The Federation of Malaysia — currently dubbed by its Tourism Authority as “Truly Asia” to showcase its ethnic diversity — is in many ways an enviable, relatively successful, multi-ethnic country. It is successful in having enjoyed ethnic peace for most of its post-colonial existence since Merdeka (“Independence”) in 1957. The major eruption or hiatus from this record was the May 13, 1969 racial riots that resulted in a breakdown of civil and political order, and the immediate or subsequent establishment of a “rule by cabal” through the National Operations Council, NOC (in Malay, “Mageran”) for about two years. The “May 13th incident” was a cataclysmic event in terms of Malaysia's colourful and exciting political evolution that had included an insurrectionary challenge from its communists (largely Chinese, it was viewed as an alien uprising against indigenous Malay rule); the amalgamation of the former Federation of Malaya with Singapore and the North Bornean territories of Sabah and Sarawak to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963; the subsequent separation of Singapore in 1965; and the violent opposition to the “Malaysia” concept and entity from Indonesia in the period of “Konfrontasi” (“Confrontation”) between 1963 and 1966. Its significance parallels the 1957 “Sputnik Effect” on the United States of America.

For Malaysian society and politics, “May 13” was a crisis that resulted in a change2 of the polity's character from a variant of a “multi-racial” country to that of a “Malay-dominant” one, an event that set the tone, tempo, and theme for the governance of an ethnically divided society that is “on the razor's edge”. This mode of governance was key to Malaysia's ability to keep ethnic and societal peace in a plural society. The post-Cold War world is wracked by disintegration brought about by nationalism, as in the former Yugoslavia and East Timor, and exacerbated by the increasing salience of “an Islamic versus the rest” identity in a post-September 11, 2001 (“9/11”) international system. In this context, Malaysia's experience in the past and through to the present provides an important case study of ethnic relations management.