Ethnography of the 'Foreigner' in Malaysia

• Usage A : Living in Malaysia as a non-Malay Malaysian, I used to have a concept of 'foreigner' synonymous with 'non-Malaysian'.
• Usage B : After much study of my Malay Malaysian peers, I found that ( neither condoned nor contravened by law ), many of them consider non-Malays to be 'foreigners', and so this usage is distinct from B.

In some other countries, this species of culture is structurally different : for example, in the US, there have been so many generations of conflict between classes and citizens. So, while many naive white citizens consider coloured citizens to be foreigners, it is broadly considered impolite to associate patriotism with whiteness - although the present White House Administration might have one thinking otherwise. Indigenous people have little to no special status in the US constitution. And so the subculture of white citizenship as central arises because ... white people wrote the constitution. This has been, both dandily and uncouthly fought out over the entire history of that nation.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, while the law supports no concept of 'foreigner citizen', the law highlights 'Malay + other indigenous' citizenship as distinct legal qualities. And so, it is the positivism of indigeneity which leads to the fairly common notion that non-'Malay + other indigenous' citizens are foreigners. *

So by common convention, my status in Malaysia is 'foreigner citizen'. Ergo am a 'foreigner' in my own country of birth and residency. And that will probably be the case until I die.

* It should be noted also, Muslims wrote the constitution of Malaysia, analogous to to ytfolks of the USA. So being Muslim in Malaysia is like being yt in the USA. Privileges are baked in, because anything that might have existed before each constitution is irrelevant for present legal purposes.

Discussion

• Commenter : "Perasaan terasing tu jelas puncanya kenapa. Nak terima tak nak terima saja oleh diri sendiri."
• Me : "Perasaan dan fakta pengunaan bahasa adalah topik yang berbeza. Kalau ingat sama, tak payah bincang la, hahaha."