21 x 28 cm; pg. viii, 111 ; Ohio University Center for International Studies, Southeast Asia Program, Papers in International Studies, Southeast Asia Series No. 29. Preface, introduction, appendixes, lists of 17 tables and 5 figures. Very good. "For a brief period in the middle of May 1969 many Malaysians were forming and participating in ad hoc groups with the purpose of conducting racial warfare. A few weeks later the government of Malaysia was busily encouraging the creation of Goodwill Committees with the purpose of reducing hostility and tension among the major racial groups--Malays, Chinese, and Indians. Between these two extremes of spontaneously formed paramilitary units and government-sponsored symbols of harmony lies a spectrum of more persistent and conventional social organizations which are at the heart of Malaysia's social structure. These are voluntary associations, the secondary social structures whose strengths and weaknesses and general characteristics help explain the resort to physical confrontation, the likely impact of Goodwill Committees, and many other social and political trends and events in contemporary Malaysia."

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