Abstract
Penang in Malaysia and the city-state of Singapore ought to be considered emblematic of the UK’s colonial legacy of planned immigration for economic reasons, involving Southern and Southeast Asia. After independence, he notes, a compromise between different ethnocultural components was achieved by discarding the European-like political model of national state and adopting a model in which both the autochthonous population and the immigrants are regarded as members of a consociation characterized by power sharing and by a differentiated citizenship. Giordano’s ethnography shows that in a situation marked by highly conspicuous ethnocultural differences, power sharing and a policy of unity in separation stemming from the political principle of differentiated citizenship have generated forms of social cohesion characterized by constant tensions and, at times, open conflict, but also by social practices of respect towards cultural diversity.
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- 1.
Recent social analysis has addressed pluralism in terms of cultural values, thus going beyond strictly economic considerations. See, for example, Krase’s discussion (2009) of the difference between multiculturalism and cultural pluralism.
- 2.
Not to be confused with the prime minister, who heads the federal government in Kuala Lumpur, a chief minister heads a local government, in this case that of the State of Penang.
- 3.
At the time of writing, Lim Guan Eng has been accused of Graft-related offences by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and formally indicted before the Penang Sessions Court. The charges, however, may turn out to be a political plot hatched by his adversaries (The Straits Times, 29 and 30 June 2016).
- 4.
During colonial times, the Kapitan was the representative of an ethnic or religious community. Keling is the term used by Malays to refer to Indians.
- 5.
Masjd Melayu means Malays’ mosque.
- 6.
The tudung is akin to the Arab hijab because it covers the hair, ears and neck but not the face. In Malaysia it is more of an ethnic than a religious mark of distinction and is a way to differentiate oneself especially from the Chinese and Indians.
- 7.
Perayaan Warisan in Bahasa Malaysia may be translated as ‘heritage celebration’.
- 8.
On the key distinction between tolerance and toleration, see Prato (2009, 13–14, n. 17).
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Giordano, C. (2018). Imagined Multiculturalism in a Malaysian Town: Ideological Constructions and Empirical Evidences. In: Pardo, I., Prato, G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64289-5_27
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