Professor Dato’ Dr. T. Marimuthu : Education, Culture and Identity: The Continuing Debate for the Malaysian Tamil Diaspora
The Indian community in Malaysia is the third largest ethnic community with about 8% of the population, after the Malays and Chinese. The South Indian Tamils form 87.6% of the total Malaysian Indian population of 1.8 million. The rest are made up of Telugus, Malayalees, Sikhs, Punjabis, Pakistanis and Sri Lankan Tamils. The majority of the present Indian population were brought to the then Malaya during the colonial period to work in the coffee and rubber plantations at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.
After the Second World War the Indians became a settled community from that of a migratory one. Owing to their settlement patterns and geographical isolation, they were able to maintain their ethnic and cultural identities.
After Independence in 1957, it became imperative to possess a common language and a common national culture to develop national integration. This paper will examine to what extent national integration has been achieved amongst the multi-ethnic communities in Malaysia. In particular it will critically evaluate the role played by Tamil education in maintaining the culture and identity of the Tamil population against the pressures towards national integration and the development of a common Malaysian culture. This paper will examine three basic issues:
(a) Is Tamil primary education inimical to national unity?
(b) Is the cultural exclusiveness of the Tamil community conflict with the development of a Malaysian culture?
(c) Do the Tamils have a separate identity in a multi-cultural and multi ethnic Malaysia?
It will be argued that the Indian population as a whole are able to withstand the above pressures and are able to manage their identity and culture in a multi ethnic society. The paper will also examine the social and political consequences of maintaining their separate identity in multi cultural Malaysia.
Biological Statement:
Dato’ Dr. Marimuthu is a distinguished Malaysian that has made a mark in both academia and public life. After twenty years of service in the University of Malaya where he rose to the position of Professor of Social Psychology of Education and Head of Social Foundations, he left the university in 1990 to enter public life. He served a term in the Cabinet as deputy minister of Agriculture and thereafter became a Senator in Parliament. He holds the position of Deputy President of the Senator’s club and is Chairman of its International Relations Committee. A long standing member of MIC Central Working Committee, he is also President of the Party’s Educational Committee and the CEO of the Institute of WIRA. Dato Marimuthu has served as consultant to various international organizations such as UNESCO, NDI and the World Bank on educational and parliamentary matters and is the author of several well known books and articles of the field of sociology of education.
