Some thoughts on "race" in Malaysia

Abstract

The idea of this paper was conceived with my frustration in teaching a course on nationalism and ethnicity. My students did not comprehend the concept of "ethnicity". Despite the explanation that the term "race" has no scientific ground, they continue to use the word "race" throughout the course. Why do they have difficulties understanding the concept of "ethnic groups"? Why do they prefer to use the word "race"? This paper is an attempt to answer these questions. In this paper, I examine the students' usage of the word "race" in our classroom and also the usage of "race" amongst my fellow faculty members and other scholars. My examination will be extended to the media usage of this term. I then explore reasons of pervasiveness of the term "race" in Malaysia. I will argue that the concept of race is used to create a notion that three major ethnic groups in Malaysia are physically/biologically separated groups that their differences will never be changed. Such fixed ethnic division is important for the society where every aspects of the citizen's life are based on the ethnic divisions. The concept of race supports ethnic hierarchy and status quo in Malaysia.