To what extent does race affect the political and economic state of Malaysia?
Samuel Chan
When people hear about Malaysia, they may often think about the tropical country located in southeast Asia with balmy weather, breath-taking landscapes and mouth-watering food, making it the perfect tourist destination. But beneath the sandy beaches, sprawling cities and emerald rainforests lies a dark history and culture of social struggles that shaped the political and economic stages of Malaysia into what it is today. Malaysia has only been brought into the political spotlight twice in the last few years, but for rather infamous reasons. One of them is the 1MDB scandal, considered one of the biggest financial fraud schemes in history, where funds of up to $4.5 billion for a government development organization were put into personal accounts of former Prime Minister Najib Razak and other associates of himand 1MDB. The second time was when 92-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed won the 14 th Malaysian general election in 2018, ousting Najib Razak, and currently making him the oldest serving state leader. There is one prevalent socioeconomic factor in common that these two significant political events: race. One of the most distinguishing factors of Malaysia is its racial diversity. 62% of the population consists of the local and indigenous Malays, 20.6% Chinese and 5.7% Indian. Four religions dominate the country: Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, but Islam reigns as the official religion of Malaysia with 61.3% of the population identifying as Muslims. Unfortunately, history has proven that with diversity and different races, people are bound to face discrimination. Malaysia, as a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, is thus doomed to cook up a political and economic state of prejudice. This essay will explore the events and policies influenced by race and the extent of political, economic and societal impact on Malaysian society. Even before the Federation of Malaya (the region today known as Peninsular Malaysia) gained independence on August 31 st , 1957, racial divisions and tensions were prominent in Malaysia. Despite the Malays settling in the area before the Chinese immigrated there, the Chinese and Indians were considerably much wealthier than the Malays. In the late 1800s, British colonizers opened the Federation’s doors to Chine se and Indian migrant workers to work in its expanding industries, especially in tin mining, and rubber and palm oil plantations. This allowed these minorities, mainly the Chinese, to earn more income and gain greater control of the Federation’s economy. A dditionally, the British discouraged the Malays from producing rubber, instead producing only food for domestic consumption. This created a disparity in wealth between the races was passed on through generations. In 1970, the Malays owned about 2.4% of the economy’s wealth. What hit the nail on the head was the May 13 th protests, which occurred after 1969 general elections — the first after Malaysia (which includes East Malaysia) gained independence in 1963. As a result of the Malays’ main political party losing many seats to the Chinese-majority parties and following the celebration of the Chinese, the Malays violently retaliated. The Malaysian government sought to reduce
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