Ethnic Tension in Southeast Asia
A Contemporary History of Ethnicity in Malaysia and Myanmar
The borders of modern Southeast Asia were arbitrarily drawn up by former colonial regimes without regard to different ethnicities or even wholly different ‘nations’ within the boundaries of the countries they created (Reid 2015, 240). Nationalism and the concept of nationhood itself were imported to the region by their respective colonial master (Reid 2015, 241). Nevertheless, Southeast Asia found itself in a period of nation-building in the aftermath of the Second World War (Stockwell 1992, 54). However, due to the arbitrary lines were drawn up by colonizers, the states of Southeast Asia had much difficulty in consolidating legitimacy over the territories they inherited (Brown 2000, 1). These states encountered dilemmas of identity, ethnic conflicts, and the restructuring of systems, institutions, and the nation in order to accommodate multicultural elements within the boundaries of the state (Brown 2000, 1).
In order to combat these problems, these brand new states consolidated their control over their territories through a number of different approaches. Sukarno’s Indonesia underwent a period of ‘Guided Democracy’ to ensure the polity known as Indonesia would survive (Smith 2001, 76). Along with Indonesia came the military takeover of Burmese troops over…
