Why Are ‘Malays’ Economically Worse Off In Malaysia Than Countries Where They Are Minorities?

Murray Hunter


Why Are ‘Malays’ Economically Worse Off In Malaysia Than Countries Where They Are Minorities? – OpEd


Jul 21, 2025





Malays are a political construct coined by the British during colonial times to include a wide spectrum of ethnic groups. The Malay construct includes most ethnic groups across “Nusantara”. Malaysia is a nation made up of a number of those groups within the Malay Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.

One would think that after 60 years of the government imposed Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) policies, such as the New Economic Policy (NEP) and derivatives, with Malay rulers, the Malay ethnic group would be one of wealthiest ethnic groups in the world.

Certainly, Malaysia’s top few percent of wealthy elites are Malays. However, the bulk of Malaysia’s Malay population have not done very well economically, except for civil servants, which comprises about 1.7 million people.

I have seen with my own eyes, Malays living in earth floored homes with no furniture, refrigerator or televisions. Many of these families don’t even have cars, have poor health and no savings. In contrast, career civil servants have large family urban homes, a second car, their children on education scholarships, and savings. This group enhance their lifestyles through debt driven consumerism.

With Singapore’s per-capita income the 4th highest in the world, Brunei at 31st place, and Malaysia at 72nd place, seven places behind China at 67th place, something is wrong.

Where have all the hand outs, grants, and positive discrimination policies gone?

Its obvious that corruption hidden by the Ketuanan Melayu branding, and the annual hijacking of the federal budget for the benefit of the elite Malay establishment has cost ordinary Malays dearly.

Malays in Singapore, Southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, Australia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa are minorities in these countries they live in. They receive no favoritism, grants, or other assistance in becoming moderately wealthy and influential these countries.

In the above countries, Malay communities build their own Mesjids and create their own community welfare systems, and community savings societies, which provide microfinancing. Community management is undertaken by Malays, of Malays, and for Malays, not by top-down bureaucracy, as exists in Malaysia, but by the communities themselves.

That’s part of the difference. Government and bureaucracy favors the elite with two-tier tax and legal systems.

If you connected there a ‘perks’ aplenty. However, most rural and urban Malays, who are not ‘well connected’, don’t get the same privileges and opportunities. Just see how many children are granted GLC scholarships from corporations like Petronas, Sime Darby and Khazanah. Just go to see for yourself and ask them.

The Malays have proven themselves to be resilient entrepreneurs. Its just the regulations in Malaysia prevents many micro and SME enterprises growing. If you don’t have contacts, you won’t obtain any government contracts. Once again, just go out and ask.

Malays are victims of a brutal banking system, mostly owned by the government. Banks won’t lend Malays money unless they have cash or property as collateral. This is a major issue for many rural Malays, whose personal land holdings are being diluted through hereditary laws. Just see how slow the banks are in giving interest relief to borrowers after the OPR was dropped earlier in the month. Banks look after their profits before their customers welfare. This has disastrous effects on enterprises with struggling cashflows.

Lack of entrepreneurship education

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data shows that the motivation to start a business is below that of other GEM countries, and entrepreneurship activity is below average of other GEM countries. The latest Malaysia GEM study was in 2006, as there has been no funding to continue such important research for policy making. According to research, the major reasons why entrepreneurship is in a much poorer position than other countries was inadequate financial support, bureaucracy, inconsistency of government policy, and lack of entrepreneurial education.

The elephant in the room is lack of effective entrepreneurial education. While Malays spend up to 67 percent of their time in religious education, students in other countries are learning the necessities for life, focusing on vocational skills development, creativity, and solving problems.

Malaysia is a ‘nanny state’ that has a ‘culture of dependency’, where many expect the state to provide them with a living, hand-outs, and grants. Likewise, the government created a wealthy crony class that has relied upon government for business and income. Corruption is considered a necessity to run a business within this environment.

As government debt continues to rise with budget deficit, budgets provide cronies with even more opportunities, all paid for by the people. As debt continues to rise and one day, the government will be forced to run budget surpluses, economic activity will collapse.

‘An attack on Malay culture

The Malay culture is also under attack through Arabization, pressures for conformity, while cronies are given easy rent-seeking opportunities through what are now called public-private partnerships. The new Malay culture has a deep sense of entitlement, which Malays in other countries don’t share. This inhibits any sense of adventure into business and dampens creativity and the will to start-up new enterprises.

Thus, Malays expect opportunities to be provided to them rather than going out and seeking their own. Most MSMEs are copy-cat enterprises, seeing other businesses as models. This often leads to price cutting, or some enterprises just going out of business. Even the government Ramlah scheme attacked the vitality of Malay micro-enterprises by competing directly against them. There is not enough creativity generated in society for people to develop new business models based upon product differentiation. This is the result of poor entrepreneurship education.

When Malays become dependent on hand-outs for start-ups and have developed a culture of employing people to do the early start-up, work they should do themselves, they are doomed to fail.

The entitled mentality has actually doomed Malays to become locked up within their own income prisons, which they can’t get out of. They can only generate enough income to survive and can’t grow. Thus, wealth cannot be created, except through government sources of income.

Malaysia needs a policy change to address the issues above. However, most of the nation’s leaders come from the elite Malay establishment. These leaders must be replaced by those who see the reality of the position of the Malays on the ground.

If this can be done, Malays can be emancipated and have an opportunity in their own country.