Protest in Kuala Lumpur

Of course, unrest in Kuala Lumpur at the moment is not surprising. If Furnivall's 'Plural Society' is something applicable for this situation, I would say that we can expect a lot more protest like this across the region.

'People at the interstices' became a hot topic in many Southeast Asian countries, regardless whether they were colonized or not. As far as democarcy concerns, voices from the margin has to be put into focus for every "elected" governments in the region.

For example, the growing strength of civil societies in Thailand indicates that 'small- people' have gained more attention from policy makers and they can form a strong front to negotiate with the state. I argue that analyses from some scholars that Thai democracy went backward to the pre-1932 era are not fully correct. This is because the fruit from the development of democracy is the formation of strong civil societies as we can see today.

Malaysian politics is more or less shaped by the British rule since the 19th century. The division of races is a result of how the colonial administration managed its colony. This perception was inherited to many Malay politicians. The most apparent can be seen in Mahatir's The Malay Dilemma.

My purpose is not to find someone to blame. Instead, if we try to understand the cause of certain social phenomena in history, we might find a chance not to step on our own footprint again,

even though it happens all the time.