New Grounds for Malay: Intercultural implications of Malaysia’s emerging role as Hub for international Higher Education and Industry 4.0

Abstract

Before the Covid-19 pandemic deeply impacted the economies and societies of Southeast Asia, Malaysia had achieved many of the goals formulated in the so-called “Vision 2020” during the era of Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (1981-2003). As this long-term development program emphasized strongly on knowledge society (k-society), knowledge economy (k-economy) and Information and Computer Technology (ICT), one important legacy of this era was the establishment of numerous excellent academic programs, including in technological disciplines. The post-Mahathir administrations since the early 2000s built on this asset and successfully transformed the country’s Higher Education sector further, so that it attracted hundreds of thousands of international students from the early 2000s until the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in early 2020. This paper examines the linguistic and cultural implications of Malaysia’s emerging role of as hub of both international Higher Education and Industry 4.0.