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 Chapter 7

Affirmative Action and

Ethnic Inequality
Hwok-Aun Lee

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 Introduction

 Ethnic inequality fundamentally shapes Malaysia’s

society, economy and national policy.
 Malaysia inherited a fragmented society from colonial
rule and divide policy, in which the majority
Malay/Bumiputera were overwhelmingly excluded
from tertiary education, upward social mobility and
capital ownership.

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 Conceptual and Theoretical
Considerations
 Affirmative Action is a body of policies and institutions
required by sociopolitical requirements.
 Persistent disparities between population groups in terms of
economic attainment and power are socially and politically
unsustainable, especially in ethnically fragmented countries.
 Three problems stand out as rationales for affirmative
action: discrimination, disadvantage and under-
representation.
 Discrimination and disadvantage are generally interlinked
and result in under-representation, especially in tertiary
education and high-level occupations, and in capital
ownership.
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 Conceptual and Theoretical
Considerations
 Affirmative action pre-existed the New Economic
Policy, but on a much smaller scale.
 Malaysia established new school-level institutions for
Bumiputera students and a quota and scholarship
system for university enrolment.
 As “manpower planning” – in particular, cultivation of
science and engineering graduates – began to be
emphasized from the mid-1970s, the Ministry of
Education established exclusively Bumiputera
residential science college

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 Conceptual and Theoretical
Considerations
 MARA (Majlis Amanah Rakyat or Council of Trust for
the People) also set up junior residential colleges,
enhanced by higher teaching standards and
equipped with better facilities especially in the
sciences and primarily catering for pupils in rural and
underprivileged areas.
 At the tertiary level, government founded new public
universities and a centralized admission unit, which
implemented enrolment quotas.

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 Affirmative Action Programmes since
The New Economic Policy
Representation in Managerial, Professional
and Technical Positions
 Restructuring of employment in Malaysia abided by a
mandate that 'employment patterns at all levels and in
all sectors… must reflect the racial composition of the
population'

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 Affirmative Action Programmes since
The New Economic Policy (cont.)
Enterprise Development
 This aspect of affirmative action overlaps with employment
restructuring but distinct from public administration, is focused
on commercially oriented production goods and services.
 One of the severest areas of Malay under-representation was
among managers of enterprise, particularly in manufacturing.
 Programmes in this respect initially centred on public
enterprises in the 1970s and mid-1980s, shifted to privatized
(formerly public) enterprises in the 1990s until the 1997
financial crisis, then became reoriented around renationalized
“government-linked companies” (GLC).

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 Affirmative Action Programmes since
The New Economic Policy (Cont)

 Throughout most of the NEP, the Malaysian government

has adopted a state-centric approach to enterprise
development.
 Various agencies were created to support Malay business,
particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. State-owned
enterprises, comprising public services departments,
statutory bodies and government owned private or public
companies, with the largest numbers in manufacturing,
services, agriculture, finance and construction.
 State Economic Development Corporations (SEDCs) were
entrusted a salient role in spearheading Malay business
from the early 1970s.

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 Affirmative Action Programmes since
The New Economic Policy (Cont)

 The 1980s witnessed major shifts in the state-

sponsored Bumiputera capitalist and entrepreneurial
development agenda. In the early 1980s, the heavy
industries programme was launched, with ventures
into various sectors, prominently automobile, steel
and cement.
 These large firms were to be government-owned and
Bumiputera managed, with financial and operational
support from Japan.

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 END

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