November 24, 2020

Are Southeast Asian states truly multicultural societies? Not according to Professor Syed Farid Alatas (NUS Sociology and Malay Studies). In ‘Against The Grain: Rejecting Ethnicity’ in The Edge Malaysia, Prof Alatas discusses how Southeast Asia’s colonial past has shaped its ethnic relations.

Prof Alatas lays out the arbitrary nature of racial categories, through which colonial masters divided Southeast Asian societies. Using presumed biological or genetic differences, the colonials favoured so-called ‘hardworking’ races over ‘lazy’ ones in order to develop economic trade. These racist ideologies prevail in contemporary policies such as Singapore’s Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) categorisation. Such categories perpetuate racial and ethnic divisions by reinforcing racial stereotypes and the false premise of racial superiority. Comparisons between races and ethnicities create dominant cultures where the beliefs and practices of one culture are deemed superior and thus favoured over those of other cultures.

By recognising prevailing racism, Prof Alatas rejects Singapore’s and Malaysia’s claims to be multicultural societies. The ethnic groups that coexist in these countries do not fulfil multiculturalism’s other key characteristics, which are commingling and interchanging practices between cultures. Ethnic groups in these nations merely tolerate other ethnic groups and have neither developed profound respect for nor embraced them.
A country’s national language and religion usually comes from its dominant culture, implying that culture’s racial superiority.

An example of a multicultural society can be drawn from Southeast Asia’s cultural heritage. Intermarriages between Chinese and Malays were common in precolonial times. These Peranakan marriages combined Chinese and Malay cultures to loosen cultural boundaries and produce unique cultural practices, including traditional wedding and funeral customs and cuisine. These unions illustrate how cultures can embrace diversity by looking past race and ethnicity. The simultaneous embrace of diversity and rejection of stereotypes could cause Southeast Asian societies to become truly multicultural, states Prof Alatas.

Read the full article here.