Abstract
In this chapter, I intend to investigate the Malaysian bilingual writer Adibah Amin’s only novel in the English language, This End of the Rainbow (2006). I wish to argue that the author’s primary objective in the novel is to demonstrate how to “detribalize” Malaysia and create a holistic national identity by bringing the various races together, overcoming their historical rivalries and simmering tensions, augmented by the British colonial rule and Japanese Occupation. I wish to further argue that the national identity that Adibah Amin envisions for Malaysia is both inward-looking and outward-looking—taking care of itself as a mutually cooperative society while maintaining friendly relations with other countries, even those who were once the sources of oppression. Finally, I wish to contend that although the novel is set in the pre-independence period and probes the political circumstances of the time, it also indirectly comments on the current fragmented state of Malaysia, as the novel was written and published only in the new millennium.
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Notes
- 1.
The words “race” and “ethnicity” have been used synonymously in this chapter, which is the norm in Malaysian political discourse.
- 2.
Ironically, Mahathir Mohamad was appointed Prime Minister by the winning coalition in good faith, as he promised to transfer power to Anwar Ibrahim after a certain period. Of course, in his characteristic style, Mahathir refused to live up to his promise, for two reasons: (a) having persecuted Anwar in the past, he was weighed down by guilt, and he also could not be sure that Anwar would not retaliate once he became Prime Minister; (b) he knew that Anwar and his allies would dismantle race politics in the country as he has been a proponent of class rather than race politics even as early as 1996 when his book The Asian Renaissance came out.
- 3.
For discussion on these four novels, see my articles: “Imagining ‘Bangsa Malaysia’: Race, Religion and Gender in Lloyd Fernando’s Green is the Colour” (2001), “Nation, Gender, Identity: Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Joss and Gold” (2003), “A Malaysian Existentialist Story: Lee Kok Liang’s London Does Not Belong to Me” (2003), and “Between Worlds: Charting the Singapore National Identity in Lloyd Fernando’s Scorpion Orchid” (2006).
- 4.
In an article in The Straits Times, Joseph Chinyong Liow explains, “literally Ketuanan Melayu means Malay sovereignty, or the lordship claim of the Malays on the tanah Melayu—the land belonging to the Malays and everything in/on it…. In this way, the ‘special position’ of the Malays and bumiputera are codified. It is by this token too, that Ketuanan Melayu and the sovereignty of the sultans become intertwined” (2015).
- 5.
In spite of this claim by Chua and Rubenfeld, the current Black Lives Matter Movement shows that the matter was never adequately addressed in the USA and racial issue still remains highly contentious in the country.
- 6.
Bumiputras constitute Malays, Orang Asli (or the indigenous people of Malaysia), and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak. Indians and Chinese population in Malaysia are collectively known as non-Bumiputras. Bumiputras is a Sanskrit word that literally means “sons of the soil”. For further details on this subject, see my entry on “Bumiputras” (Quayum, 2005, pp. 88–89) in A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures.
- 7.
In his letter, Mahathir openly condemned Tunku Abdul Rahman for the riots and for succumbing to the Chinese pressure against Malay interests. Here is an extract from the letter: “They [Malays] said that you just wanted to be known as the Happy Prime Minister despite the fact the people are suffering. They know that even during Emergency, you were still engrossed in poker games with your Chinese friends. The police told of how you used their cars and escorts to look for poker partners” (Mahathir, 2012). This letter in a way made Mahathir a darling of the Malay chauvinists and ensured his place as a future Prime Minister of the country. Mahathir eventually became Prime Minister in 1981 with the promise of protecting Malays and their future as rightful inheritors of the land. For further details on Mahathir’s pro-Malay ideas and policies, see his book The Malay Dilemma (1970).
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Quayum, M.A. (2021). Beyond “Tribalism”: Re-imagining Malaysia in Adibah Amin’s This End of the Rainbow. In: Quayum, M.A. (eds) Reading Malaysian Literature in English. Asia in Transition, vol 16. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5021-5_4
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