HISTORICAL INSTITUTIONALISM OF NATIONAL CULTURE POLICY IN

MALAYSIA

SITI FATIHAH BINTI SELAMAT

A report submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy (Generic)

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Supervisor:
ASSOC. PROF. MANSOUREH EBRAHIMI

……………………………………………….
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii
LIST OF TABLES iv
LIST OF FIGURES v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Problem 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Research Questions 6
1.4 Objectives of the Study 6
1.5 Scope of the Study 7
1.6 Significance of the Study 7
1.7 Conclusion 8

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9
2.1 Introduction 9
2.2 Implementation of NCP and nation-building process to 10
construct national culture and identity
2.3 Safeguarding national culture in Malaysia 19
2.4 Impacts of the governmental implementation on the 27
people and the civil society organization
2.5 Preliminary Findings 35
2.6 Conclusion 38

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 40
3.1 Introduction 40
3.2 Research Design and Research Method 40
3.2.1 Historical Institutionalism Approach 40
3.2.2 Process-tracing 41

ii
 3.2.3 Causal mechanism 43
3.3 Operational Definition 44
3.3.1 National Culture 44
3.3.2 Institutions 47
3.3.3 Historical institutionalism 50
3.4 Data Sources 51
3.5 Data Analysis 51

REFERENCES
Appendices A – C

iii
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Previous literature on implementation of NCP and 11
nation-building to construct national culture and identity
2.2 Previous literature on safeguarding national culture in 20
Malaysia
2.3 Previous literature on impacts of the governmental 27
implementation on the people and the civil society
organization

iv
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

3.1 The black box in impact evaluation (Punton & Welle, 43
2015)
3.3 Formal institutions adapted from North’s (1990) 49
definition
3.4 Malaysian formal institutions adapted from North’s 50
(1990) definition.

v
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ASEAN - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations

ASWARA - Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan (The
National Academy of Arts, Culture & Heritage)
BASKL - Bandar Aktiviti Seni Kuala Lumpur (City of Arts'
Activities KL)
BN - Barisan Nasional (National Front)
CPO - Causal-process observation
CENDANA - Cultural Economy Development Agency
CSO - Civil Society Organization
DAKEN 2021 - Dasar Kebudayaan Negara 2021 (National Culture
Policy 2021)
DAP - Democratic Action Party
DSO - Data set observation
GTP - Government Transformation Program
ICH - Intangible Cultural Heritage
JAKIM - Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Department of
Islamic Development Malaysia)
MCA - Malaysian Chinese Association
MCIO - Malay, Chinese, Indian, Others
MIC - Malaysian Indian Congress
MOTAC - Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
MTCP - Malaysian Technical Cooperation Program
NCP - National Culture Policy
NEP - New Economic Policy
NVAG - National Visual Arts Gallery
PAS - Parti Islam Se Malaysia (Malaysian Islamic Party)
PH - Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope)
PKR - Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party)
PMO - Prime Minister's Office
SCD - Sin Chew Daily
SIRC - State's Islamic Regional Council

vi
UMNO - United Malays National Organization
UNESCO - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization
YDPA - Yang di-Pertuan Agong
YDPB - Yang di-Pertuan Besar

vii
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Problem

The first parliamentary election after the formation of Malaysia in 1963, was
held on 10th May 1969 for the states in Peninsular, while election for Sabah and
Sarawak was postponed to the month of June until July. The results from the May 1969
election had caused the ‘13 May incident’, where opposition parties had won several
seats more compared to the previous election (Vasil, 1972). To date, there were not
enough recollection of whom or which groups have actually started the riot. However,
the occurrence itself has shown clear evidence that Malaysians were not united and
racial tensions could possibly reoccur even after the long struggle of independence and
the Merger. To subside the tension, Tunku Abdul Rahman has re-engineered the New
Economic Policy (NEP) 1971 - 1990 to affirm the Malays of their bumiputra rights,
and the non-bumiputras to receive fair economic opportunities (Segawa, 2013). The
plan was announced in 1970 and in the same year, the National Principles1 were
inaugurated with its sole purpose to unite Malaysians and restore stability of the nation
(Department of Information, 2016). In the following year, Tun Abdul Razak and his
ministers have held the first National Cultural Congress in 1971 to introduce the

1
National Principles (Rukun Negara) was announced on 31st August 1970. It was inaugurated following
the riot on May 13 in 1969. The incident has weakened unity among ethnic groups in Malaysia. National
Principles was formed with the main purpose of uniting Malaysians and restores stability of the country.
It also serves as a pledge by Malaysians with their best efforts to achieve those principles which are
Belief in God, Loyalty to the King and Country, Supremacy of the Constitution, Rules of Law and
Courtesy and Morality (Department of Information, 2016).

1
country’s national culture policy. This event has marked the first time Malaysia
attempt to define national culture and identity where, all the values were expected to
be embraced by all communities regardless of race and ethnicity (Wan Norhasniah
Wan Husin, 2012). The policy is based on the three following principles (Government
Policies, 2019);

1. The national culture must be based on the indigenous culture of this

region (region which encompassed within and during the Malay
Civilization i.e., Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei,
Thailand, and Cambodia).

2. Suitable elements from the other culture may be accepted as part of the
national culture – such acceptance must be in accordance with the
provisions in the Constitution and the National Principles.

3. Islam is an important component in the formulation of the national

culture.

As stated in the premise of the policy (Government Policies, 2019), culture plays an
essential role in nation-building to uphold Malaysian identity. The policy serves as
“guidelines in designing, formulating, and sustaining the national identity of
Malaysia…” and it requires full participation in mobilizing the policy from all levels
of the Malaysian society. It is apparent that the NEP and NCP altogether were part of
the efforts made in the last five decades to resolve the ‘13 May incident’ by affirming
their rights and to unite Malaysians with common national identification despite
multiculturalism.

After 50 years since the NCP has been formulated, Malaysians have yet to
achieve clear understanding on what ‘Malaysian identity’ or ‘national culture’ really
means in practice. Malaysians have becoming more indifferent and perplexed towards
the definition of the country’s national culture (Anding Kahar, 2021). To clear off
people’s confusion on the definition of national culture and to adapt with the current
situation, under the premiership of Dato’ Ismail Sabri that the NCP has revamped its
structure namely, DAKEN 2021, with thirty-nine strategies and ninety-five action

2
plans while sustaining the three main principles of the NCP (Unit Komunikasi
Korporat, 2021). DAKEN 2021 was launched on 26th October 2021 at Kompleks Kraf
Kuala Lumpur. Coincidentally on 11th December 2021, a symposium was held by
collaborative organizations – PUSAKA2, Cultural Economy Development Agency
(CENDANA)3, Svara4 and the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Malaya – with
the initiative to provide a space for public discussion particularly among cultural
practitioners to reflect on the problems arose throughout the development of NCP,
while reimagining the foundations of Malaysian culture (BASKL, 2021). At the
symposium, many scholars have argued on the approaches by the government to
develop national culture, the use of language in education, the prohibitions and
permittance on cultural practices, which all of these have brought back in questioning
the sole definition of national culture itself and its objectives.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

As mentioned previously that the definition of national culture and the

approaches by the government to execute NCP, were questioned by many scholars.
The doubts and questions raised on the roles and the position of NCP were not new.
Eight years after the first national cultural congress was held, Ghazali Shafie, who was
the Minister of Home Affairs at that time commented on the little impact of outcome
that the policy gave. His concern was drawn to the less attention given on the
comprehensive understanding of each 5 National Principles by Malaysians (Tehrani,
2017). In 1990, a group of scholars from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

2
A cultural organization founded by Eddin Khoo in 2002. PUSAKA cooperate closely with the leading
cultural keepers of ritual and traditional performing arts in Malaysia and the region. The organization
provides a thorough documentary archive of traditional performing arts in Malaysia while fortifying the
viability of these arts at the community level (PUSAKA, n.d.).
3
Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA) is a relatively new government agency that
was launched in 2017 by former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. The main purpose of this
agency is to oversee the growth and implementation of a three-pronged strategy to sustain arts,
empower communities and reorganise policies. It acts as a medium between creators, private
investors, regulating bodies, policymakers, and consumers (CENDANA, n.d.; Gopinath, 2018).
4
Svara (means ‘voice’ in Sanskrit) is an independent contemporary arts journal publication that
publishes an issue four times a year. The journal covers a wide-ranging topic within the scope of arts’
criticism in Malaysia, compiling essays, short stories, interviews and poems written in Bahasa
Malaysia (Goh, 2020).

3
known as The Group of Fifteen5 (Kumpulan Lima Belas) had written a memorandum
as a result from their thorough research on NCP, contested that the reference of
national culture should base on Malaysia’s geography and not according to the pre-
colonial history of the ‘region’, i.e., Malay civilization (Kumpulan Penitian Sosial
UKM, 1990). They also suggested that non-bumiputra cultural elements which possess
universal values must be included in the NCP.

In the memorandum, there was no mention of Islamic principle as part of the

elements to define national culture (Kumpulan Penitian Sosial UKM, 1990; Hafez
Darwis, 2019). It is understood that the third principle of NCP – Islam is an important
component in formulation on national culture – had somehow negated non-bumiputras
and even bumiputras cultural practices that are non-sharia compliant from the
definition of national culture. Although mentioned by (Darwish, 2019) that NCP had
caused dissatisfaction among the non-bumiputras because of lack of inclusivity, past
publications by (Vorys, 1976; Nagata, 1979; Andaya and Andaya 1982; Crouch, 1996;
Hooker, 2003; Abdul Rahman. 2006) have proven that NCP has played little role in
cultural production in Malaysia because one of the reasons is, it has never been
legislated in the Law of Malaysia (Mandal, 2008). Mandal highlighted that the
enforcement of NCP is much diminished as of 2008 and rather, it gained power
“largely due to the efforts of an exclusionary Malay cultural leadership." Though NCP
has never been legislated, but it is highly contentious because it serves as the means to
develop national identity. Of course, at the early of its inception it had caused a lot of
debates and led to drafting of memorandum by the Group of Fifteen to challenge the
policy, but it became diminishing in its role when globalization and industrialization
took place in the 1990s.

NCP and on Malaysia identity narratives have turned into a heated debate once
again after Malaysia has experienced for the very first time, the collapse of Barisan

5
The Group of Fifteen (Kumpulan Lima Belas) formally known as the Social Research Group
(Kumpulan Penelitian Sosial) comprised of fifteen scholars which came from variety of disciplines at
UKM, had conducted research alongside episodes of discussion for more than a year to evaluate the
country’s progress for the post-NEP future. The findings were published in a memorandum titled
“Setelah 1990: Ekonomi dan Pembentukan Bangsa” (After 1990: The Economy and Nation-building).

4
National (BN)6 as the ruling government in 2018. Under the new ruling coalition,
Pakatan Harapan (PH)7 with its slogan ‘Malaysia Baharu’ (New Malaysia) continuing
the decades long grapple of unity in diversity for this country, perhaps in different
connotation. Wong Shu Qi has expressed about the failure of media to advocate
Malaysia narrative through the ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ concept and expressed her
frustration on how each media would often publish news from racial perspectives
(Wong, 2019). The former Chief Minister of Johor, Khaled Nordin, currently serving
as a vice president for the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)8 party, has
responded on the claims made by Shu Qi that the ruling coalition, PH, should not
disregard the reality of multiculturalism in Malaysia and that Malaysians have never
been assimilated into one absolute race (Khaled Nordin, 2019) – referring to Shu Qi’s
advocacy on ‘Bangsa Malaysia’. In his response that the NCP was brought into the
argument. He suggested that PH’s ‘Malaysia narrative’ should be guided by the NCP.
Khaled’s writing was responded by another ruling party members of PH, Edry Jafri,
highlighting on the creation of nation state – which generally exists only after
independence. He also attempted to enlighten the prevalent confusion between the
concept of ‘nation’ and ‘race’ (Edry Jafri, 2019) while directing it to Khaled.

The back-and-forth argument of NCP did not end there, it has inadvertently
invited other written responses, which have exposed the clear confusion on the position
of NCP as well as the usage of nationalistic concepts such as, ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ and
national culture, among politicians and the common people alike in this decade. When
these concepts are not clearly defined or reified, they are adopted and being used in

6
Barisan Nasional (BN) is a successor of the Alliance coalition which consist of three parties, MCA,
MIC and UMNO. BN was founded in 1973 followed by the 1969 general election and the 13 th May
incident. The coalition has managed to dominate Malaysia political sphere for decades. It had faced its
defeat for the first time in 2018 during the 14 th General Election (Komunikasi Barisan Nasional, n.d.).
7
Pakatan Harapan (PH) was a successor of the Pakatan Rakyat Coalition, which later re-named as
Pakatan Harapan in 2017. PH consisted of four parties, which three of them had the experience of
cooperating together for a decade, namely People’s Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR), the
Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah). Parti Pribumi Malaysia (PPBM)
which was led by Tun Mahathir was the fourth new party member. In the 14 th General Election, the
coalition had won seven states in total, defeating BN down with two states only. This election has
marked a major turn of events, on the fall of BN for the very first time (Yeoh, 2020).
8
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) flaunt itself as the largest party that used to construct
the pillar of the Federal administration. It was founded on 11 th May 1946 by Dato’ Onn Jaafar as a
catalyst to unite the Malays together in the struggle for rights in politics and economy which began to
elude them at that time. The party had won the first general election which was held in 1955, in a
coalition with MCA and MIC. (UMNO Information, n.d.)

5
different connotations according to motives in favor to political actors and their parties,
while the public remain confused and unenlightened.

Despite of the arguments and comments made among politicians, scholars, and
artists since NCP’s inception in 1971, the current ruling coalition has launched Dasar
Kebudayaan Negara 2021 (DAKEN 2021) – National Cultural Policy 2021, through
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC). In DAKEN 2021, the government
continues to uphold three main principles of NCP although they have been greatly
discussed and challenged in public sphere since 1970s. According to the Prime
Minister, YB Dato’ Ismail Sabri in his launch speech, the policy entails the core entity
of Keluarga Malaysia which emphasises on inclusivity, unity, and gratefulness. In the
same year of DAKEN 2021 launching, a symposium by BASKL was held to reflect
on NCP’s past executions, problems arose due to the policy and reimagining on the
foundations of NCP (BASKL, 2021). Guests for the symposium were scholars and
artists who gathered or invited to present and voice out their thoughts on NCP. With
all the debates on national culture and NCP that have been circling around, there are
still lack of research to clearly lay out the position of NCP and why does the Malaysian
government persist to implement the 52-year-old definition of national culture on the
Malaysian society.

1.3 Research Questions

(1) How do institutions implement the existing cultural policy to develop the
national culture as part of nation-building program?
(2) To what extent have the implications of national culture policy impacted the
society?
(3) Why does the Malaysian government renew the projection of the cultural
policy after certain period?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

Following are the objectives proposed for this study: -

6
(1) To analyse institutions’ roles in developing national culture as part of nation-
building program through the implementation of national cultural policy.
(2) To analyse the impacts and reactions on the Malaysian society throughout the
implementation of the national culture policy since independence.
(3) To examine causal mechanism that influence the government’s decision to
renew the projection of national culture policy in 2021.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study focuses on the institutions, implementation of NCP particularly and

other policies and programs that serve the objectives to construct and safeguard
national culture. The general scope of period for this research would cover within the
historical developments since the inception of NCP, in 1971, until the recent launching
program of DAKEN 2021. There are five periods within this scope: i) 1971 – 1990, ii)
1991 – 2008, iii) 2009 – 2018, iv) 2018 – (Sheraton Move) February 2020, iv) March
2020 – 2021. The five periods are selected based on watersheds occur due to political
changes and instability. Each of the period will be explained in detail under the chapter
of Research Methodology. External or foreign interventions that involve in
safeguarding Malaysia’s national culture, will also be analysed on their relations with
the local institutions. Hence, the categorization in the analysis for this research will be
divided into three: (i) State, (ii) Federal and (iii) International.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will contribute to the literature in this field and adds
an overview of the social and political situation in this country in terms of the national
culture development, for the reference of civil society and locals in general. This
research would also shed light on underrepresented ethnic groups whose struggles may
have or have not heard by the responsible bodies. The analysis and findings could also
contribute to scholars, the elites in particular, and Malaysian in general towards the

7
interpretation of Part 3, Article 11 of the Federal Constitution9. Researchers and
policymakers from other countries would also benefit from the analysis, especially
issues touching on the Islamic laws, pluralism, and multiculturalism.

1.7 Conclusion

Since the Cold war, relatively most of the countries in the world have set or
were in the process of establishing each of their sovereign states. Unlike in the period
of pre-WWI, countries such that in Europe and Asia Pacific were ruled under absolute
monarchy or theocratic administration. When these countries were partitioned due to
the war and political changes that have occurred globally, the borders divided have
made each region to rule their government independently. National identities that bring
citizens together in each of their state, would contribute to the unity, stability and
subsequently to function effectively as a nation state. This research takes interest
particularly in this topic, specifically in Malaysia. Referring to the contemporary issues
of racial and religion sentiments that still prevalent within this country, it is essential
to understand the background of NCP – the policy that is believed by the incumbent
coalition as uniting factor and forms the national culture in Malaysia – until the recent
development of NCP, which is DAKEN 2021. Problems surrounding the
implementation of NCP by institutions to the discussion and debates on viability of
NCP in the public sphere were explained to prove that the polemic of NCP still lingers.
From these problems, unanswered issues have been extracted and turned into research
questions. This chapter provides the overview of this research’s road map to better
understand the existing polemic of NCP.

9
In the Laws of Malaysia, under Part 3, Article 11, namely Freedom of Religion. Under which, the laws
list the prohibitions and rights that should be standardized throughout the whole country on practicing,
managing, maintaining institutions, and acquiring property – those of related to any religious cause
(Laws of Malaysia, 2009).

8
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

NCP was launched two years after the May 1969 racial riot which involved
mainly among the Malay and Chinese communities. The riot took place at the
aftermath of 1969 General Election. Though the knowledge of who or which
community started first actually does not bring any good to this discussion, however
it is understood that the cause of the riot was due to UMNO’s triumph over Election
and that the NEP drafted prior to the election would most likely be implemented. The
content of the initial plan of NEP, was not satisfyingly assuring to both ethnic groups
and the rights that each community was anticipated were at stake. Hence, as many
scholars have studied, the government has been managing ethnic diversity in this
country in an accommodative approach to assure every ethnic group on the fulfillment
of their rights. The discussion surrounding NEP and its action plans in the context of
multiethnic society, often touches on the polemics of ethnic categorization, economic
inequality, or ethnic discrimination, where non-Malays citizens whose ancestors had
settled in Malaysia pre-independence harbor the feeling of being mistreated as ‘second
class citizens’. Whereas these groups have developed patriotism, nationalism and
would identify themselves as the members of Malaysian nation.

In light with the issue at that time, and as a response to the racial riot, Tun
Abdul Razak in his speech during the first National Culture Congress in 1971, stated
that it was time to have Malaysia’s own national culture as an ethos that would unite

9
every citizen together. The Congress was attended by scholars and prominent figures
from various backgrounds to share their hopes and ideas on shaping national culture
and identity, while offering remarkable insights on potential nation-building programs
that could be implemented. Malaysian society have been living peacefully defying
certain scholars’ pessimistic prediction over the nature of multicultural demography.
For example, in 1960, Rupert Emerson had predicted that Malaysia’s multi-ethnic
society will eventually collapse. To date, his prediction has remained proven to be
otherwise (Goh, 1989).

On the surface, the nation has remained to be peaceful however inter-ethnic

discourses have often been discussed among the scholars. Malaysia had also witnessed
several protests taken place to echo their racial and religious rights to the government.
Despite all odds, the incumbent government has insisted to revive NCP with a new
branding namely, DAKEN 2021. Government’s optimism to continue implementing
the NCP despite the prevalent discourses in the public, academic and political spheres,
has not been understood clearly. As a response to these frequent disputes and
confusion, previous researchers have studied on the NCP’s implementation and the
impacts that it had brought to the people since its inception. Studies that have covered
fully or partly from the objectives of this research are selected. Gaps and unanswered
disjuncture from the selected work will be identified, while maximizing their findings
and discussion for the benefit of this research. In this section, an analytical review of
the previous work will be categorized under three streams:

(1) Implementation of NCP and nation-building process to construct national culture

and national identity.
(2) Safeguarding national culture in Malaysia
(3) Impacts on the people and civil society organization from the implementation.

2.2 Implementation of NCP and nation-building process to construct national

culture and identity

To construct national culture and identity on the multicultural society in

Malaysia, government must take careful approaches to accommodate all races and

10
religion before implementing action plans or nation building programs since 1970s.
Apart from nation building programs, government would also introduce policies, terms
or ideologies that could capture the vision or depiction of Malaysia’s national culture
or identity. However, the terms used are vague and remain obscured, which have led
to several interpretations by politicians. The disputes and misunderstandings emerged
in the public sphere have attracted researchers to define those terms and ideologies
from anthropological and sociological perspectives. Few of those work have been
selected, see Table 2.1 below:

Table 2.1 Previous literature on implementation of NCP and nation-building to

construct national culture and identity
Study Statements and findings
(Gabriel, 2011) • Analyses by interrogate the idea of ‘race’, nation and
multiculturalism in Malaysia from perspective of cultural
translation and postcolonial theory.
• Argues a more flexible understanding of race identities
towards conceptualizing Malaysian-ness as a national and
cultural identity.
(Mujibu Abd • Analyses and compares Malaysia’s nation building
Muis et al., process.
2012) • Critically examines at programs; Rukun Negara, Bangsa
Malaysia and 1Malaysia from the perspectives of
ideology, race and ethnicity as the nation-building
components.
(Segawa, • Examines affirmative action programs based on Malay
2013) preferential policies which has influenced the formation of
ambiguous socio-cultural policies.
• Analyses the relationship between Malay preferential
policies and the principles of assimilation and
multiculturalism
(Chandran & • Analyses ethnic identification among Chindians in
Mohd Yahya Malaysia.

11
 Mohammed • Argues that ethnic identity is a result of a dynamic
Ariffin, 2015) developmental process and should not be reduces to
arbitrary labels attached to a person.
(I. Y. C. Ng, • Examines and compares state approaches towards ethnic
2020) diversity of Malaysia and Myanmar
• Analyses nationalist concepts in both countries, while
suggesting the possibility of moving forward towards a
more civic form of nationalism.
(Ostwald & • Analyses the regional identities which reified by Malay-
Subhan, 2021) Muslim nature of the nation-building project led by United
Malays Nasional Organisation (UMNO).
• Identifies Malaysia’s institutional features and the primacy
of highly-essentialized, trans-regional ethno-religious
identities.

Before reviewing the selected work, which covered on defining the disputed
nationalistic terms, it is best to provide a brief analysis from the original text of
“Bangsa Malaysia” from Mahathir’s speech during the campaign of Vision 2020 in
1991 (Mahathir, 1991). The brief analysis sets as the premise and foundation of the
overall review for all the work on disputed terms discussed by previous scholars.
Although Mahathir had ended his first premiership, the use of Bangsa Malaysia still
continues and had become popular again since the 14th General Election, hence the
policy of Bangsa Malaysia was selected on its usage and its nation-building programs,
as well as others that came after Mahathir’s premiership. When Bangsa Malaysia’s
discourse began to appear as too discursive or verbose, then the discussion should
return back to its original gist – the Vision 2020 speech.

The policy of “Bangsa Malaysia” was introduced by Tun Mahathir Mohamad

in his Vision 2020 speech in 1991, attempted to replace the older and more exclusive
version which was ‘Bangsa Melayu’ – which could either mean ‘Malay race’ or ‘Malay
nation’. Although Tun Mahathir did not give a detailed definition of ‘Bangsa
Malaysia’ in his speech, he did provide his vision on how ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ supposed
to be, reaching the year 2020 (Mahathir, 1991). He said that “the bangsa should be

12
peaceful, territorially and ethnically integrated, the people would embrace their lives
to the fullest based on equal rights and justice, expressing undivided loyalty and
devotion towards the bangsa itself,” (Mahathir, 1991) Hence, by referring on how Tun
Mahathir had envisioned ‘Bangsa Malaysia’, it is most likely that the word ‘bangsa’
relates to the meaning of nation rather than race.

Another proof that supports this notion is, another part of the speech that he
stated, “the society is liberal and tolerant with all the members of the state, regardless
of their ethnic or religion, and they are free to practice their own customs and beliefs
without being sidelined with regards to it,” (Mahathir, 1991) It is clear yet again, that
the word bangsa from the context of this discussion means nation (not race) due to
Mahathir’s expression of ‘bangsa’ as quoted previously. It seems to be illogical to
create a race, in which its members came from a historically divided society and have
been practicing different set of cultures and have been known as well as categorized
due to their ethnic origin by the government for decades. However, as Malaysians are
aware and as discussed previously that Bangsa Malaysia has remained in constant
discourse due to the lack of precise definition by the authority. This dispute would
often raise fear in the midst of debates that were succumbed to disregard the Malay
privilege from the Federal Constitution, where ‘race of Malaysia’ is never possible as
it threatens the position of the indigenous race.

Rather to perceive Bangsa Malaysia from an authoritative perspective, an

attempt has done to engage it as a conceptual construct with open-ended and loose
interpretation (Gabriel, 2011). The interpretation has potential and possibilities of
reconceptualizing the Malaysian nation and nation’s cultural identity that can still be
accepted within the scope of ‘Malaysian-ness’. It was argued that Bangsa Malaysia
should be viewed as a cultural translation as practiced by the people in the third post-
colonial space, and that ‘Malaysian-ness’ has its own origin rather to construct due to
its pre-given meaning (Gabriel, 2011). This suggests that the narrative of Bangsa
Malaysia is possible to evolve along the nation building process and that it does not
definitive or stuck in a certain timeframe.

The theory and concept suggested by Gabriel are useful for promoting another
perspective into reifying Bangsa Malaysia while giving ample critiques to overlap on

13
NCP for the current study. Gabriel’s discussion on Bangsa Malaysia capitulates a
bottom-up narrative which befitting with the people’s aspiration however,
disconnected with the reality on government’s persistence to impose the hegemonic
definition of NCP and national culture on its people. The perspective that Gabriel has
offered though one sided, evident with prominent local artists’ way of expressing
Bangsa Malaysia, it can be extended to reflect on the tone-deafness from the side of
hegemonic ideology.

Apart from Bangsa Malaysia, other similar concept like 1Malaysia and the
national ideology, which is the Rukun Negara, should be forwarded as a long-term
vision and mission towards aiming for the harmonious, stable and sustainable political
atmosphere (Mujibu Abd Muis et al., 2012). With regards to the dispute on ideology
interpretations, Colin Abraham (2004) had stated in his book that racial unity cannot
be relied solely on ideology and philosophy, but it can be long-lasting based on ‘mutual
regard and caring thought in terms of the other party’. By reciprocating on Colin’s
statement while simultaneously fitting it into the Malaysia’s context of plurality and
ethnic demography, the diversity management through assimilation and amalgamation
such that implemented in Indonesia and Thailand are not suitable to be implemented
in Malaysia, due to the country’s historical background of the formation of plural
society, and the factor of composition where ethnic groups in Malaysia are almost
equal in number (Mujibu Abd Muis et al., 2012).

Not to mention if applying the inequity political values based on material and
primordial factors would just be adding insult to the injury therefore consensus
democracy and accommodation that could balance up through the process of
harmonious and transparent bargaining has been a better option for Malaysia’s
formation of nation state (Ahmad Nidzamuddin, 2002; Mujibu Abd Muis et al., 2012).
Accommodative approach and the theoretical discussion of other diversity
management stated by Mujibu are relevant to set the tone for Malaysia’s background
of implementing nation-building programs and should be constantly referred
throughout researching on institutional changes for the current study. Mujibu’s
arguments which were based on colonial and postcolonial history as the background
history for Malaysia’s origin of national culture and identity are lacking followed up
events post 1990s’ nation building programs. Mujibu’s study could be extended further

14
to analyse the ending period of NEP – which took 20 years – and other watersheds
occurred that could potentially be the driven force of such ideological terms argued by
Mujibu.

As understood from Mujibu’s argument that Malaysia has been implementing

accommodative approach in its nation-building programs, it was argued later that when
scrutinizing the programs carefully in the pre-1990s, Malaysia has rather implemented
soft assimilationist approach. It was only since Vision 2020, that the country has
shifted to a more accommodative multiculturalist approach (Segawa, 2013). Due to
the accommodative nature in Malaysia’s nation-building programs, it has brought
ambiguity in its policies where the authority would attempt to cater issues of both
Malay cultural dominance and the recognition of non-Malay cultural rights (Segawa,
2013). Although accommodative multiculturalist has seemed to be an adequate
approach to solve ethnic plurality issues in Malaysia however, it hinders the
development of national integration among the Malaysian society (Segawa, 2013). The
ambiguity nature of policies structured by the government as reflected from New
Economic Policy (NEP) as well as from the NCP, does not just hinder national
integration but consequently fails to construct the clear image of national culture or
national identity. As the integration process is hindered, the formation of Bangsa
Malaysia has remained conflicted as government persists to assert ethnic dominance
in their policy execution. The issue could overcome if the members of nation should
direct their political loyalty to the state rather than to their ethno-cultural groups
(Cobban, 1945; Brown, 2000; Segawa, 2013).

Segawa has done a splendid work on comparing approaches that Malaysia has
adopted post- independence and post 1990s, however the nation-building programs
that were addressed by Segawa were mostly centered around economy, financial
welfare, and education rights of Malaysian society between bumiputras and non-
bumiputras. For integration to occur, those aspects are undoubtedly important to
consider however, since NCP is the face of ‘national culture’ and promotes ‘unity’
among the multicultural society, its implementation should be paid equal attention as
of NEP. Similar to Gabriel, Segawa quoted on Cobban, that the issue surrounding
ethnic disparity could be solved by adopting the bottom-up approach, where the
members should shift their loyalty to the state rather to their ethnic groups. This again,

15
people centric view offered which is plausible however lacks in reality of decades long
sentiments and justification on government’s persistence of continuing such means.
Given that the ruling party UMNO, whose fight is centered around the Malays’
struggle has been dominating the government for decades, it is certainly unlikely for
Malaysia’s multicultural society to direct their political loyalty to the ruling
government. With regards to this study, it can potentially seek to fill the gap
unaddressed by Segawa which are the historical background that cause the divided
community whose political loyalty too are diverse and the government’s continuous
hegemonic control, from the third’s party view.

Considering Malaysia’s government that has its long establishment with

UMNO as its dominant ruling party, instead of directing individuals from ethno-
cultural sentiments to political loyalty, it is possible for individuals to identify
themselves primarily to their national identity without further ethnic tags as in the cases
of Malaysian Chindians (Chandran & Mohd Yahya Mohammed Ariffin, 2015). This
notion is based on Constructionist theory, that ethnic identity is constantly being
created and therefore a person could not be simply reduced to a single ethnic category.
For Malaysian Birth and Death Registration Act, the case was reflected as otherwise.
Malaysian has been implementing patriarchal practices where it does not capture the
actual ethnic composition of the nation. As Malaysia still commits to the quota systems
that are based on racial categories for financial welfare, opportunities and for the
execution of other nation-building programs, the study argued that it is of paramount
importance that these categories must represent the social reality.

Chandran and Yahya have offered a different angle of ethnic identification

from the perspective of biethnic that is not new in Malaysia, it was proven even before
Malaysia has achieved its independence, which is from the Peranakan community.
Though the authors were partly focused on few elements of Malaysia’s nation-building
programs and ethnic categorization such that the laws on Births and Deaths
registrations, the study suggested that an individual is capable to prioritizes his or her
national identification over ethnic based labels. The findings have branched out to
another people centric view, where the will of the people could overcome the assertion
of ethnic identification by the government. The authors suggested that policies must
reflect the social reality of the country by considering the product of inter-marriage

16
and contemporary concerns, however for the purpose of this research, it lacks evidence
and theory that prioritizing the national identification while disregard ethnic origins,
could bring better result in unity and peaceful coexistence without considering the
political and historical reality of the country. This gap does not negate the authors’
whole argument from the objectives of this research but can be used to support as an
impact of implementing the past nation-building programs.

Perceptive accounts on constructing national culture and identity on the stage

of multiculturalism, had to be categorized or treated uniquely considering the
demography and its historical origin. Other Southeast Asian countries that were also
colonized by the British, for example, Myanmar. Myanmar had managed the issue of
ethnic diversity differently than Malaysia as ethnic divisions in Myanmar are within
indigenous ethnic groups, while Malaysia’s ethnic divisions are between
indigenous/non-indigenous (I. Y. C. Ng, 2020). Both countries possess key similarity
in favoring the majority ethnic group in its policies. While Myanmar adopts the
assimilationist policies, Malaysia adopts the policy of hegemonic control (McGarry &
O’Leary, 1994). The latter policy has been based on Malaysian social contract which
could be dated back before the Malaya’s independence – referring to the negotiations
between ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians on their mutual consensus in rights and
privileges, the reciprocity between the Malay rulers and the British administration –
for the construction of a democratic, monarchical, federal, and non-theocratic system
of government (Tay, 2018; I. Y. C. Ng, 2020).

To understand this consensus, looking back to the period of 1940s and 1950s
in Asia pacific, countries like China and India were in a heat of struggling for
independence and establishing sovereign states, which the condition was not feasible
for Chinese and Indian communities in British Malaya to return to their homelands.
The two countries’ conditions have made them accepted the citizenship terms
desperately including the lesser rights granted for both ethnic groups, as compared to
the majority Malay group. Ng stated that the foundation of the social contract was
based on Malay nationalism, thus influenced the approaches on nation-building as well
as the concept of ‘Malaysian nation’ by retaining the elements of indigenous and Islam
(Suryadinata, 2015; Ng, 2020). While Malay dominance is apparent on other nation

17
building process such as symbols, anthems, language policy and education system, it
is also obvious in numbers of key representations in the administration.

As mentioned by other scholars, Ng too stated that Malaysia has not attempted
to assimilate the non-Malays into ‘Malays’ such that occurred in Thailand (Selway,
2007; Ng, 2020). Although Malaysia does not exercise ‘full’ or ‘partial’ forms of
citizenship as compared to Myanmar, however it is inevitable that Malay dominance
and Islam play an integral role in the nation building process and it would lead to ethnic
antagonism in the long run (Suryadinata, 2015). This study has adopted the same
approach and perspective as the previous scholars mentioned, albeit the comparison
between Malaysia and Myanmar, Ng has traced back the historical origin of
hegemonic control in the implementation of nation-building programs by Malaysia
and analyzing the country’s situation with McGarry and O’Leary’s theory. The theory
examined by Ng is useful to compare with other theories analysed by the previous
scholars to better understand the implementation of nation-building programs in
Malaysia. Ng’s study was quite recent however it lacks other nation-building programs
implemented in the period of other premierships after Tunku Abdul Rahman.
However, he did mention on the latest watershed in Malaysian political history, the
14th General Election (GE14) in 2018. The analysis with regards to the results of GE14
was, the event did not signify that Malaysia was leaping towards a more inclusive
nation rather sentiments inclined heavily towards voters’ frustration on the corruption
scandals. The GE14 analysis would be making more sense if the gap of unmentioned
premierships being filled accordingly and continuously along the Malaysian historical
timeline.

While many scholars have mentioned on the integral role of Malay dominance
and Islam in nation-building programs to construct national identity, another by-
product of such approach has resulted to the formation of regional identities. The
regional and ethnic identity formation were formed due to Malaysia’s institutional
features and the primacy of highly essentialized, trans-regional ethno-religious
identities (Ostwald & Subhan, 2021). UMNO’s nation-building project after the 13th
May tragedy has asserted more Malay dominance at the federal level in both symbolic
and material terms. The 13th May tragedy was interpreted by UMNO as a manifestation
by the Malay population that they have remained discontent with their social and

18
economic position. The entrenchment of ‘Malays, Chinese, Indians, Others’ (MCIO)
divisions throughout Malaysia’s political, economic and social spheres are
questionable, albeit intended or not.

However, by observing UMNO’s nation-building projects and scrutinizing on

its results, it was justified that UMNO had systematically established its hegemonic
control in the Peninsular. Ostwald argues that this is no accident and that it has become
difficult to contest or challenge UMNO for control of federal power on alternative
platforms due to factors such as MCIO scheme on which UMNO’s legitimacy was
based. This study has treated both the regional and ethnic identities formation as
relatively salient rather mutually excluded. Regions that were brought into focus were
Northeast Peninsular and East Malaysia with the background of central power of the
Peninsular, by seeking the historical developments of those regions to clarify the
contemporary regional identities. Ostwald concludes that due to Malaysia’s high
degree of institutionalization of the party system, it has further enhanced the regional
identity at state level while inhibiting the development of state autonomy due to highly
centralized political system at the federal level (Weiss, 2015: Ostwald, 2020).

Therefore, the reifying of regional identity became instrumental, and the states
have succumbed to the ketuanan Melayu and ketuanan Islam discourses to dominate
national-level political competition. The argument on regional identity by Ostwald
have revealed on the state-federal cooperation and the degree of hegemonic control
that has entrenched, including the opposition-led states in Malaysia. To analyses
further on the implementations of nation-building programs at the state level, it would
be very helpful to refer to Ostwald’s findings especially on the political contestation
focused on the two regions mentioned. Ostwald’s, as many scholars, had focused on
nation-building in NEP’s sense and very little on cultural factors in those regions. The
political contestations and cooperation discussed by Ostwald could be extended in
historical terms by focusing on institutional changes along different period
premierships, which would contribute greatly to the objectives of this research.

2.3 Safeguarding national culture in Malaysia

19
 For the second stream, refer to Table 2.2, previous work that cover on which
parties or institutions involved in safeguarding the national culture are selected.
Institutions could be at state, federal or international level carrying the same aim which
is to safeguard. The word ‘safeguard’ in the context of this research meaning, any
actions taken to preserve permit or prohibit any cultural manifestations either tangible
or intangible forms. As understood from the previous stream that nation-building
programs are centered around the Malay-Islam values to construct national culture or
identity. Though we may argue that according to the federal constitution, Yang Di-
Pertuan Agong (YDPA) is the Head of Religion of Islam hence he might have the
power to safeguard the national culture however, legislation is not absolute under
YDPA’s power rather, his advice would be upheld. Certain cases involving festivals
or cultural manifestations, were sometimes involved by many voices such as the
Sultan, the state Islamic jurists, the state religious department and sometimes, by
political actors from the opposition bloc which had caused confusion to the people.
This stream seeks to clarify who permits, supervises or even prohibit certain cultural
manifestation so long they are align with Malaysia’s national culture.

Table 2.2 Previous literature on safeguarding national culture in Malaysia

Study Statements and Findings
(Wan • Studies the implementation of the National Cultural Policy
Norhasniah & • Identifies negative impacts arise among the non-Malay
Ong, 2013) communities from NCP
(Ruzaika Omar • Analyses the weaknesses of existing national guidelines
Basri et al., covering art and cultural activities such as the National
2016) Cultural Policy, National Heritage Art and National Art
Gallery.
• Develops a training model that can fit the new artistic and
formalistic approach, followed from the study’s in-depth
textual analysis on the above-mentioned guidelines.
(Chang, 2017) • Analyses the media role in national integration by
enhancing the process and disseminating government
policies

20
 • Discusses on the implementation of past policies and
emulation of 1Malaysia for national integration.
(Norshahril • Studies on the rising conservatism among Johor Malays
Saat, 2017) who prefer Muslims holding key leadership positions in
the state government.
• Examines the role of Islam, on governance and on the
Johor Sultan
(M. L. Ng & • Examines the agenda of Chinese cultural preservation and
Lee, 2018) nation-building within the context of ethnic relations and
national identity plays by the Malaysian Chinese language
newspaper, the Sin Chew Daily
(Ziegenhain, • Compares between Malaysia and Indonesia on the analysis
2018) of ways on how Islam plays its role in institutions through
the constitutions and how nation-building process was
directed by their political actors.
(Hardwick, • Examines the divergent ways in which administrative and
2020) local communities of practice implement ICH concept of
safeguarding in a highly charged political-religious field.

Taking McGarry and O’Leary ethnic strategies, Malaysia most fitted in the
category of ‘hegemonic control’. This strategy maximizes the dominant population of
the nation, hence in Malaysia, UMNO’s decades long administration in the federal
government whose main mission is to fight for the Malay struggle – the dominant
population in Malaysia. Therefore Malay-Islam values have been playing an integral
part in the implementation of the NCP as well as nation-building programs to construct
national culture and identity. The Malay-Islam values as accordance to the NCP, takes
the role as the binding factor to Malaysian unity, which of course, had caused
dissatisfaction from the non-Malay communities. Furthermore, when Article 121(A)
of the Federal Constitution was disputed by the non-Muslims, it has aggravated the
Muslims’ concerns. The Bar Council has proposed a forum on ‘embracing Islam’
which was taken as a measure of protecting the rights of the non-Muslims. The forum
had faced backlash and protests by the Muslims, which forced the event to end
prematurely. Wan Norhasniah and Ong emphasise more on the implementation of

21
Malay-Islamic values, however, touches very lightly on which institutions involved. It
is clear that, when it comes to the matters of religion disputes, not only that state
government will involve but also from the judiciary power of the federal government.
UMNO political leaders have shown that they do consider the voices of non-Muslim
communities however, time and time again UMNO when conflicts between Muslim
and non-Muslim occur, they would prioritize the Muslim communities. This fact albeit
obvious but lacks basis and causes that could contribute to the understanding of how
institutions decide to navigate their path.

Another effort that has been done by institutions apart from safeguarding
national culture is, they would promote the culture or locals’ arts nationally and
internationally. Since the field of arts are broad, one of which that has been promoted
abroad by the Malaysian government is visual arts. While appreciating local artists’
efforts to uphold the national culture, the promotion of local artwork would help to
generate the country’s economy through tourism. Institution that is mainly involved in
the appreciation of visual arts is Malaysian Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage
(Ruzaika Omar Basri et al., 2016), while understanding the institution roles and their
involvement, policies such as NCP, National Heritage Act and National Art Gallery
Act would be put in constant check within artists’ rights and privileges that the ministry
and Malaysian government as whole responsible of. The department that involves in
enhancing such work overseas is, Malaysian Technical Cooperation Program (MTCP)
which provides mediums for local artists to share, collaborate on their expertise with
other countries. Based on the effort done by the involved institution, a training model
was developed and suggested as a new artistic and formalistic approach to improve the
existing tradition exercised by the government (Ruzaika Omar Basri et al., 2016). It is
crucial to consider from the artists point of view, rather to retain with practices that are
less irrelevant to contemporary artistic views. However, Ruzaika did not include the
causal explanation of why those institutions and policies are exercised hitherto,
however making a comparison study with Hong Kong. Such comparison is excellent
and would be more fruitful if findings on the history of involved institutional changes
are being scrutinized to add on comprehensive elaborations on the weaknesses.

Living in a democratic country, it takes a collective effort from both formal

and informal institutions to safeguard the national culture. Governmental institutions

22
would disseminate messages or information on cultivating national culture and identity
through the mass media. One of the efforts towards constructing the national culture
and identity, is through the process of national integration among the multiethnic
society without taking away all the existing cultural identities that belong to their
ethnicities in Malaysia. During the premiership of Najib Razak, national program such
that 1Malaysia has primary aim towards achieving unity through accepting diversity
with tolerance and respect among different ethnic groups He even had included a
specific road map on promoting an all-inclusive 1Malaysia media. During his time, the
media reflects on reinforcement of diversity by catering specific topics through
specific language newspapers. For example, Tamil and Chinese papers cover on the
respective ethnicities’ diaspora, while Malay press tends to cover wide coverage of
Islamic countries and communities. The media role was crucial to disseminate the
message of 1Malaysia across the public and to advocate on unity by promoting cross-
cultural understanding, tolerance and acceptance of other ethnics, culture and religions
(Chang, 2017). Chang’s study covers the history of the role of media and press freedom
since 1970s until the premiership of Najib Razak. It covers policies on media
throughout the mentioned period which inadvertently offers an overview of how media
institution works under the Malaysian federal government. Though it would be useful
to refer on this overview, however it lacks on emphasizing clearly on the changes of
media policies alongside their causal events and reasons.

Malaysia has been allowing privatization of media companies and in the recent
rise of social media usage, more information are highly accessible to the public. The
only act that has been limiting the public speech is the sedition act which was
commenced in 1948 during colonial administration whose main objective to combat
spread of information by the communist. In this era, sedition act is still legislated and
upheld, especially when the content made challenges the royal institutions or touches
on the cultural sentiments that would cause dangerous conflicts or would prescribe in
threatening national security. There are also media presses that has good association
with the government, such as the Sin Chew Daily (SCD) newspaper. The press
continues to play a crucial role in supporting government policies such as the
promoting of ethnic relations and nation-building projects within Malaysia’s
multicultural community (M. L. Ng & Lee, 2018). Although SCD has been a loyal

23
supporter of the government policies, it has never neglected its role in preserving
Chinese culture.

The press has shown the example of able to cooperate with the hegemonic
nature of government, while expressing its freedom of preserving the Chinese
community identity. Ng & Lee have included in their study, the history of Chinese
language newspapers in Malaysia and nation-building programs and policies, one of
which was mentioned by them is NCP. Associating with the lopsided nature of NCP,
some of the performing arts and cultural activities that were banned in 1970s-1980s
were also included in Ng & Lee’s paper. It shows a comprehensive view of how SCD
plays its role to support national integration within the Chinese community in West
Malaysia particularly. However as stated by the authors, SCD has somehow failed to
incorporate more on issues of national identity. This could be due to its historical
inception of have been divisive along ethnic lines (M. L. Ng & Lee, 2018). This study
could be useful to examine on the media representing ethnic group to safeguard their
own cultural identity, but lack of explanation why media institutions, such as SCD,
fail to play as a catalytic role in building national identity.

With regards to the longitudinal study within specific period of time on the
policies of media and press freedom in Malaysia, has given more or less the democratic
situation in the country. Though Malaysia is known to be highly centralized in terms
of its administration if compared to other ASEAN countries, Malaysia is unique with
the existence of constitutional monarchy which possess by Sultans of nine states in
Malaysia. One of which that has been playing an active role with the state’s governance
is the Johor royal family. To what extent does ‘centralized’ really depicts the
administration of Malaysia or does the construction of national culture and identity is
allowed to be executed differently throughout the states? The role of a Sultan in a state
is to appoint members of the Islamic Religious Councils and the mufti. The council
and mufti’s role are to issue legal Islamic rulings, or fatwa (Norshahril Saat, 2017).
Since the fatwas are state based therefore this explains why does the banning of certain
cultural or art performances are inconsistent throughout Malaysia. For cultural
practices that are against Islamic teaching will be intervened first and foremostly by
the Islamic council and the royal court. Their cooperation is understood to be as one
institution as the head of the Council is the Sultan. Constitutionally, the Islamic council

24
must not advise at the expense of Sultan’s disapproval. If Islamic practices began to
overcome the Malay identity, the Sultan would intervene and raise his concern, as
observed in the case of Johor in 2016. The Johor Sultan expressed his fear concern
over rising Islamic conservatism among Malaysian Malays (Norshahril Saat, 2017).
He feared that Malays would lose their cultural identity by imitating the Arabs.

Apart from the state’s Islamic council, JAKIM would also play its part to
safeguard the Islamic ruling at the federal level. From Shahril’s study, it is found out
that political parties would also maximizes the reality of their voters’ concerns such
that the rise of conservatism among Malays Johor residents. Shahril’s findings provide
empirical data on public perception on the involved institutions to safeguard the
national identity or identity that matters to the public; however, it lacks explanation on
relation with the historical events alongside the policy implementation. Though the
study is clear and evident in the rise of conservatism among Malays, explanation on
the causes of the contemporary situation is much needed.

At this point, preserving national culture and identity operates at the federal
level but when it is conflicted with the Islamic rulings, each state must refer to the
Head of Religion and Malay customs, which is the Sultan and the state’s Islamic
council. Another institution that plays the role to safeguard culture at the international
level is The United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization
(UNESCO). UNESCO grants nation-based ownership of intangible cultural heritage
cultural practice or artform as “Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage
of Humanity (ICH)” of that nation. Malaysia has a total of 6 ICH masterpieces from
2008 to 2021 (ICH Website, 2021), including the controversial art performance “Mak
Yong” in 2008. Mak Yong was banned under the Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam
Se Malaysia, PAS)10 led Kelantan government since 1991, under the same law that
banned acts of vice such as prostitution and gambling (Hardwick, 2013; Khoo,
Tikamdas & Wong, 2003). The ban of Mak Yong was lifted in 2019 however under

10
Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam Se Malaysia, PAS) was founded in 1951. The party was
originally formed to champion Islamist ideology and envisioning the shariah law as the foundation for
legal system. The founding members were a group of religious scholars, many that came from UMNO.
PAS has a stable support base in the Malay-majority states such as Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.
In GE-14, PAS had chosen to contest alone. As of today, since August 2020 as a result of government
change, PAS has become one of the four pioneer parties of the National Alliance (Perikatan Nasional,
PN) coalition (Wan Jah, 2020).

25
the circumstance of obeying the Islamic rulings (Zurairi, 2019). Hardwick argues that
the issue circulating around Mak Yong’s ban have had a marginal effect on its
continued viability as a community-based art in Kelantan (Hardwick, 2020). In the
first decade of 2000s, UMNO and PAS had a constant political squabble on winning
the Malay voters in Kelantan. Both political parties had different standings on the issue
of Mak Yong where UMNO presented itself as an advocate of Malay cultural heritage
while PAS warrant its decision on banning Mak Yong to discourage polytheism as well
as to oppose few elements in the performance that are contrary to the Islamic rulings.
As Hardwick argues, “the conflict between PAS and UMNO meant that Mak Yong
became a highly charged political symbol that seemed to pit Malay ethnic nationalism
against Islamic fundamentalism” (Hardwick, 2020). This political conflict is
profoundly irony with regards to the content of NCP, as both the values of Malay and
Islam took a huge part of the policy as well as the depiction of Malaysian ‘national
culture’. As discussed previously, if a particular cultural practice is conflicted with the
Islamic ruling, the matter will be brought on state basis, hence only Kelantan had
banned the performance and other states are free to practice or perform Mak Yong.

The inscription of Mak Yong as Malaysia’s ICH is a clear proof that UNESCO
could play as an external arm of safeguarding the nation’s culture though was banned
at its home state in Kelantan. To make matters worse, UMNO used UNESCO
designation of Mak Yong to counter PAS justification on banning the cultural
performance. Hardwick’s study provides ample evidence of how the rift exist between
the state and the federal governments, as well as the ethno-religious politics could
affect the cultural practice itself. When various institutions are involved on retaining
certain cultural elements to suit their political definition of ‘appropriate’ or ‘suitable’
for the country (or state), it has impacted directly on the sustainability and originality
of the culture itself, such that impacted on Mak Yong.

Decline of seasoned dancers is steady as years of training are required to master

the art of Mak Yong hence only few young people are willing to commit to these
apprenticeships (ICH Website, 2018), adding up with the political intervention on its
viability. Other institutions involved that facilitate on Hardwick’s findings were
PUSAKA and ASWARA (Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan), the
National Art, Culture and Heritage Academy. After analyzing these two bodies, both

26
operate as the civil society organization (CSO). For the former, it safeguards and
strengthens the viability of traditions at the community level, while the latter, is an
academic institution that serves to strengthen arts, culture, and heritage of the
Malaysian communities through theoretical and practical means. Hardwick’s study
could benefit the current study especially on the relations between CSO, UNESCO and
the politicization of culture among political actors. However, it lacks categorizing and
outlining clearly on which institutions play the utmost importance to safeguard the
national culture according to the existing layers of constitution.

2.4 Impacts of the governmental implementation on the people and the civil
society organization

After government has implemented the NCP, it seems normal that the
Malaysian society would react towards the implementation. Depending on the
background and geography of the communities, that the impacts felt were varied across
those communities. Some could accept, understand, and act upon the implementation
and some have impacted negatively from the NCP due to underlying factors as studied
by the previous literature, see Table 2.3;

Table 2.3 Previous literature on impacts of the governmental implementation on the

people and the civil society organization
Study Statements and Findings
(Wan • Attempts to prove that the ultimate root cause of the ethnic
Norhasniah conflict in Malaysia is due to differences in cultural values
Wan Husin, • Analyses the conflicts through textual analysis, which
2012) includes analysis on impacts due to nation-building
activities.
(Adil Johan, • Discusses the implications impacted by Malay youth of the
2014) mid-1960s to early 1970s by the implementation of
cultural policies and conservative regimes.

27
 (Tan & • Traces the different trajectories charted by the Chinese
Kamarudin associations and the Peranakan Chinese in Terengganu in
Ngah, 2015) their efforts to maintain their cultural identity and
community.
• Examines Chinese associations in promoting Chinese
culture and identity.
(Farahanna • Argues the emerging patterns of Bangsa Malaysia in Time
Abd Razak et for a Tiger, which reflects the elements of unity among the
al., 2016) rich mixture of multi-ethnic characters.
• Discusses that the emerging patterns were through the
implementation of government policies, education, a
change of mindset and personal judgement, patriotism, and
the unifying role of the monarchy.
(Chang, 2017) • Studies how does the national-integration process affects
Malaysia and its people.
(Ziegenhain, • Observes the outcomes and impacts as the results of the
2018) nation-building processes among Muslim communities in
both countries
(Shahidi A.H. • Identifies the level of understanding of the island
et al., 2021) community in Malaysia on the National Culture Policy.
• Results from the study show that the island community
understand and accepts the National Cultural Policy.

At the inception of NCP, non-Malays especially the Chinese community had

perceived that the Malays were trying to eliminate their traditions through
implementing assimilation (Wan Norhasniah & Ong, 2013). Cultural differences and
understanding among ethnic groups could cause a friction, for example the idea of
liberty and freedom in religious practices differs between the Chinese and Malay
ethnic groups. As most Malays are Muslims, hence practicing the religion of Islam –
it is difficult for them to grasp the idea that every human was free to practice any
religion as they are all similar in the objectives to achieve goodness within mankind
(Lee Siow Meng, 1986). This concept of religion which in some ways conform with
‘pluralism’ is oppose to Islam. Muslims believe that religion is sacred, and al-Haq

28
(divine truth) should not be equated with any ideologies or beliefs that contradict its
teaching. This difference opens up possibilities that if non-Muslim communities are
oblivion towards this fact, might offend the Malay community. Conflicts exist among
Malay and non-Malay communities were due to the principle of defending the holiness
of religion (Wan Norhasniah & Ong, 2013). This study only focuses on reactions and
religious differences and sentiments which professes by the Muslim Malays and non-
Muslims on the implementation of Malay-Islamic values which centralize around the
gist of NCP. It lacks impacts in other forms of cultural manifestations such that do not
relate to religious practices only.

Impacts from the implementation does not only affect the harmony of
coexisting within multicultural society considering religion difference, but also other
forms of culture such as popular culture that came from the West. Popular culture or
widely known as pop culture, is a modern culture that is transmitted through mass
media and its targeted audience are youths. It encompasses broadly from practices,
beliefs, fashion, and music preferences. The aftermath of World War I had set a new
cultural wave which was popularly known as the roaring 20s in the United States,
where pop culture was originated from. Through globalization and the growth of mass
media, that pop culture had found its way around the world including the pacific region
where Malaysia was not excluded. Local artists in Malaysia had creatively found new
genres such as Malay rock & roll, and pop yeh yeh. Where the former was inspired by
Rock & Roll from the U.S. and the latter was inspired by the Beatles’ “She Loves
You” (The World, 2013).

Therefore, newly cultural favorites among the youths in mid 1960s to early
1970s, have received negative reactions from the authority as they were regarded as
‘foreign’, ‘un-Malay’ and ‘non-Islamic’. They were advertently demonized by the
ideological frame and the implementation of NCP (Adil Johan, 2014). Renown local
artists at the time, such as P. Ramlee and Zubir Said attended the National Cultural
Congress in 1971, to express their precursors on national culturalism while addressing
the rise of pop culture among the youths that possibly endangering Malay traditions.
Despite government’s attempt to disquieting pop yeh yeh and rock & roll, “youth
music remained predominantly commercial and government initiatives continued to
repress youth culture as indicated in the consequent banning of youth-music activities

29
and venues (Adil Johan, 2014). Adil’s study depicts the reality situation of the youths
and local artists due to popular culture before the drafting of National Culture Policy.
Above mentioned scholars such as (Wan Norhasniah Wan Husin, 2012; Chang, 2017;
Ziegenhain, 2018) have emphasised heavily on the affirmative actions post May 1969
riots, which include the NCP, while not considering the evolution factor of cultural
change due to globalization especially among the youth community which also poses
threat to the ‘asli’ (indigenous) culture. Reconciliation from film industries and music
as an act to express or defend pop culture were mentioned by Adil, however there was
no mention of any other organizations such that CSO to defend freedom of expression
against the banning of youth activities. The study only focuses on pre and post
implementation of NCP and lacks impacts on other popular cultures that emerged after
rock & roll and pop yeh yeh.

As mentioned previously from Wan Norhasniah’s study, after the inception of

NCP, it had caused dissatisfaction on minor ethnic groups especially from the Chinese
community. The government at the state and federal levels allow other ethnic groups
to practice their own custom and religion, as accordance to the federal constitution.
The Chinese community has active CSOs that represent and aims to preserve their
cultural identity. In this case, Peranakan Chinese located in the East coast peninsular
– the region that has been dominated by PAS-led government for years – was not
excluded from receiving support from the association. Examples of Chinese
associations that are well known among the Chinese community are Terengganu
Chinese Assembly Hall and the Terengganu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. There are in fact many more associations including groups that aim to
safeguard the interests of the various dialect groups such as Hokkien, Hainan, and Nam
Ann (Tan & Kamarudin Ngah, 2015).

There are also Chinese school alumni associations, which support the
sustainability of Mandarin-medium primary school and National-type Chinese School,
both are in Kuala Terengganu. Political party also takes part in intervening with the
state government for the purpose of Chinese cultural preservation and obtaining state
fund is the Malaysian Chinese Asssociation (MCA) – one of the three main parties of
the coalition party Barisan Nasional (BN). However, Kampung Baru Cina which
reflects the Peranakan Chinese community was not enthusiastically exploited by the

30
Chinese associations which have somehow contributed to the dissipation of Peranakan
culture at the area (Tan & Kamarudin Ngah, 2015). Peranakan Chinese originated from
their early ancestral migration at the East Coast region which took place in the period
before 19th century. The community formed as the products of acculturation through
more than two centuries of intermarriage and sociocultural interactions mainly with
the local Malays. Since they have been settling within the majority Malay community
and is far apart from the urban areas – where most of the Chinese community settles –
they have acculturated a part of their daily lives with the Malay customs such as food,
language, and dresses, while retaining their ancestral belief and religious practices.
The Peranakan Chinese is currently facing a decline in their culture as the younger
generation are provided with easier access to urban areas, to attend Mandarin speaking
schools and have mingle with the Chinese community. Although, by years, the
community is getting smaller, it is remarkable to note that with lack of external support
that the community itself able to sustain for two centuries.

As for the impacts of Islamisation by PAS and UMNO state programs on Sino-
Malay relations in the Terengganu state, it was due to the Chinese leaders’
understanding of Islamic practices that they are able to sustain the peaceful
coexistence. This study conducted by Tan Yao and Kamarudin (2015), is very practical
to refer for CSOs that represent Chinese community and how the Peranakan Chinese
in specific, have attempted by themselves to safeguard their own culture. According
to the authors, “the continued determination to maintain a distinctive culture and
celebrate their Chinese identity is partly in response to Malaysian national culture
being largely synonymous with Malayness and Islam”. Hence, we could say that the
impact of NCP on the Chinese community particularly in Terengganu and possible the
whole Malaysia, is to preserve their own cultural identity rather to acculturate or
assimilate into the Malay culture. The authors have written great evidence with regards
to the impacts however, one perspective that Tan and Kamarudin fail to address is the
explanation of how does CSOs sustain on its path dependence in the Terengganu state.

There are various aspects that the people could have impacted from the
implementation of the nation-building programs. Studying or producing literature or
artwork, as a response towards socio-cultural change or contemporary situation is a
common reflection that has been done among academicians, local artists and laymen

31
alike. An interpretation on Anthony Burgess’ “Time for a Tiger” was analysed to
reflect on the emerging patterns of Bangsa Malaysia. “Time for a Tiger” was published
premature independence period, three decades before the introduction of Mahathir’s
Vision 2020 in 1991. Burgess had overseen the formation of Bangsa Malaysia
describing the unity and tolerance of the multicultural society in his book. The book
features four main characters. the history teacher, and the other three friends who each
came from the major ethnic group of the Malayan Peninsular. The fictional story sets
mainly at an elite school namely, the Mansor School. Farahanna (2016) who has
studied Burgess’ work by adopting hermeneutic approach attempts to fill the void of
the essence of Bangsa Malaysia into the current atmosphere of Malaysian’
multicultural society. She described that the Bangsa Malaysia – that Malaysians are
attempting to strive currently – seemingly plausible through the implementation of
government’s policies, education as a medium for national integration, individuals’
change of mindset and judgment towards achieving tolerance while coexisting,
patriotism as an identity of Bangsa Malaysia and the unifying factor of the monarchy
(Farahanna Abd Razak et al., 2016). Mind that this image is premature of that Bangsa
Malaysia’s officiation, in fact overlapping and stays relevant to this day.

There are other local artists work published or filmed as a response to the
impacts of Malaysia’s implementation of Bangsa Malaysia alongside the idea of
constructing national culture and identity from the perspective of the people, such as,
Yasmin Ahmad’s movies “Sepet”, “Gubra”, “Muallaf”, “Talentime” – all are
depictions of social cohesion amid Bangsa Malaysia’s imagination. Farahanna’s
response to interpret Burgess’ is no different to Yasmin Ahmad’s films to disseminate
message of national unity from the bottom-up perspective. These reactions are parallel
to the rakyat’s (people’s) paradigm as argued by Abdul Rahman Embong (2014).
Rakyat paradigm is beyond the academic imperatives, where trans-racial perspective
embraces the inclusiveness of Malays and non-Malays while working as a mobilizing
force towards realizing Malaysia’s dream of national unity and social cohesion (Abdul
Rahman Embong, 2014). This dream is observable from the works of local artists and
interpretation of literary works such that of Farahanna’s. However, Farahanna’s study
lacks consideration of the hegemony ideology that has been entrenched in Malaysia’s
administration for decades. A disjuncture exists between the rakyat paradigm and the

32
ideals of NCP has remained disconnected, hence the continued discourse on the
matters of national culture, identity and NCP itself.

While Malaysians expressing themselves creatively through the glasses of

rakyat paradigm as a response to their understanding of national culture and unity,
there are certain people who express publicly through mass media from the glasses of
racial paradigm. It could be potentially harmful when racial paradigm has become an
embodiment of individuals, due to the embedded ethnic categorization and
dissatisfaction towards its implementation. As discussed earlier in the second stream,
from Chang’s study on the media role as part of the working institution that
disseminate the information on nation-building programs, the study also included on
the impacts towards people from that particular role. As previously mentioned, former
PM Najib Razak maximizes the use of media by customizing information through
different language newspapers, this approach does enhance unity intra-ethnic however
questionable whether it could transcend the social cohesion. Change stated,

“..when some of the reporting and writing becomes too ethno-centric or even
takes on a more race-centered angle, then it will raise, rather than break down
barriers. Thus, rather than promoting understanding and unity, it may have the
opposite effect and impact.” (Chang, 2017)

It turned that the Government Transformation Program (GTP) Roadmap by Najib

Razah, which had been disseminated through media received lukewarm acceptance by
the people. It has not impacted much in participation, neither surging nationalism
among Malaysians collectively. Since Chang’s study focuses on the impacts from
media during Najib Razak’s premiership, the situation could not get any worse when
the news of 1MDB broke out in the public in 2015. The platform that was used
extensively by Najib Razak as a tool for national integration, has turned into his worst
nightmare where upon the disclosure, few media outlets were blocked, and a journalist
received violent threats on social media. This has created another impact which
capsized the initial intention of the GTP roadmap and has evident the lack of press
freedom in the country. As mentioned, impacts could be seen in any forms due to the
nation-building programs, while Chang has revealed a deeper perspective on how the
impacts from media intervention could change the course of politics and other policies

33
such as freedom press. However, the study has created a gap on addressing the blurred
line between media institutions and the nation-building programs because of the strong
political involvement in the media roles.

As the government continue to uphold NCP, asserting the Malay-Islamic

values to the people, it is crucial to know what Malaysians actually think of the current
situation and what does the future holds for them as members of the nation. Since
Mahathir’s premiership from 1981 till 2003, Malaysia has witnessed a drastic Islamic
nation-building programs which were incorporated in Mahathir’s policies (Ziegenhain,
2018). The pro-bumiputra continues to flourish in UMNO’s policies in respect to the
Constitution, it has led to a slow and cautious state-led Islamization (Ufen, 2009;
Ziegenheim, 2018). Even the growth of PAS in the political mainstream has attained
a level of maturity and sophistication that able to challenge the incumbent party at the
time. The UMNO-PAS political conflict had led to a competition between the two on
who was more Islamic. Since parties who are operating in a democratic country
commonly strive for the majority support, it seemed that at the time of Mahathir’s
premiership Islam consciousness among the Malay Muslims have raised. To study the
relevance of this notion, Ziegenheim took a number of data from Merdeka Center for
Opinion Research 2010, specifically on the opinion polls from the people’s
perspective. In his research, he stated that 48 percent of respondents believe that
Malaysia has becoming more united over time, whereas 43 percent stated that the
country is more divisive than previously.

As for identification, nearly half of Malaysians have identified themselves as

members of their ethnic group rather as members of the nation. With regards to the
Islamic values that have been implemented by the government, 43 percent of Malays
wished for a more Islamic country while none of the Chinese or Indians hoped for the
same aspiration. Instead, the Chinese and Indian respondents hoped that all cultures
and religions will be given equal rights. The data that was analysed by Ziegenheim in
relation to the implementation of Islam in the Malaysia’s nation-building programs, is
relevant to analyse on the impacts post-Mahathir’s premiership but not for the recent
development in Malaysia. There are few watersheds occurred since 2015 until post-
COVID19 era, that could potentially change the perspective of Malaysians and may
have impacted the people in new ways.

34
 Actually, there are exist the latest findings on the level of understanding and
awareness on nation-building programs as well as on the content of NCP. However,
these findings were collected among the Malaysian communities of islanders only. The
selected islands were the Federal Labuan Island, Pangkor Island, Tioman Island,
Redang Island and Langkawi Island (Shahidi A.H. et al., 2021). Ethnic communities
that have responded to the study were Malays, Chinese, Indians and ‘others’ which
constitutes of the indigenous people of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular. Variables such
as age, gender, religion, and occupation were also considered for the study. In general,
the dominant population in those Islands were Malays, 80.1 percent followed by
Indians, 9.3 percent then Chinese, 2.7 percent and lastly ‘Others’, 7.9 percent. Among
the ethnic groups, the Malays have highest percentage of grasping the NCP followed
by ‘Others’, Indians and lastly Chinese.

The inferences came out as a result from the findings was, it is comprehensible
how race and religion play as the significant elements when discussing on the polemic
of national culture. The two elements are very sensitive when it comes to issues related
to social cohesion and peace. Shahidi concluded the findings by including the
historical background that has contributed to the current situation, which was the
‘Divide and Rule’ policy by the British and emphasizing on factors that could enhance
the level of understanding on NCP which could obtain through tolerance and national
education besides coexisting (Shahidi A.H. et al., 2021). The study lacks correlation
between variables and there was no comparison made between findings on Islands
with the most recent literature or data collected from the two main lands; the Peninsular
and, the Sabah and Sarawak. In the premise of the study, Shahidi did mention briefly
on the wake of Fourth Industrial Revolution and how it could affect the Malaysians’
understanding on national culture amid the contemporary setting. However, Shahidi
did not provide enough literature on factors that might contribute to those changes.

2.5 Preliminary Findings

A total of twenty previous research papers and books altogether were reviewed
for this chapter. All categorized based on the three streams, where gaps and disjuncture

35
have been identified. There are findings and statements from the research that could
be benefitted for certain parts of this research, as elaborated in each paragraph of the
literature. Future contributions from the identified gaps and disjuncture respective to
each stream, have been identified as follow:

2.5.1 Expected findings for Stream 1

Previous work were selected based on the implementation of nation-building

programs to construct national culture. A similar pattern has been identified from all
the papers which, they studied on theory of hegemonic control and accommodative
approach which UMNO has been implementing since the independence. Only one
paper stated that UMNO had implemented soft-assimilationist approach before 1990s,
which this fact remain consistent for this stream – as the rest of other papers might not
focus on the area – and it has added to the detailed perspective on steps taken by
UMNO in order to manage ethnic diversity in Malaysia. Since the dominant party has
proven to be strong and highly centralized, hence previous scholars suggested actions
that could be implemented from the grassroot level instead, meaning, the people could
focus on the ‘rakyat paradigm’. However, for this research, instead of focusing either
from authoritative perspective or from bottom-up perspective, it would like to offer
another perspective which is the third-party perspective. The third-party perspective
seeks to understand and comprehend on formal institutions to persist on safeguarding
national culture in ways that things have been functioning now. This perspective would
observe how does the government, the CSOs and the people – all in their positions
functioning as an embodiment of a nation-state to manifest or identify themselves in
their understanding of national culture and identity.

2.5.2 Expected findings for Stream 2

From the previous work reviewed, various mediums and institutions have
involved to safeguard national culture. They were all varied from ethnic associations
either linked directly or indirectly with governmental bodies, to participation by the
royal institutions. Media streams and statutory bodies have also been actively

36
participating in the efforts to safeguard national culture. Since Malaysia has been
practicing accommodative approach while persists to holding on to the written
principles of national culture, hence the country should anticipate conflicts that occur
between states. It is interesting to note that from reviewing the selected previous
studies, it is identified that the cause of these conflicts was partly due to their different
execution and implementation of safeguarding national culture from each state.
Sometimes, the state’s intervention to safeguard national culture might oppose with
the federal’s implementation nationwide. This is evident from the case of banning the
traditional performing arts, Mak Yong at Kelantan. However, at the federal level, the
same traditional art performance was voluntarily registered by the government under
the ICH nomination of UNESCO. Reviewing this particular case, and the other
unstandardized interventions taken by different states or mediums, have shown the
obscurity of how formal institutions in Malaysia function to manifest such national
culture that was defined 51 years ago. It is understood that each state has its own
traditional culture hence, it would be guarded under the surveillance of the state’s
authority.

However, if there exists a clear contrast in the outcome as a result from the
different interventions between the state and federal authorities, the outcome itself
would defeat the sole purpose of national culture which is to unite the nation regardless
of ethnicity and religion. Therefore, this study seeks to provide a clear historical and
political understanding of ‘how’ and ‘why’ the involved institutions intervene in such
ways, while remain consistent with the objective to safeguard the national culture from
the institutions’ motivation. In other words, the questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’ in the
context of this stream, is referring to the causal inference between the interventions by
the authorities and the results which influenced by it.

2.5.3 Expected findings for Stream 3

As evident from the reviewed literature, the impacts shown by the people and
CSOs’ representation were broad. Although the previous work gathered were
specifically selected due to one motive, which was to safeguard national culture
however the impacts were varied across ethnic groups while considering cultural

37
change due to globalization. There is one previous work that mentioned the reaction
of youths from implementation of national culture that was motivated by the rise of
mass culture post World War period. While many have often linked the motivation of
national culture policy due to the racial riot. This study does not negate the latter
argument, as the riot is an inevitable reality that many have tried to avoid from it to
reoccur.

Apart from the rise of mass culture due to globalization, other factors that
contribute to the negative impacts displayed by the people were due to difference in
religion meaning, the national culture itself stresses heavily in preserving the Malay
and Islamic values hence other ethnic groups that have different sentiments have
reacted differently from the implementation. There were also impacts on journalists
and the people which was studied by previous researcher on media roles in spreading
news of achieving unity in diversity, such in the case of 1Malaysia.

It is observable that each study touched on one or few types of impacts,

meaning each does not compile or covering impacts from various levels of the
Malaysian communities. Therefore, this study will touch few branches of cultural
manifestation such as art performance, cultural festivals and literature only, across
different states. It is important to analyse these impacts in various aspects because
cultural practices engulf broad fields and forms especially in Malaysian demography.
It remains obscure whether each intervention or implementation differ by aspects of
culture, hence might only impact different communities.

2.6 Conclusion

From all the three streams, gaps from previous literature and future
contributions for this study have been explained in each respective stream. Although
there were not many studies that specifically focus on the implementation of NCP from
the past 10 years, there are still many to look through from which have studied on
efforts and programs serve to safeguard national culture in Malaysia and impacts from
the implementations. Among those, only few were selected that are deemed fit with
the objectives of this research. For the first stream, this study takes interest to provide

38
third-party perspective which observes the government, CSOs and the people – all in
their own roles towards developing and safeguarding national culture, alongside the
impacts. After which the third-party perspective has been established by considering
evidence from all sides, this study would proceed to analyzing the causal inferences of
such intervention and efforts done by the mentioned parties. Lastly, the causal
inferences would link with outcomes that cover for three aspects of culture only, which
are performing arts, cultural festivals and literature.

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 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction.

This chapter outlines the methodology of conducting this research and provides
explanation on the research design, operational definitions and data analysis. This
study focuses on institutional changes, interventions and outcomes that influenced by
the former and latter variables, in the context of Malaysian government. Therefore,
research method that is going to be adopted for this study is by process-tracing method
in the perspective of historical institutionalism.

3.2 Research Design and Research Method

Under this section, historical institutionalism approach and process tracing will
be explained in 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 respectively. In each of the approach and method,
theoretical concept and its practice will be elaborated as well.

3.2.1 Historical institutionalism Approach

This study uses historical institutionalism (HI) approach to analyse the

institutional changes from historical perspective in the execution of national culture
policy in Malaysia. HI is an approach or framework which perceives the operation of

40
a system as a stable process, strictly continuous from the existing design showing a
constant path unless a major change occur, i.e., Critical juncture (Tsai & Liao, 2021).
The origin of institutions and the history of a governing body are treated as the
independent variable, while observing the roles, functions, and development of the
instructions as an outcome of the analysis (Steinmo, 2008). HI immensely depends on
the historical investigation on institutions and actors involved which contribute to
certain outcomes. How the outcomes came to being can be understood or theorized by
analyzing the causal mechanisms, which can be examined by the process tracing
method. Path dependence is a path that is existing and shall not be changed unless a
puncture or critical juncture occurs. Critical junctures only occurred exogenous of the
institutions. Meaning, they are events that happened outside or beyond the control of
the institutions. It forces the institutions’ decisions prior to the changes.

3.2.2 Process-tracing

Process-tracing is a research method that uses within-case empirical analysis,

to trace causal mechanism (Beach, 2017). Process tracing method able to describe
political and social phenomena, and to investigate causal claims. The term ‘causal
mechanism’ will be further elaborated in subsection 3.2.3. One of the earliest
definitions on process-tracing was provided by Alexander George and Timothy
McKeown (1985). They argued that process-tracing method does not solely rely on
comparison across variety of variables in each case but also “investigates(s) and
explains(s) the decision process by which various initial conditions are translated into
outcomes,” (George & McKeown, 1985:35). Hence as defined, the method is stemmed
in the tradition of methodological individualism. It investigates the micro-foundations
of individual behavior that connects hypothesizes causes and outcomes, and to
minimize the hindrances associated with unobserved contextual variables (Falleti,
2006). In later years, Alexander George and Andrew Bennett (2005:206) have defined
process tracing as the “method attempts to identify the intervening causal process,
between an independent variable(s) and the outcome of the dependent variable.”
Process tracing identifies the mechanism which connects the causes and effects.

41
 According to Collier (2011), the approach is distinctive in three ways which
are, i) Process Tracing vis-à-vis causal-process observation (CPO)s, ii) Description,
and iii) Sequence. The first distinction which is, process tracing vis-à-vis CPOs, where
the idea of CPO highlights and contrasts between empirical foundation of qualitative
research and the data matrices analysed by quantitative researchers, which may be
called data-set observations (DSOs). Second distinction which is description, means
process tracing takes careful description as the foundation of its approach (Mahoney,
2010: 125-31). Process tracing inherently analyses trajectories of change and
causation, but the analysis is failed when the observed situation at each step in the
trajectory has not been sufficiently described. Lastly for the third distinction which is
sequence, where process tracing pays close deliberation to sequences of independent,
dependent and intervening variables (Mahoney, 2010: 125-31).

To apply process-tracing approach, researcher must have prior knowledge to

establish a given piece of evidence that should serve as the basis for descriptive and
causal inference (Collier, 2011). However, with all the three distinctions mentioned
above, the boundary between qualitative and quantitative should not be rigid in the
pursuit of multi-method research (Collier, Brady & Seawright, 2010a; Collier, 2011).
Therefore, to fulfil the objectives within the scope and capacity of this study, it shall
focus heavily on qualitative research especially in regard to description and sequence
along the historical timeline on the implementation of policies to safeguard the national
culture and identity in Malaysia. In probing process-tracing for all the selected primary
and secondary sources, this study will pay close deliberation on the causal mechanism
that occur in institutions. Both of these concepts have also been applied by (Fadilah &
Aminuddin, 2022), where authors use HI to include the institution as the unit of
analysis while combining the process tracing to provide explanation which involve
actors, institutions, dynamics and results. However, this combined approach used by
Fadilah and Aminuddin was focusing on trend improvement in social policy and its
relation to democratization, alongside comparisons among selected SEA countries. As
this study also highlights on the different policy implementations by states, but it shall
not conduct comparative politics as Malaysia embodies a highly centralized
administration. Therefore, this study focuses only on the causal mechanism – as stated
in the third objective of this study – within the context of HI to seek understanding on
the federal government’s decision to change their policy.

42
3.2.3 Causal mechanism

In regard to the previous subsection, it can be understood that causal

mechanism lies between an independent variable(s) and the outcome. Alexander
George and Andrew Bennet (2005: 137) have defined causal mechanisms are
“ultimately unobservable physical, social, or psychological processes through which
agents with causal capacities operate, but only in specific contexts or conditions, to
transfer energy information, or matter to other entities.” Shaffer (2014) argued that
there is no clear consensus in the literature on what definitively composites a
mechanism, which such idea does correspond to George and Bennet’s (2005)
statement. It is evident by previous scholars that this concept can sometimes be
confusing or obscure. However, there is an intuitive way to comprehend causal
mechanism as accordance to Beach and Pedersen (2013) interpretation through the
‘black box’ analogy which commonly used in international development (Punton &
Welle, 2015: 3). Many impact evaluation designs focus to verify activities that occur
at (A) and attempting to verify the expected impact (B). However, this evaluation does
not shed light on ‘how’ and ‘why’ the intervention led to a specific outcome. Hence,
this obscurity is a black box between the intervention and outcome, as illustrates by
Punton and Welle (Figure 3).

Intervention ??? Outcome B

A

Figure 3.1 The black box in impact evaluation (Punton & Welle, 2015)

Causal mechanism can be understood as a ‘force’ or a ‘power’, the thing that

causes the intervention A to give rise to outcome B (Beach & Pederson, 2013; Punton
& Welle, 2015: 3). As described by Beach and Pederson, mechanisms are comprised
of ‘parts’ (for example, people, organizations, systems – nouns) that engage in
‘activities’ (for example, protesting, researching, campaigning – verbs) (Punton &
Welle, 2015:3). Therefore, adopting this concept into the objectives of this study,
causal mechanism can be identified by analyzing the ‘parts’ which are federal
government, state government, royal institutions and civil societies that play the role

43
in conducting the ‘activities’ such that it influences the present outcomes which shape
national culture and identity of this country. Detailed study is required to analyse
thoroughly the sources that involved by the ‘parts’ and ‘activities’ mentioned, to seek
understanding on causal mechanism for national culture policy.

3.3 Operational Definition

This section covers definition of two terms that will be mentioned and used
prevalently along the course of this research. The two terms are national culture and
institutions. Operational definition of each term is crucial as both terms might deliver
different interpretations when understood in different context and understanding.

3.3.1 National Culture

The origin of the word ‘culture’ came from a Latin word, ‘colere’ means
cultivate, which originally stems from agricultural context and later was used by
Cicero to refer to philosophy. For centuries, the word culture meant producing or
developing, for example – “the culture of barley” or “the culture of bacteria” (Jahoda,
2012). Only in 18th century France that the definition of culture began to deliver the
sense of educating or refinement of the mind or taste. Meaning that if a person is
deemed to be ‘cultured’ it gives a connotation that the person has qualities of an
educated person. Jahoda further elaborates that around the same period, the word has
started to associate with civilization to describe the qualities of a person should acquire
to function as a member of a society. In Kroeber and Kluckhohn’s (1952) monograph,
culture embodies the patterns and behaviors of human groups transmitted by symbols,
alongside their distinctive achievement including their tangible forms such as artefacts;
their essence of culture would be the traditional ideas and attached values; a culture
system is a product of action and conditioning elements of further action. Culture has
become polysemous for a long time and delivers broad manifestations. It does not only
embody such that of tribes, ethnic groups in the field of anthropology but also in social
organizations and managements. For this research, culture would always be referred
to the former context, which the according to Oxford is, “the customs and beliefs, art,

44
way of life and social organization of a particular country or group,” (Oxford
University Press, 2022a).

In Malaysia, cultures exist are distinctive by ethnic groups. Malaysians could

categorize cultural practices, food, and language with respect to their cultural origin.
Despite for its diversity, Malaysian society has proven that they could maintain peace
and practice tolerance for six decades to date. The largest group of Malaysians consist
of three main races, namely the Malays, Chinese and Indians; three major groups of
Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia, namely the Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay; the
state of Sabah consists of 32 ethnic groups and the state of Sarawak consists of 27
ethnic groups (Department of Information, 2017). Which makes a total of 65 ethnic
groups just in Malaysia. Each ethnic group embodies its own culture. Although cultural
distinction by ethnic is very apparent in this country, however, there are certain
cultures formed or exist during colonial and post-colonial period. Taking into
consideration that cultures do evolve, hence not all cultures that are currently present
in Malaysia came from native origins, for example, Baba Nyonya culture and
Chinggay celebration. Religion also plays a huge role in certain ethnic groups,
especially in Malaysia. The majority ethnic group of the country is Malay and
according to the constitution, ‘Malay’ means:

“a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay
language, conforms to Malay custom …” (Laws of Malaysia, 2009)

Islam is also the religion of the Federation, but other religions may be practiced in
peace and harmony in any part of the Federation. Celebrations and cultural festivals
from other ethnic groups are also allowed as long as they are aligned with the
constitution (Laws of Malaysia, 2009), under Part III - Fundamental Liberties, Article
11 - Freedom of Religion, (1) & (3) :

(1) Every person has the right to profess and practice his religion and,
subject to Clause (4), to propagate it.
(3) Every religious group has the right –
(a) to manage its own religion affairs;

45
 (b) to establish and maintain institutions for religious or charitable
purposes; and
(c) to acquire and own property and hold and administer it in
accordance with law.

As the word ‘national’ means, “connected with a particular nation; shared by a

whole nation,” (Oxford University Press, 2022b), therefore when it is put together with
‘culture’ to form the term ‘national culture’ it gives a technical meaning of “a culture
that is shared by a whole nation.” A more comprehensive definition as written by (IGI
Global, n.d.), national culture is “the norms, behaviors, beliefs, customs, and values
shared by the population of a sovereign nation. It refers to specific characteristics such
as language, religion, ethnic and racial identity, cultural history, and traditions.” Note
that, this research will not mix or confused with a well-established theory of national
culture by Hofstede, which is only adaptive to organizational culture referring to
‘Hofstede model of six dimensions of national cultures’ (Hofstede, 2011).

National culture with regards to the former context, serves as practices which
reflect to national identity. For countries that are ethnically homogenous like Japan
and Korea, would be simpler to grasp the idea of national culture or to identify their
national identity. Countries that are ethnically diverse, can’t simply forgo this idea,
especially countries which inherit unpleasant inter-ethnic history or countries that
practice racial politics. Some countries, like Canada, flaunts the liberty and colourful
multicultural society affirming there is no single national culture (Nicholson, Krueger,
& Hall, n.d.), although ancestral culture of the native aborigines still exist, meaning all
culture were given equal spotlight and freedom. This is the same case as Canada’s
neighboring country, the American Indians of the United States. Where the latter were
forced to assimilate since the dawn of colonization and a century after, political
conquest which caused them to suffer structural inequalities (Britannica, n.d.). Western
democratic liberal countries do not highlight specific ethnicity or region to identify
national culture for themselves, not even the aborigines and the native community of
that country. Other democratic countries that were colonized and have gained their
independence do not necessarily follow the steps of the western democratic countries
to identify or outline their very own ‘national culture’. As for Malaysia, the description
of national culture for the country has been outlined in 1971:

46
 1) The national culture must be based on the indigenous culture of this region
(Malay Civilization).
2) Suitable elements from the other culture may be accepted as part of the
national culture. (accordance to Constitution and Rukun Negara)
3) Islam is an important component in the formulation of the national culture.
(its position as the official religion of the country)

Different from the western liberal democratic countries, where all culture can be
practiced equally, Malaysia takes pride from its historical root of the land and
neighboring region to associate with the country’s national culture.

3.3.2 Institutions

The word institution has various meanings covering from buildings to

structural systems. There are two meanings of institutions that are closest and the most
appropriate to use for the context of this research as accordance to Oxford Learner’s
Dictionary, they are (i) a large important organization that has a particular purpose, for
example a university or bank, (ii) a custom or system that has existed for a long time
among a particular group of people (Oxford University Press, 2022). With regards to
the two meanings and putting them in lexical perspective, institutions from the context
of this research refer to: (i) the organizations that implement nation-building programs
to construct national culture, (ii) customs or systems among governmental bodies
which exercise power to construct or safeguard national culture as accordance to the
Malaysia’s Federal laws and state laws. On the surface, the two applications are still
ambiguous thus elaborations in its definitions by social scientists and structure of
institutions will be explained further in the next paragraph.

Every country has its unique form of institutions that its formation is highly
influenced by the country’s history of sovereign state establishment. According to
Malinowski definition of institution, it is “a group of people united by common
interest, endowed by material equipment, following rules of their tradition or
agreement and contributing to the work of culture as a whole.” While Bertrand defines

47
institution as, “system of social relationships for meeting various of human needs.” At
this stage, it is understood that institution carries the structure of social order that caters
to the citizens’ needs. The sociological significance of social institutions is that such
institutions “provide the structure within which we live our lives” (Henslin, 2007: 407-
9). In the U.S, sociologists classify social institutions as primary and secondary. The
primary institutions are the economy, the political system, and the military
establishment. According to the conflict theory originated by Karl Marx, the primary
refers to the ‘bourgeoisie’ – the owners of capital – which who dominates the society.
As for the secondary institutions, it comprises of family, education, religion, sports,
medicine, law, science, and the mass media. The secondary institutions are secondary
in power and exist to serve the primary ones. This categorization is highly inspired by
the capitalism that embodies a democratic country. The institutions, especially the
secondary ones, are to fulfill the needs of society in order to function as human capitals
that able roll out profit for the operation, or may be greed, of the primary ones.

Institutions can also be classified by formal and informal. North (1990) argues
that institutions are different from organizations. Institutions are the formal and
informal rules and norms that organise the social, political and economic relations
(North, 1990). Formal institutions are written rules which comprise of country’s
constitution, laws, policies and regulations that exercise by the official authorities.
While informal institutions are usually the unwritten rules, those of social norms,
culture, or religion that shape the minds and behavior of the society (Leftwich & Sen,
2010; Berman, 2013). Organizations are developed by institutions and in turn, would
influence the institutional changes. Some social scientists perceive organizations as
the material manifestations of institutions (North, 1990; Harper et al., 2012). This
research would best adopt North’s definition of institution but with a slight adjustment.
Therefore, referring to the usage of the word ‘institution’ from the first objective of
this research which, to analyse institutions’ roles in developing national culture as part
of nation-building program through the implementation of national cultural policy,
represents the embodiment of the formal rules, this includes both the authorities and
the rules itself. ‘Formal rules’ from the interests of this research would be primarily
referring to national culture policy and, other policies and laws that are incorporated
to achieve the objectives of constructing national culture. The embodiment of these
formal rules is as represented below,

48
 Institution (Formal)

Authorities: Written rules:

1. Supreme leader 1. Laws
2. Government bodies; 2. Regulations
Ministries and 3. Policies
Political actors implement
3. Statutory body,
agency, organization
and council

Figure 3.3 Formal institutions adapted from North’s (1990) definition.

Making sense of the first objective specifically on the “institutions’ roles…” referring
to the authorities’ roles in implementing the specific written rules within the scope of
the preferred institution. In Malaysia, considering the history of its sovereign
establishment, the authorities are divided into Federal and state government. Each has
its own written rules, however federal written rules encompass the whole nation except
for Sharia law they are under the direct endorsement from the Sultan or Yang di-
Pertuan Besar, which applies to the 9 states (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Perak,
Perlis, Selangor, Terengganu and Negeri Sembilan). Since this research is only
interested in the implementation of NCP and efforts to safeguard national culture,
therefore discussion on written rules will not incline heavily towards the detailed
judiciary perspective. The main focus of written rules for this research are NCP and
other policies or laws that implemented to safeguard national culture. Below are the
formal institutions that will be the focus of this research;

49
 Formal institutions that are responsible on
safeguarding national culture

Federal authorities: State authorities:

1. Yang di-Pertuan 1. Yang di-Pertuan Besar
Agong or Sultan
2. Parliament 2. State legislative
3. MOTAC assemblies
4. National Visual Arts centralization 3. State Islamic
Gallery, ASWARA Religious Council
and CENDANA. (SIRC)
4. State’s heritage
foundation

Written rules: Written rules: Written rules:

1. Federal Laws 1. Federal 1. Sharia Laws
2. NCP constitution 2. State Laws
2. National
principles

Figure 3.4 Malaysian formal institutions adapted from North’s (1990) definition.

The Malaysia’s supreme law is the Federal constitution that establishes the rights and
powers of the federation as well as the citizens. The national principles, which act as
the national ideology should standardize across nation. Although the Head of Religion
and his SIRC, could rule out the sharia law separately, it should also act accordance
and under the advice of the federal government.

3.3.3 Historical Institutionalism

Historical institutionalism (HI) as stated in the title of this research, refers to

the implication of institutions throughout the history of Malaysia. It is common that
HI has been used as approach and, neither being understood as a theory nor as a

50
technical method. For this research, it should be stressed that HI as stated in the title
does not refer to a technical method but a perspective which is historical based. The
word ‘institutionalism’ refers to its emphasis on the actions, actors, implications,
factors, events, function of the studied institutions involved.

3.4 Data Sources

Sources will be collected from primary and secondary sources that are
available from national archive center, libraries, and legitimate online resources. The
targeted primary sources are policies written by Malaysian government, which are
easily accessible from the website of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Documents and
speeches by ministers and politicians, also could be accessed from PMO’s website,
libraries, or national archive center. Sources will not only be extracted from national
scope but also, from international scope as a result of Malaysia’s international relation
with inter-governmental bodies to seek peace, establishment, and security by the
support of the bodies themselves and from other countries. As such, documents from
the United Nations, and specifically from its specialized agency, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

3.4 Data Analysis

After sources have been collected, they will be categorized according to five
periods, i) 1971 – 1990, ii) 1991 – 2008, iii) 2009 – 2018, iv) 2018 – (Sheraton Move)
February 2020, iv) March 2020 – 2021. The period is selected based on major events,
watersheds and political instabilities. Elaboration for all periods are as follow:

i) 1971 – 1990
This period starts from the year which National Culture Congress was held
until the year which the Cold War was ending. Within this period, Malaysia
has witnessed three premierships which were Tun Abdul Razak, Tun
Hussein Onn and Tun Dr. Mahathir. Tun Mahathir was still incumbent in

51
 1990. This period is significant to be clumped together, as it signifies the
phase before intense industrialization after Vision 2020 was introduced.

ii) 1991 – 2008

This period has witnessed only two premierships which were, Tun
Mahathir and Tun Ahmad Badawi. It starts with intense phase of
industrialization due to globalization. In this phase alone, Malaysia has
experienced ‘semi-authoritarianship’ which was practiced quite
immensely, as Mahathir was focused on economic development while
other interferences such as racial sentiments, foreign intervention including
political turmoil should be kept at minimal level. This was also a ‘peak’
period of BN where majority votes that brought to BN’s triumph for every
general election was steady. This steadiness came to an end at 2008, when
Bersih, a movement led by Ambiga, protested for clean and fair elections.
The general election of 2008, has threatened the position of BN. Hence
policies or any political strategies to stabilize their position should be
scrutinized specially in the following period.

iii) 2009 – 2018

In this period, Malaysia has witnessed two premierships which were Tun
Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak. This period is crucial to study exclusively
as BN was facing increased heat from the opposition coalition, while it tried
its best to accommodate all races in order to win the majority votes for all
general elections within this period. It should be interesting to observe what
were the policies and transformation programmes that BN have done to
stabilize their position while keep the racial sentiments at bay. A watershed
that has probably changes the majority of Malaysians’ perspective was
2015, the greatest corruption scandal which involved Najib Razak. Hence
in 14th general election, he had lost and this was the very first time that
Malaysia has brought the dominant coalition, BN, to a defeat.

iv) 2018 – Sheraton Move (February 2020)

This period should be studied exclusively, as this period was allocated for
PH’s short period of administration. Their management in ethnic diversity,

52
 and perhaps, how they implement their version of ‘national culture’ should
be studied and compared with the previous government. Sheraton move
marks the end of PH’s administration, where a back-door government was
formed by a last-minute alliance led by Muhyiddin Yassin.

v) March 2020 – 2021

A newly formed coalition, PN, Perikatan Nasional (National Alliance)

53
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