Accommodation and Acceptance of Non-Muslim Communities within the Malaysian Political System

Abstract

To what extent has the Malaysian political system accommodated non-Malay and non-Muslim communities? Why has this happened, and how should political accommodation develop in the future? Background To understand the accommodation of non-Malay and non-Muslim communities, one must have a clear view of Malaysian history. Present-day Malaysieit is worth repeating over and over agaik-evolved from a Malay-Muslim- polity. The illustrious Melaka kingdom, with Malay as its language and Islam as its religion, marked the genesis of this polity, which, in a sense, has remained an integral part of this region for more than five centuries. Although this kingdom ended in 1511, its successor states retained the defining characteristics of Malay-Muslim polities in relation to language, religion, culture, politics, and administration. British colonialism acknowledged these sultanates as Malay-Muslim polities and concluded treaties and agreements with them on that basis. The vast demographic transformation wrought by colonialism did not change the nature of these polities, for the Chinese and Indian immigrants of the early twentieth century remained largely “on the outside”: they were part of the economic enclaves created by colonial rule. Neither the colonial administration nor the Malay rulers regarded them as citizens. It was only after the Second World War that the situation changed dramatically. Many Chinese and Indians-the overwhelming majority of whom were first generation immigrants-were given citizenship rights on ...