'Special Rights'

'Special rights' demonstrates in microcosm all of the dislocations, imbalances, and tensions of dependence and paternalism flowing from aid-agency sponsored development programmes.

'Special rights' is a system of controls developed by the British through land laws, public service admission and education policies, to preserve the traditions and structure of Malay society and so make the Raja class more effective junior partners of British colonialism; Expanded by the post-independence contemporaries of the same class, the same notions of rights and privileges are defended as an appropriate strategy for quite contrary objectives — economic uplift and the social transformation of Malay society. The 'control' component in the Alliance's special rights is however far more than latent.