Towards a critical alternative scholarship on the discourse of representation, identity and multiculturalism in sarawak

Abstract

This chapter represents a critical overview of current scholarship on the issues of representation, identity and multiculturalism in Sarawak. It examines works by anthropologists and scholars from other disciplines (political science, law and social work), established and young, local and from outside, whose contributions have been foregrounded on concrete empirical research. Inspired primarily by theoretical nuances from cultural studies, these alternative writings attempt to pluralise and decentre discourses on Sarawak society and culture. They seek to problematise and contest the dominant contemporary discourse by articulating fluidity, agency, alternative representations and reconstruction of identities from the margins of society and the nation-state. At the core of the discourse, these studies interrogate and problematise multiculturalism in the context of Sarawak from the concrete historical experience of specific ethnic communities. Since multiculturalism also touches on other relevant epistemological questions, issues of representation, identity formation, including ethnicity, logically become indispensable components and subtexts, requiring their own respective and autonomous space for deliberation.