Multiculturalism in Malaysia: Physical Superficiality or Permanent Tension?
"Multicultural Asia," for someone who has never been outside East Asia, is largely an oxymoron and impossibility. Even the most cultural diverse in the region, China, has no real diversity to speak off. Minorities languish in the political, economic, and obviously demographic dominance of the Han Chinese, who has made assimilation an ultimate goal in creating a stable society. And then, an East Asian who shows up to Malaysia is simply dazzled, amazed by how the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians have together carved out a truly multiethnic country where no one is more foreign than the other.
The amazement can simply be soaked on a casual stroll through the central commercial areas of Kuala Lumpur. There is a clear ethnic division among the markets, with Chinatown and its crowded main pedestrian street of Jalan Petaling to the south, Little India with blasting Hindi and Tamil music at the center, and Malay markets surrounding the elegant mosque at Masjid Jamek to the north. Yet the three are not at segregated from one another. Indian shopkeepers and customers grace Chinatown, in turn Chinese-owned shops dot Little India, while both Chinese and Indian shoppers are a common sight in the bustling Malay markets. Signs in Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil, Hindi, and sometimes even Arabic scripts grace each neighborhood.
Unlike any other multicultural place, the multicultural scene in Malaysia is marked by this remarkable LACK of dominance by any one ethnicity. Of course the numbers of each are not equal (with the Malays being the most populous and Indians the least) but one simply cannot tell without researching all that. The remarkable level of integration, with people of all three races living in the same apartment blocks and working in the same neighborhoods, and best of all, having the same types of food in the same multiethnic restaurants serving dishes like Indian fried noodles and Chinese curries, is awe-inspiring testament to globalization.
However, the absolutely amazing scene of ethnic integration is not without questions of just how deep the interaction really is among the three. Certainly, people live in the same places, ride the same trains to work, and indeed call the same country home, but do they consider themselves "compatriots" in the truest sense of the word? On that front, a foreign visitor has to be a little doubtful. Looking at the crowds, one notices that friendships seems to rarely be forged across ethnic lines, with each sticking to their own race when enjoying companionship during their off-days from work.
And most shockingly (something I did not realize suddenly until pointed out by my Iranian landlord), despite all three races being here for centuries, co-developing the country into its current form over generations and generations, there actually exists no sizable community of people with mixed racial background here. Indeed, even scanning the crowds for young couple, one would realize that each race tend to marry within their own, despite having almost equal opportunities, at school and at work, to meet eligible singles from other races.
Religion, after all, still seem to set people apart. Malay Indians (dominated Tamils) are largely Christian and Hindu, with a slight Muslim minority; Malay Chinese (dominated by Hakka- and Hokkien-speakers, with a Cantonese minority) tend to be Buddhists and Christians, while ethnic Malays are strictly Muslim, with a slight Christian minority. While food and even language can be compromised, integrated, and modified, cultural identities based around religious practices have remained consistently distinct and fiercely independent of one another over the centuries of co-habitation.
Yet, getting back to the initial point of the post, despite perhaps the superficial nature of integration in an essentially racially tripartite country, the Malaysian model of "peace in diversity" is still worthy of great admiration and emulation as migration push many more countries toward demographic realities more akin to that of Malaysia. Certainly, previous tensions did exist with "Malaysia for Malays" movement (with incidentally led to Singaporean independence decades ago) but the fast-developing contemporary era sees the three races living together amicably, perhaps hiding their tensions, to build a more wealthy homelands for themselves.
Such amicability, even if superficial, stands in huge contrast to swaths of not only East Asia, but Europe and America. Even in traditionally multiethnic states like the US, race seems to be constantly on the mind of politicians and common people, even though racial divisions there have existed just as long as it has here. And it is far worse in East Asia and Europe, where minorities, even if they look no different from the "natives," are systematically picked out and labelled as trouble-makers and socioeconomically disadvantageous. These places should definitely look toward Malaysia, where obviously different-looking peoples with origins in East, South, and Southeast Asia have seemingly completely ignored "race" as an economic or political issue...
The amazement can simply be soaked on a casual stroll through the central commercial areas of Kuala Lumpur. There is a clear ethnic division among the markets, with Chinatown and its crowded main pedestrian street of Jalan Petaling to the south, Little India with blasting Hindi and Tamil music at the center, and Malay markets surrounding the elegant mosque at Masjid Jamek to the north. Yet the three are not at segregated from one another. Indian shopkeepers and customers grace Chinatown, in turn Chinese-owned shops dot Little India, while both Chinese and Indian shoppers are a common sight in the bustling Malay markets. Signs in Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil, Hindi, and sometimes even Arabic scripts grace each neighborhood.
Unlike any other multicultural place, the multicultural scene in Malaysia is marked by this remarkable LACK of dominance by any one ethnicity. Of course the numbers of each are not equal (with the Malays being the most populous and Indians the least) but one simply cannot tell without researching all that. The remarkable level of integration, with people of all three races living in the same apartment blocks and working in the same neighborhoods, and best of all, having the same types of food in the same multiethnic restaurants serving dishes like Indian fried noodles and Chinese curries, is awe-inspiring testament to globalization.
However, the absolutely amazing scene of ethnic integration is not without questions of just how deep the interaction really is among the three. Certainly, people live in the same places, ride the same trains to work, and indeed call the same country home, but do they consider themselves "compatriots" in the truest sense of the word? On that front, a foreign visitor has to be a little doubtful. Looking at the crowds, one notices that friendships seems to rarely be forged across ethnic lines, with each sticking to their own race when enjoying companionship during their off-days from work.
And most shockingly (something I did not realize suddenly until pointed out by my Iranian landlord), despite all three races being here for centuries, co-developing the country into its current form over generations and generations, there actually exists no sizable community of people with mixed racial background here. Indeed, even scanning the crowds for young couple, one would realize that each race tend to marry within their own, despite having almost equal opportunities, at school and at work, to meet eligible singles from other races.
Religion, after all, still seem to set people apart. Malay Indians (dominated Tamils) are largely Christian and Hindu, with a slight Muslim minority; Malay Chinese (dominated by Hakka- and Hokkien-speakers, with a Cantonese minority) tend to be Buddhists and Christians, while ethnic Malays are strictly Muslim, with a slight Christian minority. While food and even language can be compromised, integrated, and modified, cultural identities based around religious practices have remained consistently distinct and fiercely independent of one another over the centuries of co-habitation.
Yet, getting back to the initial point of the post, despite perhaps the superficial nature of integration in an essentially racially tripartite country, the Malaysian model of "peace in diversity" is still worthy of great admiration and emulation as migration push many more countries toward demographic realities more akin to that of Malaysia. Certainly, previous tensions did exist with "Malaysia for Malays" movement (with incidentally led to Singaporean independence decades ago) but the fast-developing contemporary era sees the three races living together amicably, perhaps hiding their tensions, to build a more wealthy homelands for themselves.
Such amicability, even if superficial, stands in huge contrast to swaths of not only East Asia, but Europe and America. Even in traditionally multiethnic states like the US, race seems to be constantly on the mind of politicians and common people, even though racial divisions there have existed just as long as it has here. And it is far worse in East Asia and Europe, where minorities, even if they look no different from the "natives," are systematically picked out and labelled as trouble-makers and socioeconomically disadvantageous. These places should definitely look toward Malaysia, where obviously different-looking peoples with origins in East, South, and Southeast Asia have seemingly completely ignored "race" as an economic or political issue...
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