Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 13. June 11 1979
Racial Discrimination
Racial Discrimination
During the colonial rule, a 'Divide and Rule' tactic was adopted by the British. 'Malay Special Rights' were given to the Malays. After independence of Malaya, similar tactic was used. A consequence of the Malay privileges was the creation of a bureaucratic (mainly Malay) class during the period 1957/1969.
This Malay bureaucratic class had the personal ambition of profiting from the capitalist system adopted by the then government. However, their attempts to make in-roads into the established capitalist sector controlled by the foreigners and Chinese were largely failed. The May 13th 1969 incident marked a turning point of their effort as Tun Abdul Razak representing the interests of the new Malay bureaucratic class were able to replace Tengka Abdul Rahman who represented the aristocratic interest. Other than trying to increase the employment, trade and industry opportunities for the Malays, the new government also viewed education as one of the opportunities for the Malay bureaucratic class to become rich as well as gaining social status.
Thus after the implementation of New Economic Policy by the government in 1970, there was a drastic decrease in opportunities for the non-Malays in all sectors, including educational opportunities. For example, the intake of Malays to tertiary institutions have increased from 49.7% to 65.1% in 1975 whereas the Chinese decreased from 42.7% to 31.1% in the same year. This deprivation of educational opportunities are one of the main causes of Malaysian Chinese going overseas.
Thus, we see that the two major causes of the large exodus of Malaysian students going overseas are due to: Firstly, shortages of educational facilities as a consequence of past colonial rule and the present government serving foreign interests. Secondly, racial discrimination due to racial policy of the present government.