Engaging divided society in the nation-building process : the case of government communication in Malaysia
TLDR
Thematic analysis on all eleven national action plan (NAP) documents known as Malaysia Plan (1965-2016) was conducted to enable the pattern of similarities and differences in nation-building and government communication strategies to be identified over time as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
This thesis explores how government engages with a divided society in the context of nation-building. The widely used yet loosely understood concept of ‘engagement’ in the context of government communication is the focus of this thesis. By using Malaysia as the case study, this research investigates how citizens are communicatively constructed in the context of Malaysia’s post-independence nation-building process. This study is significant because research on citizen engagement in Malaysia’s nation-building is limited and studies focusing on the concept of engagement in deeply divided societies are also scarce.Thematic analysis on all eleven national action plan (NAP) documents known as Malaysia Plan (1965-2016) was conducted to enable the pattern of similarities and differences in nation-building and government communication strategies to be identified over time. Semi-structured elite interviews with the elite actors in Malaysia’s federal government were conducted to understand the government’s articulation and operationalisation of engagement in the context of nation-building process.The key findings from the NAPs reveal that the nation-building in Malaysia takes in a form of national identity project. Adopting an elite instrumentalist approach, national unity becomes the focal communicative strategy in the construction of the national identity. The elite interviews on the other hand demonstrate that government actors tend to describe engagement using the notion of dialogic communication. While acknowledging the advancement in communication technologies, government actors emphasise that the face-to-face engagement initiatives with the citizens are of central importance in the nation-building process.This thesis contributes to the studies of government strategic communication in the context of a deeply divided society that has been characterised as "plural society" that is in a state of “stable tension” (Shamsul, 2009). It helps to develop a richer understanding and knowledge of Malaysia’s nation-building process and approach as a modern postcolonial nation.read more
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Colonial Records History: British Malaya
TL;DR: Although often well-written and carefully researched, many recent studies of the political history of Colonial Malaya seem dated as discussed by the authors, which is not to say that they are generally pro-British; nevertheless, when considered alongside historical work on many other areas of Southeast Asia, the British Malayan histories appear "colonial" in their preoccupations and perspectives.
Journal ArticleDOI
Business services and the knowledge economy in Malaysia
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the World Bank-sanctioned strategy of investing in knowledge economy infrastructure will not make a developing country competitive in the highest value activities such as research, design and innovation.