Ethnicity and Political Conflict

Despite the Malaysian government's adoption of a policy of

Tolerance and the Ministry of Education's promotion of greater understanding among the various ethnic groups, there appears to be a lingering ethnocentricity that is taking a much longer time to remove than formally anticipated.

A backlash occurred against these policies when the integration of groups through the Chinese schools was undertaken in 1987. At that time the government used its extensive powers to appoint more than one hundred nonsinophone teachers to Chinese schools. This provoked mass public protests by the Chinese community. These protests led to counterdemonstrations by UMNO youth organizations. To restore order, the government invoked its powers to detain more than one hundred people without trial. Politicians from all parties, lawyers, journalists, and leaders of pressure organizations were detained. In addition, three newspapers were closed and political rallies were banned.

The government introduced legislation to impose stringent penalties on publishers and editors if they published what the government regarded as "false" news. At the same time, the minister of information was given the authority to monitor all radio and television broadcasts and to revoke the license of any private broadcasting company that did not conform with "Malaysian values."

In June, 1988, the government introduced legislation removing the right of recourse to the courts for persons detained under the Internal Security Act. In 1991 the public sale of political party newspapers was banned. Sections of international publications available in Malay, such as USA Today and Time, were often censored. These restrictions on a free press have been viewed by many as an attempt to further undermine opposition parties.

The BN's greatest difficulties under Prime Minister Mahathir's leadership came in Borneo, especially in Sabah. It was not until 1991 that UMNO established its first branch there, where the ruling parties had been the Muslim United Sabah National Organization (USNO) and the Sabah United Party (PBS), a multiethnic party. The PBS joined the BN in 1986 but withdrew from it prior to the 1990 general election to ally itself with Semangat '46.

After the BN's electoral victory, Prime Minister Mahathir excluded Sabah chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan from government meetings and withheld development funds from the state. In spite of or perhaps because of this, the PBS won the state election in 1994. However, UMNO managed to engineer numerous defections from Pairin Kitingan and construct a coalition agreement with Tan Sri Sakaran Dandai as chief minister.

The coalition agreement included a promise that the post of chief minister would rotate among Sabah's three main ethnic groups, the Malays, the Chinese, and the Kadazan. However, in March, 1996, Prime Minister Mahathir supported Salleh Tun Said, the Malay incumbent, to stay on provisionally. This move greatly angered and helped to alienate the other ethnic groups.

The general election of April, 1995, was a triumph for the BN and Prime Minister Mahathir. At that time Mahathir insisted on Salleh's resignation as chief minister of Sabah and replaced him, in accordance with his original pledge, with the Chinese leader of the Sabah Progressive Party, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, despite the opposition of the Sabah wing of UMNO.

The possibility of a major restructuring of the UMNO did not appear to be likely in the near future, because the UMNO had adopted the policy of not allowing Mahathir to be challenged at the triennial party congress meetings.

As an emerging nation, Malaysia has successfully dealt with the challenges of industrializing an agricultural economy. However, modern Malaysian cultural and linguistic policies are not geared toward creating a melting pot scenario or cultural pluralism. If Malaysian multiculturalism is to survive and to prosper, it appears that the issue of a more equitable distribution of wealth so that no particular group is economically deprived or sanctioned will need to be addressed.

This problem is greatly influenced by a newly fluctuating downward economic trend that is serving to accentuate cultural differences. This decline was so severe in the late 1990's that the international community had to provide economic aid to Malaysia to stabilize the situation.

While the rapid growth of the Malaysian economy had been stimulated by the policies of the Malaysian government to attract foreign direct investment into the manufacturing sector, the Chinese believed it was a deliberate policy of ethnic bypass, aimed at reducing the dominance of Malaysian Chinese business. Despite Malaysian Chinese suspicions, Prime Minister Mahathir managed to retain support in Malaysia's minority communities. In November, 1999, the prime minister's Barisan National coalition won a close parliamentary election largely as a result of Chinese and Indian votes.

Conflict is thus created in the economic arena because the Malays control the government while the Chinese still have their fingers on the economic pulse. In addition, Malaysia faces both regional and world conflict as a result of Prime Minister Mahathir's confrontational politics, especially his strong advocacy of the East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC) and his proposal of an allAsian economic zone. That proposed zone would exclude the Western countries of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, which are pushing for a Pacific rim economic zone. Given concerns about increasing pollution and congestion in addition to the broader economic issues, Malaysia emerges as a country that is full of promise but also full of economic and social problems that may precipitate serious political crises.