This book explores the cultural formation of postcolonial Malay nationalism in Malaysia. “Indigenous” Malays not only retain political control in this multiethnic state, they also enjoy many other economic and social advantages over Malaysian citizens descended from South Asian and Chinese ancestors. Access to university education is among the most important of these advantages. While histories of Malaysia often attribute Malay hegemony to colonialist foundations laid down at the time of independence from Britain, the young nation took discriminatory policies to a new level after riots in 1969 that were blamed on the economic dominance of Chinese Malaysians. Malay cultural and political hegemony, which rests on a claim of indigenousness, aims partly to address the imbalance of economic power held by immigrant-descended Chinese and Indian Malaysians.
Piecing his analysis together largely from secondary sources but drawing throughout from his own research in the region over three decades, Joel S. Kahn...
