1 For examples, see Sumit Mandal, ‘Transethnic solidarities, racialisation and social equality’, in The state of Malaysia: Ethnicity, equity and reform, ed. Edmund Terence Gomez (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp. 49–78; Daniel P.S. Goh, Matilda Gabrielpillai, Philip Holden and Gaik Cheng Khoo, Race and multiculturalism in Singapore and Malaysia (London: Routledge, 2009); Gerhard Hoffstaedter, Modern Muslim identities: Negotiating religion and ethnicity in Malaysia (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2011); Frederik Holst, Ethnicization and identity construction in Malaysia (London: Routledge, 2012); and Cheng, Khoo Gaik, ‘Theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia’, Citizenship Studies, 18, 8 (2014): 791–806Google Scholar.

2 Herbert J. Gans, ‘Racialization and racialization research’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 40, 3 (2017): 352.

3 Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial formation in the United States, 3rd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 111.

4 Ibid., p. 124.

5 See Christine Herbes-Sommers, ‘The difference between us: Episode 1’, in Race: The power of an illusion, 3-part video series, California Newsreel and Independent Television Service (ITVS), 2003.

6 Gans, ‘Racialization and racialization research’, p. 343.

7 Alexander G. Weheliye, Habeas viscus: Racializing assemblages, biopolitics, and black feminist theories of the human (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), p. 3.

8 Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial formation in the United States, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 1994), p. 12.

9 In using a term such as ‘state multiculturalism’ I am aware that the ‘state’ is not a single-voiced or monolithic entity. Not only are there differences between the federal and state governments, there are also internal contestations within the central state (for example, between ministries and politicians) or between and within the three branches of government (legislative, executive, judiciary). However, this term serves as a useful shorthand for the dominant discourse of multiculturalism, rooted in state power, which has driven the Malaysian state's post-Independence nation-building project.

10 Tariq Modood, ‘Multiculturalism and integration: Struggling with confusions’ (Florence: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, 2011), p. 4.

11 Ralph Grillo, Living with difference: Essays on transnationalism and multiculturalism (n.p.: B & RG Books of Lewes, 2015), Kindle.

12 Roy Jenkins, ‘Address by the Home Secretary to the Institute’, Race 8, 3 (1967): 215–21.

13 See, for example, Bhiku Parekh, Rethinking multiculturalism: Cultural diversity and political theory (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).

14 Ceri Peach, ‘Muslims in the UK’, in Muslim Britain: Communities under pressure, ed. Tahir Abbas (London: Zed, 2005), p. 18.

15 Shome, Raka, ‘Mapping the limits of multiculturalism in the context of globalization’, International Journal of Communication 6 (2012): 145Google Scholar.

16 See Anthony Milner, The invention of politics in colonial Malaya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

17 Manickam, Sandra Khor, ‘Common ground: Race and the colonial universe in British Malaya’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40, 3 (2009): 595CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Homi Bhabha and John Comaroff, ‘Speaking of postcoloniality in the continuous present: A conversation’, in Relocating postcolonialism, ed. David Theor Goldberg and Ato Quayson (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002), p. 23.

19 Bernard Cohn, Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: The British rule in India (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996).

20 See Robert Hefner, The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2001).

21 J.S. Furnivall, Colonial policy and practice: A comparative study of colonial Burma and Netherlands India (New York: New York University Press, 1956), p. 304.

22 Ibid., p. 8.

23 See also Guan, Lee Hock, ‘Furnivall's plural society and Leach's political systems of Highland Burma’, SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 24, 1 (2009): 38Google Scholar.

24 See Hirschman, Charles, ‘The making of race in colonial Malaya: Political economy and racial ideology’, Sociological Forum, 1, 2 (1986): 330–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Williamson, Thomas, ‘Incorporating a Malaysian nation’, Cultural Anthropology, 17, 3 (2002): 405CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 The Alliance coalition that was formed as part of Malaya's negotiations for Independence was composed of conservative, elite-led, ethnically defined political parties. Its coming into power after Independence suppressed other, more progressive, narratives of community-making for the nation. In what was known as the ‘bargain’ for Independence, the leaders of the MCA (Malayan Chinese Association) and MIC (Malayan Indian Congress) agreed to limit their communities’ political aspirations in exchange for citizenship. UMNO (United Malays National Organization) in turn secured Malay ‘special rights’ provisions in the Constitution (related to the position of the Malay rulers or Sultans, civil service appointments, and policies for land, language and religion) that mandated Malay political dominance. For a fuller discussion, see Gordon P. Means, Malaysian politics (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1976), pp. 178–80.

27 Mignolo, Walter D., ‘Introduction: Coloniality of power and decolonial thinking’, Cultural Studies, 21, 2–3 (2007): 155–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Malaysian literature, particularly the novel in English, has repeatedly returned to this moment of trauma in the national consciousness to narrate the inner, subjective lives, motivations, and experiences of the people in ways that challenge the racial determinism built into institutionalised accounts of the riots. In so doing, literature's empathetic acts of meaning-making illuminate official history's untold stories, uncovering for the reader a more complex truth about social life. For examples, see Lloyd Fernando, Green is the colour (Singapore: Landmark, 1993); Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Joss and gold (New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001); Preeta Samarasan, Evening is the whole day (London: Fourth Estate, 2008); and Hanna Alkaf, The weight of our sky (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019).

29 See Kua Kia Soong, May 13: Declassified documents on the Malaysian riots of 1969 (Kuala Lumpur: Suaram Komunikasi, 2007).

30 Ibid., p. 3.

31 Bourdieu, Pierre, ‘Symbolic capital and social classes’, Journal of Classical Sociology, 13, 2 (2013): 292–302CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nah, Alice M., indigenous, ‘Negotiating “race”/place in postcolonial peninsular Malaysia’, Geografiska Annaler B, 88, 3 (2006): 294Google Scholar.

32 Gans, ‘Racialization and racialization research’, p. 351.

33 Edmund Terence Gomez and Johan Saravanamuttu, eds, The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative action, ethnic inequalities and social justice (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012).

34 Edmund Terence Gomez, Thirshalar Padmanathan, Norfayanti Kamaruddin, Sunil Bhalla and Fikri Fisal, Minister of Finance Incorporated: Ownership and control of corporate Malaysia (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p. 6.

35 The NCP's three main principles are that: Malaysian national culture be based on the indigenous (by which was meant ‘Malay’) culture; ‘suitable elements’ from non-Malay cultures may be picked and integrated into the national culture; and Islam is an important component in the construction of national culture. See Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia, ‘National Culture Policy’, 12 July 2019; https://www.pmo.gov.my/2019/07/national-culture-policy/.

36 Sumit Mandal, ‘The National Culture Policy and contestation over Malaysian identity’, in Globalization and national autonomy: The experience of Malaysia, ed. Joan M. Nelson, Jacob Meerman and Abdul Rahman Haji Embong (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies; Institute Kajian Malaysia dan Antarabangsa, 2008), p. 279.

37 Étienne Balibar, ‘Is there a “neo-racism”?’, in Race, nation, class: Ambiguous identities, ed. Étienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, trans. Chris Turner (London: Verso, 1991), pp. 21–2.

38 Omi and Winant, Racial formation in the United States, 2nd edn, pp. 61–2 (italics in original).

39 Balibar, ‘Is there a “neo-racism”?’, p. 21.

40 Loh Kok Wah Francis, Phang Chung Nyap and Johan Saravanamuttu, The Chinese community and Malaysia–China ties: Elite perspectives (Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economies, 1981), pp. 27–33.

41 For further details, see Amarjit Kaur and Ian Metcalfe, eds, The shaping of Malaysia (London: Macmillan, 1999); and Sharon A. Carstens, Histories, cultures, identities: Studies in Malaysian Chinese worlds (Singapore: NUS Press, 2005).

42 Salman Rushdie, The satanic verses (London: Vintage, 1988).

43 Furnivall, Colonial policy and practice, p. 304.

44 Ibid., p. 304.

45 See, for instance, Sharmani Patricia Gabriel and Fernando Rosa, ed., Cosmopolitan Asia: Littoral epistemologies of the Global South (London: Routledge, 2015).

46 Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia, ‘Translating Bangsa Malaysia’, Critical Asian Studies, 43, 3 (2011): 349–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Adil Johan, Cosmopolitan intimacies: Malay film music of the independent era (Singapore: NUS Press, 2018).

48 Johan, Adil, ‘Cosmopolitan intimacies in Malay performing arts and literature: An introduction’, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 40, 4 (2019): 469–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Khoo Gaik Cheng, ‘Kopitiam: Discursive cosmopolitan spaces and national identity in Malaysian culture and media’, in Everyday multiculturalism, ed. Amanda Wise and Selvaraj Velayutham (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 87–104.

50 Mandal, Sumit, ‘Indianness in Malaysia: Between racialized representations and the cultural politics of popular music’, Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, 22, 2 (2007): 46–67Google Scholar.

51 Harris, Anita and Han, Alan, ‘1Malaysia? Young people and everyday multiculturalism in multiracialized Malaysia’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43, 5 (2020): 816–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 1Malaysia (pronounced One Malaysia in English, Satu Malaysia in Malay) was introduced in 2009 during Najib Razak's premiership as ‘a concept that encapsulates the very idea of unity in diversity, and […] the importance of national unity regardless of race, background, or religious belief’ (1Malaysia website, now defunct).

53 Frantz Fanon, The wretched of the earth (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967), p. 168.

54 Homi K. Bhabha, ‘Cultural diversity and cultural differences’, The post-colonial studies reader, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 209.

55 Carl-Ulrik Schierup, ‘A European dilemma: Myrdal, the American creed, and EU Europe’, Migration Papers no. 9, Danish Centre for Migration and Ethnic Studies (Esbjerg: South Jutland University Press, 1996).

56 On 12 Jan. 2021, the King exercised his powers under Clause (1) of Article 150 of the Federal Constitution to issue a Proclamation of Emergency throughout Malaysia from 11 Jan. 2021 to 1 Aug. 2021. Analysts believed that this was the result of a move by the prime minister to safeguard his embattled position as the measure meant that parliament and state assemblies would not sit, and there would be no elections. The Emergency Ordinance was revoked on 21 July 2021.

57 In his inaugural speech as prime minister on 22 Aug. 2021, Ismail Sabri introduced the policy of Keluarga Malaysia (‘Malaysian Family’) as an ‘inclusive concept that cuts across religious, ethnic and racial boundaries and invites Malaysians to come together as a unified family’ (Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia, ‘Keluarga Malaysia’, https://www.pmo.gov.my/keluarga-malaysia-2/). Keluarga Malaysia can rightly be dismissed as another state shibboleth (see also Sabri's role in the setting up of a ‘Malay traders-only’ mall, below).

58 In 2015, Ismail Sabri, then Minister of Rural and Regional Development, mooted setting up a ‘Malay-only’ electronics mall in Kuala Lumpur — with a target of ‘100% of Malay traders’ — to rival the popular Plaza Low Yat, whose retailers are mostly ethnic Chinese. This idea and the establishment of ‘Mara Digital Mall’ by the ‘Malay-empowerment’ agency, MARA, followed an incident involving the theft of a mobile phone from a kiosk in Low Yat by an unemployed youth. When the storekeepers turned the youth, an ethnic Malay, over to the police, a group of young men carried out a politically-instigated attack on the store, hurling racist epithets. An economic and class issue, the ‘Low Yat riots’ were racialised as an attack on ‘Malay supremacy’.

59 Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia, ‘Teks Ucapan Pelancaran Dasar Kebudayaan Negara 2021 (Daken 2021)’, 26 Oct, 2021; https://www.pmo.gov.my/2021/10/teks-ucapan-majlis-pelancaran-dasar-kebudayaan-negara-2021-daken-2021/.

60 This tagline also inspired the title of the 2018 film Rise: Ini kalilah (Saw Teong Hin, Nik Amir Mustapha and MS Prem Nath, WebTV Asia), which explores the lives of six individuals and the challenges they face in the lead up to the ‘historic’ 2018 elections.

61 Judith Butler, ‘Endangered/endangering: Schematic racism and white paranoia’, in Reading Rodney King, reading urban uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams (New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 17.