay identity, the authors offer a comprehensive overview of Malay identity that takes into consideration both primordial dimensions and the more modern aspects such as their cosmopolitan sensibilities and their approach to social mobility. A valuable resource for scholars of Southeast Asian culture and society, as well as Sociologists looking at wider issues of ethnic and national identity.

Author: SODA Naoki
Publisher:
ISBN: 9784814002757
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Author: Ho Ying Chan
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814818178
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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"Ho Ying Chan provides an expert analysis of Malaysia–Indonesia relations. He demystifies the concept of a 'special relationship', rescuing it from woolly, sentimental rhetoric that often emanates from political figures and popular commentators. His well-informed study shows how a state’s will to survive in the amoral world of international relations drives its conduct even in circumstances of common identities and common strategic interests with other states. He evaluates comparative evidence to shed light on how a special relationship leads to the emergence of a pluralistic security community. This is a conclusion of insight and value, not only to the field of Southeast Asian Studies, but also to the wider community of International Relations scholars." — Professor Clinton Fernandes, University of New South Wales, Australia "Empirically rich and theoretically interesting, this book offers an illuminating account of how material and ideational dynamics shape the evolution of Malaysia–Indonesia relations. Focusing on what is arguably the most vital bilateral relationship in Southeast Asia, it addresses the circumstances, conditions and constraints that determine the double-edged effects of the culturally bound 'special relationship'. Ho Ying Chan argues that while their shared serumpun identities and strategic interests do give rise to a considerable closeness between Malaysia and Indonesia, the politics of power (im)balance have prevented the transformation of the special relationship into a 'pluralistic security community', as their egoistic understanding averts the formation of collective self. The book generates useful insights on the interplay of cross-border cultural affinity and political necessity, inviting readers to ponder the politics of identity and survivability at the international level. It is a welcome addition to the growing literature of Southeast Asian international relations." — Dr Kuik Cheng-Chwee, National University of Malaysia (UKM) "Ho Ying Chan’s important study brings home the international and theoretical significance of the interaction between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two major states of Muslim Southeast Asia — products of the territorial division between the British and Dutch colonial empires. This welcome and revealing review of the Malaysia–Indonesia story deepens our understanding of the concept of a 'special relationship' — explaining both the cooperative and competitive dynamics that can be present, and the way such relationships are influenced by state identities and power imbalances." — Anthony Milner, University of Malaya; University of Melbourne

Author: Timothy P. Barnard
Publisher: NUS Press
ISBN: 9789971692797
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Contesting Malayness assembles research on the theme of how Malays have identified themselves in time and place, developed by a wide range of scholars. While the authors describe some of the historical and cultural patterns that make up the Malay world, taken as a whole their work demonstrates the impossibility of offering a definition or even a description of "Melayu" that is not rife with omissions and contradictions.

Author: Geoffrey Benjamin
Publisher: Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
ISBN: 9814517410
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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The Malay World (Alam Melayu), spanning the Malay Peninsula, much of Sumatra, and parts of Borneo, has long contained within it a variety of populations. Most of the Malays have been organized into the different kingdoms (kerajaan Melayu) from which they have derived their identity. But the territories of those kingdoms have also included tribal peoples - both Malay and non-Malay - who have held themselves apart from those kingdoms in varying degrees. In the last three decades, research on these tribal societies has aroused increasing interest.This book explores the ways in which the character of these societies relates to the Malay kingdoms that have held power in the region for many centuries past, as well as to the modern nation-states of the region. It brings together researchers committed to comparative analysis of the tribal groups living on either side of the Malacca Straits - in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. New theoretical and descriptive approaches are presented for the study of the social and cultural continuities and discontinuities manifested by tribal life in the region.

Author: Anthony Milner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444305107
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Just who are ‘the Malays’? This provocative study posesthe question and considers how and why the answers have changedover time, and from one region to another. Anthony Milner developsa sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical,‘Malay’ context. The Malays is a comprehensiveexamination of the origins and development of Malay identity,ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries. Covers the political, economic, and cultural development of theMalays Explores the Malay presence in Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia,Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, as well as themodern Malay show-state of Malaysia Offers diplomatic speculation about ways Malay ethnicity willdevelop and be challenged in the future

Author: Muhammad Hussin Mutalib
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ethnicity
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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