The 26-year-old from Perak state capital Ipoh, where Chinese and Indians make up just over half the population, said he had many non-Malay friends who were straight-A students but could not get a spot in any of the country’s 20 public universities.
“They can’t afford private universities so their parents had to take loans while a less qualified Malay who is not even interested in studying was given a place in the university,” he told ST.
Such racial quotas in education foster division rather than unity, said college student Syarifa Meddina Suheimi, who is of Malay, Chinese and Indian heritage.
“I don’t personally support the Malay special rights in education because it creates a mindset and lifestyle of separation between Malays and non-Malays. It feels like it divides us rather than bringing everyone together as one nation,” said the 20-year-old from the capital Kuala Lumpur.
A recent survey showed that most young Malay respondents are not in favour of equal rights for all races. The Straits Times travels across the country to find out more.
Twenty-three year old student Aidil Azmady hails from a suburb in Melaka, the west coast state where more than 70 per cent of the population is made up of ethnic Malay/Muslims like him.
He has lived in Bangi, a Malay-majority enclave on the fringes of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur for the last three years, and has few friends from other races.
He is also a beneficiary of affirmative action, which has secured him a spot to study engineering at Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute on a scholarship from a government agency.
For him, the special privileges given to his community are equivalent to “citizen’s rights”, and should be kept.
“I studied in a private college before – the fees are not affordable for Malay students,” he told The Straits Times.
Race and the privileges attached to it continue to create dividing lines in multicultural Malaysia. Malays form the majority with 60 per cent of the 32 million population, while Chinese, Indians and other ethnic groups make up the remaining 40 per cent.
A survey of young people released by independent think-tank Merdeka Center in September revealed that respondents across all ethnicities were evenly split over whether Malaysians should be treated equally regardless of race and religion, with 48 per cent agreeing with equal treatment and 49 per cent in favour of retaining special rights for bumiputeras, or sons of the soil, a grouping comprising mainly Malays and other indigenous people.
But when the survey of 1,605 young people aged 18 to 30 drilled down to answers from Malay respondents, it found that 73 per cent of them backed the continuation of bumiputera privileges and only 24 per cent were in favour of equal rights for all Malaysians.
This point of view seems to be based less on bigotry or bias, and more on a genuine concern for their economic security and cultural identity – to uplift disadvantaged Malay communities and maintain bumiputera representation, as ST found after speaking to dozens of young Malay people across the country in October.
A matter of economic survival
In the northern rice-bowl state of Kedah, Mr Syakir Hamzah told ST that special rights are not privileges. They are instead a vital safety net for his community in a rural, low-income area.
The 30-year-old padi farmer from Kampung Teroi in Yan, a 45 minute drive from state capital Alor Setar, fears that stripping away these protections could leave those below the poverty line, like him, in dire straits.
Mr Syakir’s 1ha rice field is on Malay reserve land that has been in his family for generations, thanks to affirmative action. He has no savings and earns only between RM900 (S$270) and RM950 a month, which puts him in the hardcore poor category in Kedah.
Being among the bottom 40 per cent of income earners in the country, he receives some financial assistance from the Malaysian government in the form of RM350 a year in cash, and an undisclosed sum from zakat, state-administered alms donated by Muslims.
A large part of his income goes into servicing a loan from local Chinese traders who sell him farming supplies such as pesticides and fertilisers. He claims that many Chinese own sizeable padi fields and often charge Malays higher rice milling fees while offering better prices to their own community, though he has not encountered such practices.
He said these matters make him wary of Chinese traders, even though he is on friendly terms with his Chinese neighbours.
“If we give (bumiputera rights) away and the Malay economy collapses, it will be difficult for us to get back up,” he said, referring to the traditional economic activities associated with the Malay community such as agriculture and fishing.
Malaysia adopted its New Economic Policy (NEP) more than 50 years ago to address economic inequalities between ethnic groups, following the May 13, 1969, racial riots that claimed nearly 200 lives and injured hundreds more.
The affirmative action programme, aimed at eradicating poverty, and social restructuring, has evolved over the decades but generally gives preferential treatment to bumiputeras in the form of government jobs or contracts, discounted housing, requirements on bumiputera shareholding for listed companies, and racial quotas in education.
In 1970, the median household income for bumiputeras was 28% below the national median. In 2022, it narrowed to 9% below the national median.
While the policy has succeeded in raising the economic status of millions of bumiputeras, it has also been criticised for fostering dependency on government support and creating a sense of unfairness felt among other ethnic groups, potentially hindering Malaysia’s competitiveness.
Rural youth see the policy as a “social ladder they can use to climb up the social economic class”, Merdeka Center’s senior research manager Tan Seng Keat told ST. Meanwhile, urban Malay young people are exposed to different experiences and see that the competition is not within Malaysia, but with the rest of the world, he said.
Supporters of the policy say it has succeeded in creating a confident, professional Malay class of doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers and accountants, and vastly reduced poverty levels for this ethnic group.
Former top banker Nazir Razak told ST in June that one affirmative action success story was Malaysia’s near eradication of poverty, from 60 per cent in 1969 to 6 per cent in 2022.
Based on figures from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, about 19 per cent of bumiputeras fell within the country’s T20 band or top 20 per cent of income earners (comprising households with a combined gross monthly income of RM11,001 and above) in 2022 . This is compared with the Chinese and Indians who had a higher proportion of their communities in this income tier at 34 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, the proportion of bumiputeras in the B40 band or bottom 40 per cent of income earners stood at 41.6 per cent – higher than that for its middle class at 39.6 per cent. For the Chinese and Indians, their middle class numbers comprised 38.2 per cent and 42 per cent of their communities respectively. These far exceeded the proportion of their B40 band earners at 27.4 per cent and 34.1 per cent respectively.
Bumiputeras are less likely to be in Malaysia’s top-earners band, and more likely to be in the low-earners band compared with other ethnic groups.
This continued wealth disparity between the races is a key reason why the Malay community still needs to rely heavily on educational and economic assistance, says Mr Fariz Md Zain, a 26-year-old Islamic religious teacher from Pokok Sena, a rural town in Kedah.
His family members are beneficiaries of bumiputera policies that allowed them to access training and scholarships, and improve their circumstances.
His oldest brother Ridzuan trained to become a technician through a vocational training course at a GiatMara technical institution under Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara), a government agency created in 1966 to give Malays a leg up in education and the economy.
His older sister Nur Mazni is now a syariah lawyer after studying at Universiti Teknologi Mara or UiTM, a bumiputera-only university. “My sister received a Mara scholarship, otherwise we would not have been able to afford to send her for studies,” he told ST.
Factory technician Mohamad Firdaus Abdullah, 26, puts it bluntly, saying: “I wouldn’t be where I am today without bumiputera rights.” He was referring to his sponsored studies at a Mara-run institute in Melaka.
Mr Firdaus, who lives in Ipoh, in the north-west state of Perak, is critical of those who say these rights should be scrapped, pointing out that it is often the successful who call for change, forgetting those who still struggle.
Still, he notes that the Malays should not be comfortable with just getting assistance. “We need to work hard like the Chinese, especially since we have this advantage. We need to better ourselves.”
For those like Mr Firdaus, these rights are less about privileges, and more about ensuring them a fair chance to thrive in a competitive landscape.
Recognising cultural identity
A common refrain from the youth ST spoke to was that Malaysia was “Tanah Melayu” or Malay land. They see their community’s bumiputera rights as a recognition of their birthright, cultural identity and status as the indigenous people of Malaysia.
For them, it is a matter of pride, and the preservation of the Malay identity and culture in a multi-ethnic society. Affirmative action policies are seen as a way to protect bumiputera representation in every aspect of it.
“Malay rights should not be abolished because Malays have been here from the start. Malaysia was called Tanah Melayu, and the Chinese and Indians came here from China and India only a few years before independence,” said Ms Sharifah Dania, an 18-year-old student in Johor Bahru.
In fact, millions of Chinese and Indian migrants arrived in Malaysia in the late 19th century to work in tin mines and rubber estates when the country was under British colonial rule. They were granted citizenship when Malaysia became independent in 1957.
While Malaysia’s communal relations have been largely peaceful since 1969, differences in language, customs and religious beliefs have on occasion heightened misunderstandings and tensions.
Dr Serina Rahman, a lecturer in the department of South-east Asian studies at the National University of Singapore, and associate fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, said how different races interact boils down to exposure and positive experiences with people different from oneself.
“Urban youth are more likely to be in multi-ethnic, multi-religious situations, and are able to find out more about different cultures and faiths,” she explained. “So there is less fear and more understanding that we are all in this together.”
According to Dr Serina, fear of the unknown and few opportunities to engage with people of other ethnicities could fan mistrust and conflict, especially among the youth on social media.
“This is why people believe negative stories or divisive and hateful TikTok posts and WhatsApp messages. They have no positive personal experiences to (make them) believe otherwise,” she said.
Today’s youth have more opportunity to move beyond ethnic bubbles, particularly if they are working or living in the urban centres, she added.
“But a lot rests on their willingness to learn more about other ethnicities and practices. As they are generally better educated and internet savvy, they should have access to more information. And hopefully, (they) will decide to look beyond online racist tropes to determine for themselves whether there is much difference between people.”
For the Kelantanese, assimilation and unity begins with speaking their local Malay dialect, commonly referred to as Kecek Kelate. In this east coast state, which has been governed by the conservative Parti Islam SeMalaysia since 1990, Malays make up 95 per cent of the population.
“Regardless of whether you’re Chinese, Bugis, or Siamese, we all live in the same village… We adapt to the local environment. We speak Kelate,” said Mr Mohd Iruanzi Mohd Ghazali, a 30-year-old motorcycle workshop owner in the small Kelantan town of Kuala Krai.
Over in state capital Kota Bharu, Mr Muhammad Aizuddin Ghazni, who runs a smash burger stall, believes that a common language makes it easier for different races to establish ties, and is against having separate schools for different ethnic groups.
“We prefer people here to speak Malay. It’s easier for everyone to integrate… These (separate schools) divide us from a young age. How can we foster unity?” he said, referring to Malaysia’s vernacular schools where the medium of instruction is Mandarin or Tamil.
Malaysia’s public schools use the national language, Malay, as the medium of instruction. But vernacular schools remain part of the education system for ethnic minorities to preserve their cultural heritage and language. In recent years, Chinese vernacular schools have also seen enrolment of Malay students keen to learn Mandarin.
Malaysians are generally tolerant and appreciative of cultural diversity, said Dr Lee Hwok-Aun, senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He acknowledges, however, that race relations can be “multi-faceted and complicated”.
“There are differences in terms of putting the national Malaysian identity first versus ethno-religious identity first,” he told ST.
National unity and the way forward
For some young Malays, the affirmative action policy has run its course and the country should move towards equal rights for all races.
Their views were in the minority – 24 per cent of young Malays in the Merdeka Center survey and ST’s own poll of 51 respondents across Kedah, Perak, Kelantan, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Johor in October.
Notably, however, 28 per cent of the young Malays ST spoke to said bumiputera privileges should be kept, but reformed to focus more on socio-economic needs rather than race.
Reflecting some of the younger Malays’ views that focus on fairness and inclusivity, bank employee Megat Dzulhisham said special rights for Malays remain important, but the government should increase opportunities for non-Malays in education to foster equality.
“When it comes to race relations for Malaysia’s future, we shouldn’t (touch) Malay special privileges because we are still the majority and a lot of Malays will be left behind,” he said. “But I think the government should review the public university quota system to help impoverished non-Malays elevate themselves.”
The 26-year-old from Perak state capital Ipoh, where Chinese and Indians make up just over half the population, said he had many non-Malay friends who were straight-A students but could not get a spot in any of the country’s 20 public universities.
“They can’t afford private universities so their parents had to take loans while a less qualified Malay who is not even interested in studying was given a place in the university,” he told ST.
Such racial quotas in education foster division rather than unity, said college student Syarifa Meddina Suheimi, who is of Malay, Chinese and Indian heritage.
“I don’t personally support the Malay special rights in education because it creates a mindset and lifestyle of separation between Malays and non-Malays. It feels like it divides us rather than bringing everyone together as one nation,” said the 20-year-old from the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Ms Izzati Hassanuddin, a 25-year-old from Johor’s rural Kota Tinggi district who works in administration, says bumiputera rights help reduce the socio-economic gap between ethnic groups. But she thinks the system can be reformed to prioritise need over ethnicity.
“I think there needs to be a better balance – a system that recognises student merit while ensuring that those who genuinely need support, regardless of ethnicity, are given equal educational opportunities,” she said.
Moving forward, the Malaysian government needs to invest more on education and narrow the socio-economic gaps, focusing on needs-based aid, said Merdeka Center’s Mr Tan.
This approach, to shift the discussion from ethnicity to economic class, is echoed in recent moves by the government to phase out blanket subsidies and put cash in the hands of those who really need it, irrespective of race.
In the Budget 2025 initiatives announced in October, Malaysian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim took aim at the “mahakaya” or ultra-rich, saying they will no longer enjoy petrol subsidies that cost the government RM20 billion annually. He also said that his government would look at getting the wealthy to pay higher education and healthcare fees, which are also currently subsidised for all citizens.
Over in the sleepy town of Kuala Kubu Bharu, about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur, a century-old coffee shop is a promising example of multicultural unity at work.
The Chinese owner of Sun Sun Nam Cheong restaurant, Mr Tan Sew Sewan, 77, is preparing to hand over his business to his employees, as his three children are pursuing other careers.
Source : Straits Times
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