From The Economist
Aug 30th 2007
After 50 years, Malaysia should stop treating a third of its people
as not-quite-citizens
THE government of Malaysia has laid on all sorts of grand pageantry
this weekend, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Malay
peninsulas independence from Britain. There is much to celebrate.
Living standards and access to education, health services,
sanitation and electricity have soared during those five decades of
sovereignty. The countrys remarkable modernisation drive was
symbolised, nine years ago, by the completion of the Petronas twin
towers, in Kuala Lumpur, then the worlds tallest buildings.
Yet there will be a hollow ring to the festivities. Malaysias 50th
birthday comes at a time of rising resentment by ethnic Chinese and
Indians, together over one-third of the population, at the
continuing, systematic discrimination they suffer in favour of the
majority bumiputra, or sons of the soil, as Malays and other
indigenous groups are called. There are also worries about creeping
Islamisation among the Malay Muslim majority of what has been a
largely secular country, and about the increasingly separate lives
that Malay, Chinese and Indian Malaysians are leading. More so than
at independence, it is lamented, the different races learn in
separate schools, eat separately, work separately and socialise
separately. Some are asking: is there really such a thing as a
Malaysian?
The pro-bumiputra discrimination was laid down in the countrys
first constitution, in 1957, to ease Malays fears of being
marginalised by the Chinese and Indian migrants. These had come,
supposedly temporarily, to work in the tin mines and plantations
but were settling permanently and increasingly dominating business
and the professions. The perks were extended greatly after race
riots in 1969. Malays get privileged access to public-sector jobs,
university places, stockmarket flotations and, above all,
government contracts. The most notable result, as with South
Africas similar policy of black economic empowerment, has been
encronymentthe enrichment of those well connected to the United
Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party that has led all
governments since independence. Malays as a whole, like other
races, have got richer but the gap between the Malay haves and
have-nots has widened. The corruption and waste these policies
engender seem to have got worse in recent years.
As criticism has grown, UMNOs leaders have resorted ever more
frequently to growling that nobody should question the social
contract. This is a reference to the metaphorical deal struck
between the races at independence, in which the Malays got
recognition that the country was basically theirs, while the
Chinese and Indians were granted citizenship. The veiled threat of
violence lurking behind calls to uphold the social contract was
made explicit during last years UMNO conference, at which one
delegate talked of being ready to bathe in blood to defend Malay
privileges and the education minister, no less, brandished a
traditional Malay dagger.
