The Politics of Malaysia's New Economic Policy

IN SPITE OF ITS TITLE, the New Economic Policy (NEP) in Malaysia owed its immediate existence to a political event, the racial clashes of May i969 which followed the general elections in that year.' The NEP was one of the measures adopted by the Government to achieve the objective of national unity, thus hoping to avoid similar outbreaks of violence in the future; not only are its origins political, but it also has profound political implications. Its formulation, its implementation and the ways in which it is perceived by various racial groups all express themselves in political forms. One political commentator has gone so far as to say that the NEP was Malaysia's real national ideology.2 This article is concerned with the political aspects of the NEP, especially those arising from measures designed to increase the percentage of Malays employed in non-agricultural occupations, particularly at managerial level, and to increase the Malay share of ownership of the national wealth. As background, a word needs to be said about the economic position of the Malays before i969. The arrangements between the leaders of the main races, Malays and Chinese,3 before Independence from Britain was achieved in 1957, can be briefly summarized.4 Under the British the Malays had a share in the formal structure of