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A nation-state is a sovereign state with the people have an awareness that they have something in common. There is something in common that can be seen among those who live together in the same nationstate territory based on language, customs and old traditions that are shared. In short, a nation-state is a state entity that is free from any world concept of empire. In Malaysia, the basis of nation-state building has existed since the reign of the Malay king, while the British administrative system during the colonial period had introduced Malaya to the concept of a modern nation-state. Thus, this study aims to highlight the history of the nation-state formation in Malaysia and the challenges in order to achieve the goal. This is a qualitative academic history article and the writing used the document analysis method. In addition to that, the Social Science analysis methods are also used to give a more extensive and broad writing analysis. The results of the study found that the nation-state building in the country is an ongoing process. The process has been formed through the traditional nation-state concept that existed before the British colonial era, thus the process keep developed during the colonial period and continued after the independence based on the development of as a sovereign nation-state. Until the post-independence era, the policies that the government tried to highlight continued to empower the nation-state concept to form a nation-of-intent in the country that became the objective of all independent countries. This paper is expected to give such a broad overview of the history and challenges faced by the country in its efforts to form a nation-of-intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers are an important political socialization agent in assisting the process of fostering ethnic unity among students. At primary school level, teachers act as influential political socialization agents in nurturing awareness of students at their early age on the importance of ethnic unity especially in the context of a multi-ethnic society in Malaysia. However, the process of fostering ethnic unity in Malaysia generally, and at the primary school level in particular, is still faced with various challenges and obstacles. Hence, this paper discusses the barriers to the role of teachers as effective political socialization agents from the aspect of school administration practices in shaping ethnic unity at the primary school level. The data collection process for this study was carried out through focus group discussions method involving 16 Malay, Chinese and Indian teachers from National School (SK), The Chinese National Type School (SJKC) and Tamil (SJKT) in Petaling district, Selangor. The results found that there are three factors of administrative practices that hinder teachers in playing a role as agents of ethnic unity that can affect the process of fostering the values of unity in a school. First, teacher separation system throught double-session schooling system; second, grouping of teachers in teacher's office by subject; and thirdly, the focus more on syllabus than other aspects such as ethnic unity in school. This study found that these three factors contribute to the existence of ethnic gaps among teachers, but also at the same time become an obstacle to the role of teachers as effective agents of ethnic unity in schools. Hence, the school should pay attention to this issue and raise awareness of all school members on the importance of ethnic unity in the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]