Abstract
In this study, the challenges and prospects of the Student Integration Plan for Unity (RIMUP) for the development of national integration will be examined. Interview research with government departments such as the Ministry of Education and the Department of National Unity and Integration, education non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and headmasters and teachers at primary schools participating in RIMUP activities found that the RIMUP faces three structural challenges: the government’s weak management, the short duration and low frequency of activities and a low student participation rate. This study will explore the impact of these structural challenges on the development of national integration by analysing interview data, conducting a survey about ethnic relations among students participating in RIMUP activities and scrutinising and applying several previous survey results about ethnic relations in Malaysia.
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Notes
- 1.
The British colonial government warned various political parties that it would not grant independence until the different ethnic communities developed a more unified Malaysian identity (British record office, CAB/130/87). The Alliance coalition between the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) was formed with a common goal of winning the 1952 Kuala Lumpur municipal election and then achieving independence. With the entry of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) into the Alliance in 1954, the Alliance coalition represented all three major ethnicities.
- 2.
After the ethnic riots of 1969, Razak, the second Prime Minister, decided to broaden the Alliance coalition and to include former opposition parties as a means of reducing the level of electoral and political competition and widening the political base of the Alliance (Crouch 1996, 33). This enlarged coalition was institutionalised as the BN and was officially registered in July 1974. The BN coalition government has maintained its legitimacy as a multiethnic coalition by balancing the communal demands of the component parties, even though the coalition has been dominated by the UMNO. Until the 14th election in 2018, the BN consisted of thirteen parties: the UMNO, the MCA, the MIC, the Parti Progresif Rakyat (PPP), the Gerakan, the Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Parti Bersatu Pakayt Sabah (PBRS), the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO), the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and the Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS). Currently, the BN’s constituent parties are the UMNO, the MCA and the MIC.
- 3.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP), the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and the Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) established a new opposition coalition, the PH, in September 2015. The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM, Malay party) participated in the PH in March 2017. The PPBM was established by Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth Prime Minister, in September 2016. In the 14th election held on 9 May 2018, the BN lost. The BN had ruled Malaysia since its independence in 1957. As the chair of the opposition coalition, the PH, Mahathir, became the seventh Prime Minister.
- 4.
8 Malay schools, 10 Chinese schools and 9 Tamil schools.
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Segawa, N. (2019). Introduction. In: Ethnic Relations at School in Malaysia. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9857-5_1
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