Government efforts in Southeast Asia to create harmonious multicultural societies ultimately proved futile. How far do you agree?

Authors Avatar

Government efforts in Southeast Asia to create harmonious multicultural societies ultimately proved futile.” How far do you agree?

In the second half of the 20th century, newly independent Southeast Asian states faced many challenges that saw different approaches adopted, with varying degrees of success in the various countries. Economic and political challenges were often the most crucial to the survival to these nascent nations, yet an equally important challenge was that of creating a harmonious society. In light of the diversity of cultures within each of these nations, government efforts to create harmony were often plagued with many problems, so I do agree to some extent that these efforts ultimately proved futile. However, there has been some success, especially in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

 

To a large extent, the various policies implemented to try to achieve harmonious multicultural societies failed miserably in countries such as Myanmar, but were more successful in countries such as Singapore. The policies can come under two main theme, “unity in diversity” and “cultural nationalism”. “Unity in diversity” basically espouses the idea that the state should try to accommodate the needs of the ethnic minorities, so as to make them feel included into the society. Policies under this theme included the adoption of national ideologies aimed at making the citizens have a common identity and the inclusion of articles in the various constitutions that made provisions for guaranteeing the rights of the minorities “Cultural nationalism”, on the other hand, seeks to assert the dominant culture onto the minorities, and expect them to assimilate into society. One could say that these policies failed largely because of the many separatist movements and divides across societies in the various Southeast Asian nations.

 

In Myanmar, initially known as Burma, the government tried to achieve harmonious relations through various means, most of which failed. Initially, under Aung San and U Nu, policies implanted reflected the idea of “Unity in Diversity”. Some signs of this include the use of the local vernacular to educate the young in rural areas, the celebration of state holidays according to local customs, and the rotation of the Office of President among minority representative. However, these policies were insignificant when compare to the opposing trend towards Burmanisation, in which there was blatant cultural nationalism asserting Burman culture at the expense of minority cultures. A key example of this would be the issue of Buddhism. 87% of the Burmese population were Buddhists, while the rest were made up of Christians, Muslims and animists. Prior to 1961, U Nu had passed the Buddha Sasana Act to give state support for the promotion of Buddhism, and also allowed for Buddhist instruction in state schools. In 1961, in a bid to gain the support of the Buddhist majority, U Nu amended the constitution to declare Buddhism as the state religion. He realised that this was politically divisive and added another amendment to guarantee non-Buddhists freedom to worship and spread religion. This infuriated the Buddhist clergy, and led to Buddhist-Muslim clashes. This is one of the many example of how the government’s policies that were aimed at establishing harmonious societies had unintended ramifications, and were ultimately futile, since it led to the alienation of the ethnic minorities. Another case of a failed attempt at creating a harmonious society was U Nu’s plan to turn Burma into a pyidawtha, or “land of happiness”, through economic reform, and the subsequent “Burmese Way to Socialism” under Ne Win. U Nu’s plans, which included development projects, failed miserably, while Ne Win nationalised all economic activity, and cut off Burma from the rest of the world. Both leaders also tried to unite the population against the Indians and Chinese, who were seen as enemies of the state because of their economic dominance. Their expulsion, however, had disastrous effects as economic and technical expertise was lost, and this contributed to the failure of the Burmese economy. As a result, the goal of creating a “land of happiness” was never achieved, and the Burmese people continued to live in poverty, thereby causing more discontentment with the government, and diminishing the prospects of a harmonious society. This can be seen in the four major and 11 minor opposition groups faced by the government up to 1981.

Join now!

 

In Indonesia, a system of accommodation was implemented in dealing with the indigenous minorities, was assimilation was carried out with respect to the Chinese minority. Examples of assimilation of the Chinese population include the closure of Chinese schools, quotas for state universities and banning of non-state Chinese newspapers. Despite these efforts by the government to appease the majority that was resentful of the Chinese, the social fabric of the nation was damaged in 1998 when economic failure led to anti-Chinese riots, causing Chinese-owned stores to be attacked and 1000 to be killed. This reveals the fault lines of ethnic ...

This is a preview of the whole essay