The Role of Music in Mass Media, Public Education and the Formation of a Malaysian National Culture

Abstract

alaysia is indeed no exception to this feature of newly developing nations. In fact most writers on this topic feel that the problem of forming a national culture is even more pronounced in Malaysia than in most new countries (Andaya and Andaya 1982, Ismail Zain 1977, S. Takdir Alisjahbana 1965, Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein 1965). The task of shaping or creating a national culture is a complex and wide-ranging one, which in Malaysia is considered fundamental to the nation's development. This article will survey the interrelationships between the development of a national culture and the development of modern Malaysian music. Music, mass media, the public education system and the problem of forming a national culture are involved in a complicated series of interrelationships, hence the subheadings for this article are public education, recording and film industries, music and broadcasting, and Malaysian popular music today. It is my belief that to understand the development of a country's contemporary urban music, it is first necessary to understand that country's communication and education policy. The concept of planning is one which Americans seem uncomfortable with, yet in the Malaysian context a strong case can be made for these endeavors. A brief discussion of some important events in Malaysian history and the principles governing the formation of Malaysia's national culture is essential here. The modern nation of Malaysia is a rapidly developing, complex multiracial society.2 Although small and only newly independent it belongs to the part of the world where the great cultural traditions of the world have come to a confluence and confrontation as nowhere else (S. Takdir Alis-