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Home > JOURNAL > Vol. 1 (2012) > Number 1

 

Abstract

This paper attempts to reconstruct the dynamics of interethnic relations of university students in Malaysian public campuses from the 1960s to 2005. Based on a synthesis and review of existing literature, the subject is examined at two levels. The first is the evolution of interethnic relations among student leaders in the context of campus student activism and politics, and the other is a synthesis of the state of day-to-day interethnic interaction in the student milieu over the decades.
Ethnic dynamics in campus politics could be broadly divided into two phases. Between 1967 and the early 1970s, the two key protagonists were the multiethnic Socialist Club and the Malay-based Malay Language Society in the University of Malaya. From 1974 onwards, it was Islamist activism and intra-Malay rivalry that defined the campus dynamics. Selective interethnic cooperation persisted in campus politics till today, especially when non-Malay students constitute a significant proportion of the student population, but it was carried out in varied forms under different circumstances.
Discussions of interethnic relations often refer to the “golden age” of ethnic relations in the past. This paper contends that if the university campus is seen as the contemporary, microcosmic reflection of the wider society, then it is clear that such historical memory is at best partial if not inaccurate. The tendency of university students to confine their social interaction within their own ethnic groups had been observed at least since the 1960s, and was even prevalent among those who had gone through English-medium education. In effect, it appears that the pattern of interethnic interaction had not really evolved in any substantial way since at least the mid-1960s. There were arguably even more incidents of serious interethnic tension during the sixties than in current situation.

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