Race and the political and economic state of Malaysia
tensions between the races and achieve greater national unity; thus, they implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971.
The NEP was a 20-year socioeconomic affirmative action plan to eliminate poverty and reduce the disparity between the rich and the poor, namely the Chinese and the Malays respectively. By the end of the policy in the 1990s, poverty was reduced to 17.1%, close to its target percentage of 16.6%, and managed to restructure the economy and redistribute the economy’s wealth back to local Malaysians. Foreign ownership had been reduced from 63.6% to 33.9%. The Bumiputera, another term for the indigenous Malays meaning ‘ sons of the soil ’, had increased their share of the country’s wealth from 2.4% to 19.3% as a result of the policy. An increasingly large proportion of Bumiputeras were moved from less profitable agricultural sector to the middle class, and more were employed in expanding industrial sectors. However, one of the main downfalls and criticisms of the NEP was the privileged treatment the Bumiputeras received from the Malaysian government in relation to social services and jobs. Developers were required to allocate at least 30%of all Malaysian property to the Malays. There are even exclusive areas of land that can only be purchased by the Bumiputeras, known as Bumi Lots, as well as discounted prices when purchased. The bias towards the Malays meant that no assistance was received by the Chinese or Indian Malaysians. This impaired the poorer minorities, particularly the Indians, as they owned fewer businesses and had less wealth than the ethnic Chinese communities. Despite making up 10 percent of the population, ethnic Indians only owned 1.5 percent of the economy’s wealth following the implementation of the NEP, and are among the poorest and uneducated in the country. One of the most significant effects of this racial divide is the human capital flight of the minorities who feel disadvantaged as a result of the policy’s effects in education and employment. Public universities in Malaysia were required to fill at least 60 percent of their places for the Bumiputeras. What may be worse is that if students were accepted based on secondary school grades, only 5 percent of undergraduates would be Malays, meaning universities are producing sub-par graduates to work in the economy. This segregation has also caused indignation among minority communities. A survey conducted in 2017 found that almost half of their ethnic Chinese participants would leave theMalaysian economy, particularly those with higher education, and it is estimated that about 1 in 10 Chinese Malaysians work abroad. More educated and promising workers feel that they have fewer opportunities to earn a higher income, and so migrate and find work elsewhere, with feelings of marginalization discouraging the minorities who still are in Malaysia. This ‘ brain drain ’ and the production of unemployable graduates has overall reduced the skill and size of the Malaysian labour force, which has possibly hindered long-term productivity and growth for the economy. As briefly suggested before, Malaysian political parties are also mainly separated by race, and rely on racial segregation in order to gain support. The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which governed Malaysia for more than six decades after independence, often relied on ethnic Malays to support and keep them in power. This coalition is formed by three parties: the United Malays National Organization, the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress. Each was formed to protect the interests of the Malays, Chinese and Indians respectively. Already, in the parties that have governed Malaysia since its independence, there is a pronounced racial divide dictated by racial values and opinions. In the most recent election, 95 percent of Chinese voters and 60 to 70 percent of Indian voters voted for Pakatan Harapan , BN’s opposition in the election.
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