The Malaysian Chinese Dilemma: The Never Ending Policy (NEP)

The controversial New Economic Policy (NEP) in Malaysia has been used to marginalise the Chinese community. This article details the NEP's extensive economic, educational and social benefits to the bumiputera (essentially Malay) community on the basis of ethnicity alone, and how this has permanently harmed relations between Malay and non-Malay communities. While officially the NEP was supposedly designed to eradicate poverty and help the indigenous community to catch up to the non-indigenous, in reality the NEP was rooted in the ideology of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay political supremacy/hegemony). The article argues that an end to NEP-type policies is not possible even with a change in the Barisan Nasional (National Front) regime.