当報告の内容は著者の著作物です。
International Workshop on Cultural Diversity in Southeast Asia
Organized by: Kota Kinabalu Liaison Office, ILCAA in TUFS
Date:
sunday, Septemper 11, 2011Time:
14:00-18:00
Venue:Manukan Room, Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu,
Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens, Sinsuran, Kota Kinabalu, 88000, Malaysia

Diversity and peace in Malaysia: A commentary
Shamsul A.B.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
www.kita.ukm.my
Abstract of a paper for an International Workshop on Cultural Diversity in Southeast Asia,
organized by ILCAA Joint Research Project "Multi-disciplinary Study on Islam and Cultural
Diversity in Southeast Asia", Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 11 September 2011, Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah

It is inevitable to discuss sociological diversity in its various renditions from anegative perspective, emphasizing the differences, contradiction, contestationand conflict between and within the different social collectives (ethnic, religious,and the like). The overwhelming fear that diversity could cause and end inviolence underpinned the negative perspective invites intense study on thevarious sociological fault lines generated by diversity in the hope a betterunderstanding could be developed and conflicts avoided. Thus very rarely one
finds analyses on diversity (cultural, political, religious and the like) and its
relation with peace, in the sense that diversity is seen as something positive andpossesses and generates internal dynamics which help to build social
sustainability and resilience of a society. Using the Malaysian case, this paperargues that although, epistemologically, diversity features ‘difference,
dividedness, and distance’, it also contains strong integrative centripetal elementsthat dilute or negate the potentiality of a breakdown. Good governance, sensible
economic management and openness to openness reinforce the positive elements
in diversity. Thus a good balance between the negative and the positive in asociety endowed with diversity creates peace and social cohesion that, in turn,brings longevity to the society and its social system. Empirical evidence fromMalaysia shall be presented to support this argument.
Brief BIODATA
Shamsul A.B. is Distinguished Professor of Social Anthropology and, currently, Founding Director, Instituteof Ethnic Studies (KITA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. He has
researched, written and lectured extensively, in the last 25 years, on the theme “politics, culture andeconomic development,” with an empirical focus on Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region. His award‐

winning monograph From British to Bumiputera Rule (1986, reprinted 1990, 2nd edition 2004) is a study
on the phenomenology of class and ethnic relations is a Malaysian rural community. His academic
activism takes many forms: conferences and lecture tours in Asia, Europe, North & South America &theOceania; public policy formulation in Malaysian higher education; museum re‐conceptualization projects;
and as a political analyst on Malaysia current affairs in local and international media (Channel News Asia,National Geographic, Aljazeera, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC). Recently, he wasawarded the prestigious ACADEMIC PRIZE 2008, of the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize, Japan.