ABSTRACT
Introduction Citizenship is often a contested terrain, particularly around notions of ethnicity. Malaysia is a country where the ethnic dimension of citizenship was foregrounded at its very inception. The Malaysian nation was initially built on negotiated terms of citizenship for three major ethnic categories defined as the Chinese, Indians, and Malays. With the entry of Sabah and Sarawak into the Federation, the ethnic framework of the state was later revised to take into account other indigenous groups, but the discourse of ‘Malay privilege’ continued to overshadow many aspects of state and society. Ethnic categories play an important role in defining individual citizens’ access to substantive entitlements in reality and in the popular perception.
