[eChapters]Malaysia: The Making of a Nation (Introduction)

This is an account of the contest between Malay ethno-nationalism and Malaysian nationalism in the making of the Malaysian nation. In spite of Malay dominance in Malaysia, the author argues, the country has not become a "Malay nation-state". This process has been checked by the rival forces of multi-ethnic "Malaysian nationalism" in peninsular Malaysia and the contesting nationalisms and communalism of the other indigenous communities, or bumiputra, in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.
           The study focuses on Malaysia's four Prime Ministers as nation-builders, observing that each one of them when he became Prime Minister was transformed from being the head of the Malay party, UMNO, to that of the leader of a multi-ethnic nation. Each began his political career as an "exclusivist" Malay nationalist but eventually ended up re-inventing himself as an "inclusivist" Malaysian nationalist.