“Choose One!”: Challenges of Inter-Ethnic Marriages in Malaysia

Abstract

The fact that inter-ethnic marriage has been practiced in Malaysia since pre-colonial times is well known and recorded in its history. While there is a modest rise in number of people who choose to marry spouses from different ethnic group in the country, the practice itself has been generally portrayed as a problematic and wanting especially in the Peninsular Malaysia. Popular writings and mass media play a significant role in stereotyping the phenomenon as a current modern (read: western)-influenced trend in contemporary society, as well as its potential to create tensions between the spouses due to their differences in ethnic background and culture. Based on our qualitative study conducted in 2011 on 50 respondents with first-hand experience in inter-ethnic marriages, this paper argues that sources of conflict faced by the couples are not originated from spouses themselves. Instead, they were initiated by various external sources which stem from overwhelming dominance of authority-defined social reality in the organisation of social differences according to rigid ethnic lines in the society. As a result, positive effects of inter-ethnic marriages on maintaining social cohesion in the society, as reflected from first-hand experiences of spouses and progeny of inter-ethnic marriages, are affectively eclipsed

The Changing Spousal Differentials in Socio-demographic Characteristics in Malaysia

“…Men and women from minority groups are likely to resolve the shortage of eligible mates by entering inter-ethnic marriages (Giok and Sulaiman, 2013;Nagaraj, 2009). Kalmijn (1998) identified three potential reasons for people not to marry outside their group: the individuals' preference to marry someone with similar characteristics, parental and societal blocks to certain types of marriages, and constraints in exposure to those of a different background.…”

“…In neighbouring Singapore, intermarriage made up about 5% of all marriages in the 1960s (Hassan and Benjamin, 1973;Kuo and Hassan, 1976), and it was estimated at 11% in 1997, and 22% in 2017 (Tan, 2018). In contrast, Malaysia, which had a long history of intermarriage dating back to the pre-colonial time, had a low inter-ethnic marriage rate of just 1% in the 1980s (Arshat et al, 1988;Giok and Sulaiman, 2013;Tan and Jones, 1990). However, this had increased to about 4.5% during the period 1991-2000, and then more rapidly to 11% in 2019 (DOSM, 2020b;Nagaraj, 2009).…”

Ethnic boundaries and everyday understanding: The case of Malay and Chinese parental choice of National and National Type School in Peninsular Malaysia

“…Although Malaysia has been independent for more than six decades (since 1957), identification based on ethnic categories remains significantly relevant right through the Malaysian bureaucratic system (Siddique, 1990), especially in its macrostructures such as the economy (Lee, 2005;Lee, 2012;Lee & Khalid, 2015), politics (Shamsul, 1986;Mohamad, 2008;Brown, 2007) and education (Ting, 2010;Gill, 2014). Living in a context in which ethnicity is consistently important in its macrostructures (Crouch, 2001) has consequently influenced decisions made by or for Malaysians in everyday life (micro-processes), such as the choice of primary and secondary school (Santhiram & Tan, 2010); friendships (Santhiram, 1995;Tan et al, 2013) and marriage (Hew, 2010;Pue & Sulaiman, 2013).…”