1. Ajeng Dwiyani Khoirunnisa
11/317744/SP/24637
Politics and Government in Southeast Asia
Nation-building Malaysia: Impact of Ethnic Conflict 1969 to Political Economy Development
Generally, the composition of Malaysian is almost the same with Indonesia. Malaysia has
various ethnics that has been living there from long ago. Even before their independence, the
Indian and Chinese had lived in Malaysia. It is one of the British colonialization that brought the
traders from China and India, thus making them stay. It is not always peaceful in Malaysia,
regarding the various ethnics exist. Moreover, in that era the Chinese was the people who
dominated the economics and trade. One of the example is ethnic conflict in 1969. This conflict
particularly became a dark history for Malaysians. Even until now, Malaysians still remember
the tragedy.
This conflict killed 196 people. It started on the day of election which won by a party that
was dominated by Chinese. As usual tradition, the winning party had the rights to celebrate by
convoying through some particular streets. The streets had been arranged so that the convoy
would not pass the Malays neighborhood because there were some tense between both Chinese
and Malays. But, in the end the convoy passed through the streets which lived by the Malays.
The Malays saw that action as the Chinese wanting to show off their winning. Then the situation
got worse when the Chinese yelled some provocative expression. Malays wanted to show their
power, that they still had it.1 They were angry, and riots happened.
This tragedy brought a significant change in social, political, and economics. The
government made a policy that favored the Malays. 2 The Malays became priority in economics
system and the government would guarantee the Chinese that the tragedy would never happen
again. 3 The policy made the Malays became more dominant in many sectors. Political control by
1
Z.Ahmad, ‘The tragedy of May 13, 1969’, The Malaysian Bar (online), 26 Juli 2007,
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/echoes_of_the_past/the_tragedy_of_may_13_1969.html diakses 15 Okober 2013
2
3
K.Snitwongse dan W.S.Thompson,Ethnic Conflicts in Southeast Asia,ISEAS Publication, Singapura,2005,p.43
K. Snitwongse dan W.S.Thompson, p.53

2. Malays were emphasized. Therefore, the Malays outnumbered the Non-Malays in demographical
issues. After the tragedy, the government realized that closing the gap between Malays and other
groups was a critical issue for the long term stability and prosperity of the country.
The key initiative was New Economy Policy (1971-1990). The fact that the Malays only
dominated the agricultural and non-modern sectors, whereas the other groups dominated the
business and economic sectors, made the government eager to urbanize the Malays and assist
them in gaining access to the more modern sector of the economy. 4 This New Economy Policy
had successfully made the economics of Malaysia grew rapidly in 5-8% a year. And by 1995,
Number of Malays that get higher pay and higher access to education has increased. Thanks to
the quota of scholarship that government provided. The implementation of this policy was called
Industrial Coordination Act.
But some party saw this policy as institutionalized ethnic difference that intensified the
problem rather than solving it. As the affirmative action for the Malays, the policy was
considered not effective because of the government. Affirmative action needs a strong
government that Malaysian did not have. The New Economy Policy has been replaced by
National Development Policy (1990-2000) that was considered more balanced to benefit society
as a whole. This policy still encouraged the ownership of Malays at 30% but also encouraged the
cooperation between Malays and other groups.
We know from these explanation that the nation building of Malaysia has huge impact for
political economy development. It shaped the proportion of the people’s participation in some
sectors. It created a better opportunity for the Malays, thus making the economy of the states
more dynamic and pushed them towards liberalization. The tragedy could be considered as the
internal forces in managing national economies. Malaysia is one of the state that use state led and
controlled model of economic management, as they arranged the quota for Malays and other
groups in particular sectors.
4
K. Snitwongse dan W.S.Thompson, p.55