tion exists in the people minds or to put it more aptly in their imaginations. It acts as a symbol of identity. Hence, the term ‘imagined communities’. A nation is ‘imagined’ as it is impossible to know and meet each member of the nation even though there exists a limit to the amount of people in a nation. Despite this limitation, the ‘community’ believed that everyone shared the same values. It is with this belief that people try to achieve the freedom of governing themselves through a sovereign state (Anderson, 1983: 6).Marxists supported Anderson claim that nations are a figment of people’s imagination. However, they asserted that the idea of a nation is just fed by the bourgeoisie to keep the masses complacent due to the occurrence of rapid social mobility. The ruling parties would create new ideology based on existing cultures to legitimise their rapid succession to power and also to provide a sense of continuity (Smith, 1991: 356). Revolutionary movements would be averted as the proletariats loyalty to the nation precedes loyalty to the social class. It must, however, be mentioned that Marx himself did not believe in the importance of a nation. He assumed that a nation is just a stepping-stone in human history towards a classless, communist society (Heywood, 1997: 107-108).The emergence of the new nation-state could be attributed to the enlightenment period experienced by the society. During this period, things that were once held sacred such as religion and myths are abandoned in favour for science. Weber described this phenomenon as the age of rationalisation. With the decline of religion, people do not share common values anymore. Society becomes fragmented with the disintegration of solidarity among the population. As a result, nations try to take over the role of religion in unifying the population. It does so by providing a common goal for the people, which is to maintain the continu...
