Representation, identity, and multiculturalism in Sarawak

The characteristics and processes of identity formation and representation have been crucial preoccupations in social science and historical studies of Sarawak and the wider Borneo. We have examined Brooke and colonial policies on ethnicity, and political party formation, state-federal relations, nationalism and ethnicity in the post-independence period. We have considered inter-ethnic relations and the encounters between minorities and the state in the context of development and socio-economic change. However, Professor Zawawi?s book demonstrates that in spite of this level of interest and activity there is still much to do. We have tended to concentrate on particular groups at the expense of others. Detailed studies of the Bidayuhs and Malays, for example, are few. We still know very little about ethnic relations in urban settings and the politics of identity in relation to tourism development. We need to explore much more thoroughly the interrelationships between ethnicity and other principles of social organisation, including class, gender and patron-clientage.--