Milner's narratives and Liew Kung Yu's photo collages

Milner analyses the narratives constructed by Cheah Boon Kheng, Joginder Singh Jessy, shamsul Baharin, wan shamshuddin and Arena Wati, Wang Gungwu, Maswari Rosdi's and suhara Salim and Ibrahim Yaakub. The narrators are narrating the history of Malaysia from the different perspectives. Among the narratives, in my view, there is a linkage between Cheah's narratives and the concept of Liew Kung Yu's photo collages.

Cheah Boon Kheng narrates the history from racial perspectives. His narratives is focusing on three major ethnic groups in peninsular Malaysia, which are Malay, Chinese and Indians. According to his narrative, in Malaysia, nation building is based on the theme of the making and sharing of the Malaysian nation among its multi-ethnic citizens. From here, the theme of Liew Kung Yu's photo collages doees show the connection with Cheah's narrative. In Liew's photo collages named "Bandar Sri Tiang Kolom", the built environment shows the relationship between three major races in Malaysia. The buildings are arranged according to the culture of different races and there are bridges connected from one building area to another. Thus, it matches Cheah's theme of nation-building is focusing on the sharing among the different ethnics. Apart from that, as for Wan Shamshuddin and Arena Wati's narratives, it is more focusing on Malay race. In their narratives, it is less cognizant of the plural society issue. Their narratives had ignored the non-Malays but focused more on the contribution of malays.

In Liew's photo collages named "Metropolis Warisan", the significant building like Petronas Twin Tower appears in that collage. Petronas Twin Tower had been mentioned in Cheah's narratives. From Cheah's narratives, as compare to the previous Prime Minister, Mahathir Muhammad was one of the Prime Ministers who put a lot of efforts to promote national unity in Malaysia. According to his narratives, Mahathir Muhammad (the fourth Prime Minister) used "prestiged project" to promote national unity, including the world's third tallest building (the recent rank). Cheah did highlight the commitment made by Mahathir in 1991, which was to create a "fully developed country", in which non Malays and Malays would involved in a "full and fair partnership" and perceive themselves as the "united Malaysian nation". Liew's work appears in the Petronas Twin Towers.

As a conclusion, the concept of Liew Kung Yu's photo collages is promoting on the national unity in Malaysia, especially the collages named "Bandar Sri Tiang Kolom" and "Metropolis Warisan". Thus, Liew's concept is match with Cheah's narratives, which is narrating the nation-building in a plural society that consists of three major ethnics.