Malaysia, a relatively peaceful country in South East Asia
has always practice ethnic-based or should I say race-based politics and
governance. Malaysia comprises of 3 major race groups which are Malays, Chinese
and Indians. They make up more than 80% of the population. As a child, I was
never aware there are differences between races. I had friends. I did not care
much else.
As I grew older, more things caught my attention. I think my
first ever encounter with a racial barrier was when I was applying for a government
scholarship. I noticed that I was not even granted an interview but another
classmate with significantly lower results than me got an interview with the
admissions people.
Some background information to Malaysia’s constitution. The
Malays make up approximately 50-60% of the population in Malaysia. When we
gained independence from the British, the economic divide between races was
huge. The dominant political group called United Malays National Organization
(UMNO) now, implemented special privileges for the ethnic group to narrow the
gap. This means more allocations of funds and placement in schools, government and
universities. Public university has a quota system in place which I learned
when I was applying for acceptance. They have to maintain a certain percentage
of Malays. So, imagine besides being judged on your grades, you are also being
judged by your race.
Fortunately this has being ingrained in all of us since
young so I have no resentment to my fellow Malaysians. I do hope this can be
changed in the future but at the current moment my government is not making the
effort. Why do I say this? I think the picture below speaks more than I can
say.
This was the front page a mainstream newspaper that came out
the day after General Election in May 2013. The headline translates to What else do the Chinese wants? next to
the picture of our Prime minister being sworn in. Most Malaysians wants to be
just known as Malaysian but the divide and conquer rule still works.
Like the idea of culture -and the practices that support
that idea- the idea of race is powerful only insofar as it organizes people's
activities, actions, and ordinary lives in particular ways for the benefit of
particular people, classes and social groups" (Miles, 1982, p. 232; as
cited in Mitchel, 2000).
Terri, your post about Malaysia and its “race-based politics,” as you put it, reminded me of something I have heard about almost my entire life: affirmative action, which aims at giving people of minority races (as well as women) equal opportunities in education and the work place. Now, I know there are many pros and cons to affirmative action and many people have their own opinion about the policy, but I want to focus on relating this idea to your post and our class.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing some research on affirmative action in the U.S., I came across a Supreme Court case that reminded me of your experience. In the case Grutter v. Bollinger, the court upheld that the University of Michigan was allowed to use race as a factor when deciding what students to admit to the university, as long as other factors were equally important; this was implemented to create a more diverse student body and environment. Although race is not the sole reason one would be admitted to a university, it is still a factor considered by admission boards. (I received my information on this court case from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/future/landmark_grutter.html if anyone wants to read more about the case.)
After reading the original post and this court case, I began to think about race and place. Although race is a social construct, it is something very present in our society. Historically, race has divided people, but I believe these types of policies are trying to break down those barriers by making sure there is a “place” for people of different races in the same area, instead of pushing people of the same race into the same place with little to no diversity. (e.g. Chinatown, as discussed in Anderson’s article.) This action works to bring people of different backgrounds together in one place, rather than separate them into sections like empiricists would on a map.
I also was re-reading through Mitchell’s article, “A Place for Everyone,” and he explains “the idea of race is powerful only insofar as it organizes people’s activities, actions, and ordinary lives in particular ways for the benefit of particular people, classes, or social groups” (p. 232). Clearly, this social construct and abstract idea is present and powerful in our society. Historically, the majority has benefited the most from the idea of race. However, policies that revolve around affirmative action at least begin to give people of minority races some advantages/benefits based on their backgrounds. Race is included in the decision-making process of many admittance boards, thus, making it a powerful idea in our education system. It appears as if this abstract idea has made its way into many aspects of our lives and may even dictate where one will move to when receiving a college degree, shaping our nation's geography of people and races.