ABSTRACT
Multiculturalism has a series of quite different foundations according to the historical trajectoiy within which it is situated. Ethnicity acquires a different meaning corresponding to the social and historical complex within which ethnic identities are found (Fenton 1999). Ethnic groups are identified as ‘urban minorities’ emanating from migrations into metropolitan areas; indigenous peoples, typically displaced by colonial settlers or rulers and frequently becoming minorities in ‘their own land’; ethno-national groups who seek to establish political space within (autonomy) or outside (secession) their current polity; post-slavery ethno-racial identities; and finally, groups or societies described as multi-ethnic, ‘plural’ and post-colonial. Clearly it is this last formation that best describes Malaysia.
