Unpacking Malaysia: competing discourses of nationalism in Lloyd Fernando's green is the colour

Abstract

Nationalism is a difficult concept to define as it can be viewed from multiple perspectives and positions. Fracture by divisive policies - a legacy of colonial rule, many post-colonial countries, which in most cases are multicultural, often embrace repressive forms of nationalism soon after achieving independence all in the name of national unity and national development. They are repressive as they privilege the perspectives and needs of a dominant group at the expense of minority ones. Few spaces are ever provided for contestatory discourses of nationalism, those that ,can offer the latter a sense of their own cultural identity and selfhood. In subverting hegemonic nationalisms, most postcolonial writers, however, provide the space for these dislocated voices and discourses to be re- captured and to dialogue with the dominant discourse of nation to facilitate the articulation and construction of alternative national and cultural identities. With this in mind, it is the aim of this paper to explore how Fernando dismantles nationalistic discourses and the extent to which he allows for their re-negotiation in his novel Green is the Colour, a novel that depicts Malaysian society in the wake of the tragic 1969 race riots.