The Malay Dilemma

It’s funny where you might end up having a Malaysian history lesson.  I learned more about the history of that melting pot of a country last night on a boat in Halong Bay, Vietnam with a bottle of Mcallan whiskey and a group of 40 something Chinese men who grew up together on the island of Penang, than I ever could in a class room. Every year these guys get together to give each other a hard time and catch up on what’s happening.  There’s the state trooper from Wasilla, AK who looks like the type of guy that could kick your ass in a heartbeat.  Then there’s the factory owner, loads of money and likes to gamble, who happens to be gay and nicknamed “Gee-Gee”.  All of the rest are successful business men, speak the Queens English and travel worldwide on a regular basis. After a bunch of drinks we got into a deep political conversation.

When they were growing up, Malaysia had a high standard of education and the Indian, Chinese and Malays mixed regularly.  Then a Malay politician wrote a book entitled “The Malay Dilemma” and went on to become prime minister for many years.  He detailed a plan to give power back to the ethnic Malays and prevent the Chinese from slowly taking over the entire economy.  It is called Bumiputra and comes from the Sanskrit word bhumiputra, which can be translated literally as "son of land" (bhumi= earth or land, putra=son).

Ultimately this policy has been effective at creating a Malay middle class (at least in the cities), but has created a brain drain of non-Malay talent and has created a racial divide amongst the different ethnicities, which is ironic since the policy was meant to ease ethnic tensions following the 1969 Malaysian race riots.   I think there is a lesson here about the government trying to force a level playing field on capitalism.  I look forward to travelling in Penang and reading that book.