Despite the potential of tension between both concepts at the theoretical level - the former espousing universalist ideals while the latter reflecting a reasonable degree of ethnocentrism generally considered to be anathema in Islam, in Malaysia, long-standing protagonists of the Malay-Muslim hegemony have shaped political discourse so as to portray harmony between the two. Many studies have discussed the intricate relationship between Islam and Malayness in defining rules of the game of Malaysia’s post-independence body politic. Not only did they supply the condition regarding its capacity to maximize the makeover of the political economy when the Straits Settlements, of which Singapore was a component, became a Crown Colony, these also in turn situated the equally crucial circumstance about its categorically differentiated ability to exploit educational expansion and industrialization a century later, where schooling was again pivotal. Succinctly, this dissertation corroborates that when and how the antecedents of each linguistic group arrived in Singapore determined its market situations and life chances. A book manuscript will be the final product of these endeavors. Utilizing an array of statistical, oral life history, ethnographic, and other research, this doctoral dissertation is a historical-comparative analysis of the implications of the expansion of mass education and industrialization on the inequalities among the English-speaking, Chinese-speaking, and Malay-speaking in Singapore. This article reveals that pre-independence Malaysian history is replete with contradictions and paradoxes which may transform perceptions of who were and were not independence heroes.
Thus, to laypeople, political history in Malaysia has been what ruling politicians tell them and what they find in school textbooks, which have been approved by the powers that be.
Although the sources are readily available in Malaysian libraries, the truths contained in them have eluded the general public. By utilising mainly authoritative secondary sources, the reconstructed history belies the argument of the ruling elites that they inherit the mantle of ‘real independence fighters’ from their political ancestors. This article re-assesses the period and actors involved in bringing to fruition Malaysian independence. The debate which arose between the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) in early September 2005, concerning the history of Malaysia’s independence movement, necessitates a re-appraisal of the organisations and personalities involved.
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