Tunku centenary celebrations culminate in public lecture

St Catharine’s is delighted that Distinguished Professor Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin (Professor Shamsul A.B.) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia has kindly agree to deliver a public lecture marking the culmination of activities celebrating 100 years since Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj arrived at St Catharine’s to study law in 1922.

The Tunku is best known as the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, and received both his undergraduate degree and an Honorary Fellowship from St Catharine’s. St Catharine’s began celebrating this important centenary last term, with a research seminar showcasing the current generation of Malaysian students at Cambridge and a lecture on the Tunku’s particular brand of internationalism during the era of decolonisation.

In his lecture, Professor Shamsul A.B. will focus on Social Cohesion in Malaysia: “Agree to Agree, Agree to Disagree”. Registration is now open for members of the St Catharine’s community or public who wish to attend the lecture at 17:00–18.30 on 10 March in the McGrath Centre at St Catharine’s. He has been invited to speak by Dr Liana Chua (2021), Fellow of St Catharine’s and Tunku Abdul Rahman University Assistant Professor in Malay World Studies.

Dr Chua commented, “It’s a tremendous honour to welcome Professor Shamsul A.B. to deliver a public lecture on social cohesion in Malaysia – a topic that was very close to the Tunku’s heart. As one of the country’s pre-eminent social scientists and public intellectuals, Professor Shamsul is ideally placed to shed light on contemporary Malaysian society and politics. We also look forward to exploring future collaborations his new Global Malaysian Studies Network, which will augment Cambridge’s long-running relationship with Malaysian universities and academics.”

Dr Chua is also Director of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Fund, which was established in 2003 by the Government of Malaysia and St Catharine’s to commemorate 100 years since the Tunku’s birth. Since then, the Fund has provided over 20 fully-funded scholarships for MPhil and PhD students. Substantial investment in support for students will continue in the years ahead, alongside the endowment of the new Lectureship in Malay World Studies. Find out more about the Fund.

About Professor Shamsul A.B.

Distinguished Professor Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin BA, MA (Malaya) PhD (Monash, Australia), FASc is one of the five Distinguished Professors in Malaysia, appointed by the Ministry of Higher Education in 2010.

He is the Founding Director, National Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA), The National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM) since October 2007 until at present.

He is one of 15 social scientists, among the 450 Malaysian scientists, who has been inducted, in 2018, as a Fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia.

In January 2019 he assumed the Chair, Malaysian Professors Council that has 2900 members.  In October 2019 he became the first Malaysian to hold the prestigious UNESCO Chair (Communications and Social Cohesion) located at UKM.

He has been appointed as Unity Adviser, Ministry of National Unity, Malaysia (2020-22) and has been claimed as the main architect of the National Unity Index 2018, The National Unity Policy 2021, National Unity Blueprint 2021, National Unity Action Plan 2022.

He is often consulted as a commentator on current affairs on Malaysia and Southeast Asia by local mass media and overseas media outlets, such as BBC (London & Jakarta), Al-Jazeera, National Geographic Channel, Channel News Asia, BBC Jakarta and Radio Australia.

In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Academic Prize, Fukuoka Cultural Award, Japan for successfully promoting Southeast Asian Studies globally.

He has written extensively on Southeast Asia, the Malay world and Malaysia all listed in his website https://shamsulab.academia.edu/

About the lecture

After the Second World War, for 25 years (1945-1969), even after its independence in 1957, Malaya/Malaysia experienced numerous bloody clashes, mainly between ethnic Chinese and Malays, involving loss of life and property. The biggest incidence of conflict was on the 13 May 1969 centring around Kuala Lumpur. For a period of five years after that (1969-1974), there were intense top-down efforts to rebuild ‘national unity’, first by the establishment of a Department of National Unity in July 1969 leading to the formation of a Ministry of National Unity in January 1972, until July 1974 when the Ministry was dissolved. However, the Department of National Unity was retained and, subsequently, became a component of several different ministries over the next four decades, for many years it was under the Prime Minister’s Office. Despite these changes the government’s unity effort continued to be guided by a monolithic conceptual notion of unity at the national level, expressed in political slogans, billboards, and national branding in general.

In 2013, a National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) was established to reevaluate the state of national unity and to redefine the monolithic notion of unity, introduced 44 years ago in 1969, by replacing it with a ‘triconcept of unity’, in other words having three facets: unity, cohesion reconciliation, with social cohesion at its core. This was endorsed by the Malaysian Cabinet in August 2015. The renamed Department of National Unity and Integration was tasked to draw up an action plan based on the new ‘triconcept of unity’ and to construct a National Unity Index (IPNas), begun in 2017 and completed in 2018.

In 2018, Malaysia experienced for the first time a major change of government when the 60-year-old Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government lost to the Pakatan Harapan coalition (PH). However, the new government led by Mahathir, the former Prime Minister (1981-2003), reinstated as the Prime Minister again, lasted only 22 months. It was replaced by another fragile coalition in 2020 led by former UMNO & PH politician, Muhyiddin, that lasted for 17 months.  During this period a standalone Ministry of National Unity was established in March 2020. It introduced for the first time a National Unity Policy (2021) and a Blueprint for National Unity (2021-2030). In August 2021 a second unstable coalition took over from the collapsed Muhyiddin-led coalition. It was led by a new PM, Ismail Sabri, who then launched, in November 2021, the National Unity Action Plan (2021-2030). The second National Unity Index 2022 was completed before the Parliament was dissolved in October 2022.

After the 15th General Elections on 19 November 2022, a new government led by yet another makeshift coalition with a new PM, Anwar Ibrahim, was formed. Coincidentally, it is called ‘the Unity Government.’ The Ministry of National Unity remains in the new cabinet, led by a new minister from Sarawak. All the documents related to national unity with its tripartite concept have now been endorsed by the Ministry. After more than five decades (1969 to 2022), 12 general elections, and 10 prime ministers Malaysia has enjoyed peace, stability, economic growth, and a relatively satisfactory level of well-being with the absence of violence.

This presentation traces the evolution of the understanding of unity or national unity, official and popular, during this period, from a monolithic (1969) to a triconcept of unity (2013). These three faceted concepts were first operationalised in the National Unity Index 2018 and has become the basis of the National Unity Policy (2021), the Blueprint for National Unity (2021) and the Action Plan for National Unity (2022). This evolution has been dominated by contestations and consensus revealing a set of ten unresolved ‘social deficits’ within which Malaysians have framed their dissatisfactions, all conducted in the absence of violence. In this paper I wish to emphasise that this is due to the ability of Malaysians, both at the top leadership and rakyat at the grassroots, to accept the importance of social cohesion and be guided to a state of social harmony through the principle of “agree to agree and agree to disagree” which is anchored in a continuous process of bargaining, negotiation, and mediation.

Register for the lecture on 10 March.