TY - JOUR
T1 - Negotiating indigenous identity in postcolonial Malaysia
T2 - Beyond being 'not quite/not Malay'
AU - Nah, Alice M.
PY - 2003/6/3
Y1 - 2003/6/3
N2 - In this paper, I demonstrate that the position of the postcolonial 'Self' in Malaysia is legitimized through inherited imperial mechanisms of power, both structural and ideological. The emergence of this 'new-Self' was situated in colonial discursive practices that positioned it as an 'Other' under British colonial rule. As such, this creates unexpected binds for the 'new-Self', particularly as it negotiates its relations with a number of 'new-Others'. Up to the present, indigeneity has remained the main basis for legitimizing political power and the economic redistribution of wealth. However, this remains persuasive only when it is seen as primordial and timeless, essentially located in certain individuals in an unchallengeable manner. This basis of power, I argue, produces anxiety for the 'Malay' new-Self, for its claims to being essentially 'indigenous' come under questioning when Malay identity construction is set vis-à-vis the Orang Asli (the 'aborigines' of the Malaysian Peninsula). I review the ways such anxieties have been managed in Malay responses to the Orang Asli, an ambivalent combination of acknowledgement, administration, rejection, and transformation. I argue that the 'programme of progress' that has been imposed upon the Orang Asli - which minimizes differences between them and the Malay 'new-Self' - masks the desire of the 'new-Self' for the impeccability and exclusivity of Orang Asli claims to indigeneity, a dual mimicry that continues to be repressed and transferred by constructing the Orang Asli as 'not quite/not Malay'.
AB - In this paper, I demonstrate that the position of the postcolonial 'Self' in Malaysia is legitimized through inherited imperial mechanisms of power, both structural and ideological. The emergence of this 'new-Self' was situated in colonial discursive practices that positioned it as an 'Other' under British colonial rule. As such, this creates unexpected binds for the 'new-Self', particularly as it negotiates its relations with a number of 'new-Others'. Up to the present, indigeneity has remained the main basis for legitimizing political power and the economic redistribution of wealth. However, this remains persuasive only when it is seen as primordial and timeless, essentially located in certain individuals in an unchallengeable manner. This basis of power, I argue, produces anxiety for the 'Malay' new-Self, for its claims to being essentially 'indigenous' come under questioning when Malay identity construction is set vis-à-vis the Orang Asli (the 'aborigines' of the Malaysian Peninsula). I review the ways such anxieties have been managed in Malay responses to the Orang Asli, an ambivalent combination of acknowledgement, administration, rejection, and transformation. I argue that the 'programme of progress' that has been imposed upon the Orang Asli - which minimizes differences between them and the Malay 'new-Self' - masks the desire of the 'new-Self' for the impeccability and exclusivity of Orang Asli claims to indigeneity, a dual mimicry that continues to be repressed and transferred by constructing the Orang Asli as 'not quite/not Malay'.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0942280300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1350463032000174650
DO - 10.1080/1350463032000174650
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0942280300
SN - 1350-4630
VL - 9
SP - 511
EP - 534
JO - Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture
JF - Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture
IS - 4
ER -