ABSTRACT
Language and education policies have fluctuated between assimilation and multiculturalism by ambiguously incorporating Malay dominance and the recognition of non-Malay rights. Policies between the 1960s and 1980s are described as soft assimilation, whilst policies after the 1990s are described as accommodative multiculturalism. At first glance, the implementation of ambiguous and fluctuating policies can be understood as resulting from the government’s effort to seek a middle ground between Malay hegemony (assimilation-based national identity) and equality (multiculturalism-based national identity); however, the shaping of those policies is strongly influenced by ethnic-based political structure, economic growth strategies and Malay preferential policies. These three factors (policy-making structure) restrict the government’s efforts to seek a middle ground and make finding such ground difficult. Furthermore, the form of national identity presented by the government cannot form the basis of middle ground. The Chinese community has embraced neither soft assimilation nor accommodative multiculturalism as the direction of nation-building. This book concludes that it is almost impossible to achieve such a middle ground. The government has introduced a new approach to promote ‘unity in diversity’ by enhancing ethnic interaction, and research into this approach is a new challenge to be addressed.
