Malaysia with a population of over 13 million, is a multiracial country. Hence, race relations are indeed a crucial and critical element of the everyday life of Malaysian society.

In West Malaysia, Malays, most of them peasants, constitute about 47% of the population. They dominate the government administration and the military. On the other hand, the Chinese, who constitute some 35% of the population, have a much larger share of capital holdings, and thus more economic power than the Malays. Indians, the smallest of the 3 major racial groups, enjoy neither political nor economic power.

Despite the above [unclear: phenom] tensions among the country's [unclear: u] groups cannot be explained in [unclear: ter] race relations; these tensions economic roots. The obvious important fact is that foreign [unclear: capi] won more than half of West [unclear: Mala] share capital, effectively [unclear: dominati] modern economy. More-over with and between — racial groupings, are class relations. It is the elite of group, particularly Malay [unclear: bureau] and politicians, who have [unclear: manipu] the racial question to enhance and [unclear: p] their own positions.