ABSTRACT
This chapter is mainly an account of the nation as a signification in the Malaysian social imaginary. In the previous chapter we established social imaginaries as the theoretical framework and know from that that social imaginaries are made up of collections of significations that are unique to each society. Additionally, the collection of significations that make up a social imaginary and its various potentialities and enactments are products of a society's historical, political, socio-cultural and economic development. A different political outlook during a period, for example, could see the same signification take on different possibilities in one society than another despite similarities in history. Using this understanding as a frame here we examine three significations — nation, race and religion — to shed light on why and how they are commonly imagined and enacted in Malaysia as they are today.
