Whose imagined community?

Abstract

"The paper examines the post-colonial state s nation-building processes and management of ethnicity from an historical perspective so as to identify the continuities, discontinuities and emerging patterns in contemporary Southeast Asia. The extent to which colonial ideologies and experiences have shaped post-colonial national ideologies, public policies and the thinking of political elites, and impacted on citizenship rights of ethnic minority communities is investigated. Another pertinent question examined is whether Malaysia s ethnic affirmative action policies, Singapore s supposedly multiracial and meritocratic system and Indonesia s unitary state have served to maintain the hegemony of the dominant ethnic communities. Also considered is the extent to which the implementation of these policies and ideologies has stifled the nation-building process and is in serious need of reformulation? "(pg 4)