Sharing the Nation: Faith, Difference, Power and the State 50 Years after Merdeka. These five separately referenced essays explore issues which are urgently relevant to the second fifty years of Malaysia's development i.e. the constitutional position of Islam and the relevance and force of the so-called "social contract" associated with the 1957 consitution. The origins of the "social contract" concept, its usage and largely unadmitted refashioning in Malaysian politics, education and legal process, are discussed. Events which are giving rise to anxiety or concern inside and outside the country are reviewed. With index.