National Cultural Policy 1971

In 1971, about two years after the 13 May 1969 incident, a group of scholars, arts practitioners and leaders gathered at the University of Malaya to answer a difficult question for a multiracial nation: what is meant by “national culture”? The answer that emerged — the National Cultural Policy (DKK) — remains a policy reference to this day, and remains, in equal measure, a subject of debate.

This article presents the historical record and the range of views surrounding the policy descriptively. It does not seek to determine who is right or wrong; instead, it arranges the facts and differing positions so that readers can judge for themselves.

What is the National Cultural Policy 1971?

The National Cultural Policy is a policy framework formulated through the National Cultural Congress held in 1971 at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The congress was organised by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and officiated by the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

The policy’s background cannot be separated from the atmosphere following the 13 May 1969 incident. An academic thesis from Universiti Sains Malaysia that studied the development of this policy records that the National Cultural Policy was formed in 1971 as part of the effort to build national unity within a plural society. The goal often cited was to strengthen unity through a single, shared cultural identity.

The congress proceedings were later reissued by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia in 2014 (ISBN 9789834056964), and are kept at the JKKN Library — an indication that the original congress document is recognised as an official record.

How did the 1971 congress unfold?

The congress served as a platform for academics and cultural practitioners to present their views on the direction of the nation’s culture. Among the names associated with the presentations and discussions at the time were figures such as Mohd Taib Osman, A. Samad Ismail, Ungku Aziz, P. Ramlee and Krishen Jit.

In his officiating address, Tun Abdul Razak emphasised, among other things, the importance of building a Malaysian national identity that takes all races and religions into account, upholding the sanctity of the Constitution and the Rukun Negara, and reviving inherited cultural heritage. However, the arrangement and emphasis of the three principles eventually associated with this policy later became a source of differing interpretations among various parties.

What are the three principles of this policy?

The National Cultural Policy is commonly summarised through the following three basic principles:

#	Principle	Brief meaning
1	Anchored on the indigenous culture of this region	The culture of the indigenous inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago/Southeast Asia region is made the core of the policy.
2	Other suitable and appropriate cultural elements are accepted	Cultural elements of other communities may be accepted as part of the national culture if deemed suitable and appropriate.
3	Islam becomes an important element in the formation of the national culture	Islam is made one of the important elements in the mould of the national culture.

These three principles have been the focus of discussion for more than five decades — both by those who support them as a framework for unity and by those who question them.

Why has this policy become a subject of debate?

Debate surrounding this policy has continued since the 1980s and involves a range of positions. Descriptively, among the views on record are the following:

• Views that question the process. In a Malaysiakini article, activist and writer Kua Kia Soong put forward the view that representatives of the Chinese, Indian and other communities were not adequately represented at the 1971 congress, with only a small number of non-Malay academics invited. He argued that what he regarded as an “assimilation” approach was unsuitable for a multiracial nation, and proposed a “pluralism” approach that allows each community to retain its own identity.

• Community responses in the early 1980s. When the government revisited efforts to shape the national culture in the early 1980s, a number of Chinese community organisations submitted a cultural memorandum to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports to voice their views on the policy. This event is often referred to as one of the important moments in public discussion of the policy.

• Views that support and urge its continuation. Conversely, some leaders see the policy as a framework for unity that ought to be strengthened. In 2019, UMNO Deputy President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan (Tok Mat) urged that the National Cultural Policy 1971 and its three principles be strengthened and re-implemented as part of the national narrative.

These differing views are essentially centred on the same question as in 1971: to what extent should the national culture be anchored on a single main core, and to what extent should it openly celebrate diversity. Both positions continue to exist in Malaysia’s public discourse.

Is this policy still in force today?

In terms of status, the Department of National Culture and Arts (JKKN) — a department established on 22 March 2005 under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture — states that the DKK 1971 was never formally endorsed at Cabinet level, yet it guided the administration of culture for about 50 years.

The DKK 1971 was subsequently made the basis of the National Culture Policy (DAKEN) 2021. According to JKKN, DAKEN 2021 is organised around seven main pillars — among them a high-value culture, societal harmony, the preservation of cultural heritage, and the generation of a cultural economy — with an implementation period of 2021-2025 encompassing 39 strategies and 95 action plans. In other words, the nation-building principles in the DKK 1971 are stated to have been taken into account in the drafting of DAKEN 2021.

What’s next

• Read the full text of the Proceedings of the 1971 National Cultural Congress (reissued by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, 2014) to understand the original arguments of the presenters.
• Compare the three principles of the DKK 1971 with the seven pillars of DAKEN 2021 to see the continuity and shifts in policy emphasis.
• Trace the record of public debate — including the early-1980s cultural memorandum and commentary articles from various parties — to fairly understand the spectrum of differing views.
• Refer to the official websites of JKKN and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture for the latest updates on the implementation of the national cultural policy.

Note: This is an AI-assisted draft that has not undergone human review. This topic is sensitive; its content is arranged descriptively and neutrally, and should be reviewed by an editor before publication.