ABSTRACT
This chapter provides, perhaps for the first time, the following conceptual and empirical tools. These are first, an alternative analytical device to examine internal dynamics of ethnicity and identity formation in Malaysia. Second a demonstration of the defining role of colonial knowledge in shaping the landscape of modern knowledge production, particularly in Malaysia. Third, an understanding of the significance of the phenomenon of social mobility and its material base in the reshaping of ethnicity and identity formation, so as to highlight not only the inter-ethnic, but also intra-ethnic dimensions that complicate post-1969 discourse. Colonial knowledge defined and created ethnic and other social categories, thus enabling the colonial administration to govern in a divide-and-rule-manner. Notions of ethnicity are rooted in the colonial power's authority, worldview and needs. One of the factors that sustained these notions in the post-colonial period has been the social and economic reality of productive activities linked with ethnic groups.
