Essay On National Culture In Malaysia

Multiethnic characteristic in Malaysia has made this country full of interesting culture. However, at the early stage of independent, Malaysia is having problems in constituents of national identity and culture as every ethnic is practicing and treasure with their own language, religion and culture and this phenomenon in facts creates a barrier between ethnic and made unity among the nation become hard. Unlike most of the postcolonial nation states, Malaysia is an exception in imposition of assimilationist policies which the construction of a national culture or identity almost always would be based on the dominant ethnic group’s culture with the concurrent marginalization, and usually annihilation, of the minority ethnic groups’ cultures to form a homogeneous national cultures for the country. (Hock Guan, Lee 2000) The results of assimilationist in a multiethnic character post-colonial states are normally significantly improve the relations between the dominant and minority ethnic groups.

Without the clear indication of the formation of national culture, tense relations between the Malays and Chinese arose when Malays insisted on the construction of national culture based on their culture and this unequal relation between the Malay and non-Malay cultures was recognized and written into the 1957 Constitution. (Hock Guan, Lee 2000) In the 1960s, Malays want their culture and language to have the privileged position in the new nation while Chinese demands equality for every culture, religion and language. The tension between these issues then slowly leads to the 1969 ethnic riots.

As an aftermath of the 1969 incident, the National Culture Policy was implemented in 1971 to reconstitute the public cultural landscape and to strengt...

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...ntation of National Cultural Policy is somehow successful in achieving its objectives in strengthening social and national unity through culture and also nurturing a National Identity which stems from a National Culture. It might be seems unfair to the development of cultures of non-Malay cultures in the country at the first, but a country is necessary to have a nation culture and identity to be recognized and hold on to. The Prime Minister in 1978 introduced the slogan; ‘culture is the cornerstone of unity’ (Ibrahim Saad, 1983) very clearly informed that culture is an important element in achieving unity in a country. Therefore the application of nation culture characteristics in architecture will keep on reminding peoples on the objectives to achieve by the National Cultural Policy and will always keep us appreciating the unity of the country that not comes easy.