THE MATTER OF NATIONAL UNITY IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

National unity in a state becomes a prime concern in two instances. The first is when a state

has just been founded. It may be a case where a state has been born completely new with

no previous history as a political territory. Of course such an event does not occur anymore,

unless a large new island suddenly emerged from the sea, leading to a human population

occupying the new land. Or, it may be a case where a state has emerged out of the yoke

of imperialism, whether by negotiation or by warfare, in which case the ‘new’ state is not

exactly new because it had existed previously as a territory in some political form before

being subjected to imperialism.

The second instance is when a long established state (not, a new state) has new

populations of immigrants of whatever type, whether involuntarily as in the case of refugees,

or the result of deliberate migration.

Almost all states, whether of the first instance or the second, will definitely comprise

more than one ethnicities in their population. Ethnic groups are people of different cultures.

Ethnic groups in turn are of two varieties. The first, are the indigenous ones, natives to the

land where the state is founded. These are the ‘races’. While, there are the second variety,

ethnic groups not indigenous to the land (i.e. they are immigrants, or refugees, and their

descendants); these are the ‘communities’ (as opposed to the ‘races’). To illustrate: Italian

migrants and their descendants are the ‘Italian community’ in Australia - they are not the

Italian ‘race’ there. The Italian ‘race’ is to be found in Italy. Thus, the population of Australia

today comprises the Aborigines, a ‘race’ (the only indigenous people), and many ‘communities’

(of immigrants, refugees, and their descendants).

Identifying ‘races’ and ‘communities’ as such is not an assertion of racism. It is

simply a necessity in the analysis of social phenomena. In objective analysis, precision

in the subject matter examined is absolutely essential in order to be able to really exercise

the right appreciation, and hence the right reading of the subject matter so as to bring about

the right and absolute conclusions.