Malaysia, as a multi-ethnic country, has a core goal of improving ethnic relations and developing national integration. The Malaysian government has implemented various policies to achieve this goal over the past six decades. Education has been recognised as a particularly important arena for these efforts. Public primary education consists of three types: Malay, Chinese and Tamil schools. Many researchers have argued that this education structure causes inter-school ethnic polarisation and thus hinders the development of national integration. However, this structure has persisted partly due to Malaysia’s ethnic- based political system. In 2013, the government officially announced an initiative to strengthen and focus on the Rancangan Integrasi Murid Untuk Perpaduan (RIMUP: Student Integration Plan for Unity). This programme, under which students from Malay and non-Malay primary schools participate in joint activities, is intended to promote an ideal of ‘unity in diversity’ by enhancing ethnic interaction. The government expects that the RIMUP will become a main driver for developing national integration. This paper examines the prospects and challenges of the education structure and policies in fostering national integration. To achieve this goal, the influence of the primary education framework on ethnic relations is explored by scrutinising several survey results and research studies. Furthermore, the effectiveness of RIMUP in improving ethnic relations is assessed by analysing the results of student surveys about ethnic relations. I conducted surveys among students before and after participating in a RIMUP activity. The findings reveal that the structure of primary education has reinforced ethnic identity and expanded ethnic prejudice, preventing the development of mutual understanding, respects, and trust among students from different ethnic groups. This hinders progress in improving ethnic relations and advancing national integration. Analysis of student survey data suggests that while RIMUP contributes to the improvement of ethnic relations and the development of national integration, it faces some structural challenges such as the short duration and low frequency of activities. It is anticipated that the government will address these challenges to maximise the RIMUP’s effectiveness and foster national integration.

In Malaysia, national education policies have been developed based on the national language and religion. However, in recent years, due to globalization and the accompanying movement of people, the internationalization of education to foster global citizenship is being explored. Additionally, with the increase in foreign workers and international students, there is a renewed focus on the values and abilities that should be emphasized, aiming to nurture and secure human resources capable of driving innovative science and technology and creating new knowledge, from early childhood education to secondary and higher education. This paper examines the background and challenges of fostering global citizenship in education from the perspective of multicultural coexistence, amidst the two different currents of national integration and international competition. The research method involves analyzing policy documents presented by the Malaysian government. The case of Malaysia is characterized firstly by the influx of migrating people creating a multilayered “plural society,” prompting a reconsideration of the traditional dichotomy between majority and minority. Secondly, global citizenship has become an important tool for addressing the issues of multicultural coexistence brought about by the influx of people, introducing new ideas into Malaysian education itself. Although global citizenship is often mentioned in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and frequently addressed as part of the international agenda, in the case of Malaysia, it is positioned more as a response to issues of multicultural coexistence rather than a goal of the SDGs. The current “12th Malaysia Plan (2021–2025)” aims to nurture future human resources, accelerate the introduction of technology and innovation, expand connectivity, improve transportation infrastructure, and enhance public services, under the three pillars of “Economic Revitalization”, “Strengthening Security and Welfare”, and “Enhancing Inclusivity and Sustainability”. The presentation of these national challenges in the era of globalization indicates that Malaysia continues to emphasize the issue of national integration. How to address the issues of diversity and inclusion, which form the backbone of Malaysian society, is increasingly important for achieving social stability and economic development, as well as for the development of educational policies in the globalization era. This is not just an issue for Malaysia but one that countries around the world are facing. In this context, global citizenship emerges as a new concept of the public sphere. It represents a way for people to live together, unbound by the confines of nation-states. This concept must be clearly defined, and its importance communicated to everyone. Malaysia’s approach raises the question of how to foster the necessary skills for global citizenship through education, which is crucial for rethinking the relationship between the nation-state and education in the age of globalization.

This paper elucidates how Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) has maintained a strong grip on political power since the 1970s in Sarawak, Malaysia, focusing on its historical achievement of a dominant position in the state legislature. PBB’s dominance owes much to the overwhelming breadth of its support base. PBB was formed as a result of a merger between Parti Bumiputera (PB), a merger between two Muslim Bumiputera-based parties–– Barisan Ra’ ayat Jati Sarawak (BARJASA) and Parti Negara Sarawak (PANAS)― and Iban-based Parti Pesaka anak Sarawak (PESAKA). Thus, PBB gained a significant advantage of obtaining support from Muslim and non-Muslim Bumiputera. PBB’s dominance is underpinned by the relative weakness of the other parties. In the early 1970s, Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) lost support from rural Ibans as it became too oriented to its urban Chinese constituents; however, it also faced the rise of the peninsular-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), leaving it with a narrow and vulnerable support base. On the contrary, Dayak-based parties have repeatedly split due to intra-party power struggles, as seen in the formation of Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), resulting from the split of the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) in the mid-1980s and the formation of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), following on the later split of SNAP and PBDS in the early 2000s. The most recent state election, held in December 2021, clearly reflects the aforementioned inter-party power dynamics. PBB continued to demonstrate its unparalleled strength as a hybrid Bumiputera-based party, in part by obtaining support from non-Muslim as well as Muslim Bumiputera. In contrast, in some constituencies, Chinese- and Dayak- based parties were exposed to close contests with opposition parties. From the above, one may wonder why non-Muslim Bumiputera-based parties split, whereas Muslim Bumiputera-based parties were able to consolidate and expand their party structures. The foremost reason is that non-Muslim Bumiputera live along the rivers and form diverse communities in their basins, making it difficult to form a single-ethnicity party to gain their votes. This is why non-Muslim Bumiputera-based parties have tended to see their internal order disrupted by party members from different ethnic groups, leading to fissures.