Although Malaysia is a multicultural society, the government did not manage it to create unity between the three major races since Malaysia´s independence in 1957:
Approximately 50,4% of the Malaysians are Malays, 23,7 %Chinese-Malaysians, 11 % indigenous people (Orang Asli und Dayak), 7,1 % Indian-Malaysians and 7,8 % of the population belong to other ethnicities.
One expression of the radical marginalization of the Chinese- and Indian-Malaysians is the program “Bumiputera”, which was introduced as a new economic policy after the bloody “race riots” in 1969. One reason for the race riots was the economic dominance of the Chinese- Malaysians: During that time, 33% of the Chinese- Malaysians controlled 90% of the economy. In form of a “positive discrimination law” the inner peace should be restored. The “Bumiputera rights” affect nearly every aspect of public life, incuding jobs, scholarships, purchase of land, etc. Bumiputera (=son of the earth) includes the ethnicities which are considered as being native. These are particularly Malays and the indigenous people. Already the term “Bumiputera” highlights that ethnicity is much more important than qualification.
However, following the agenda conquer and divide, ethnicities are further separated from childhood onwards. As famous example serves the Malaysian school system consisting of Chinese, Islamic and Indian schools and so forth. Education, however, takes place in the official languages Bahasa Melayu/ English. And, of course, racism finds its way up to the political level: Only Malays can serve as Prime Minister or Minister.
Also the judicial system is questionable. Malaysia is a theocratic state, which means: While the British Common Law is applied to the non- Muslims, syariah law – which also differs depending on the federal state – is applied on the Malays. Malays are born into Islam and it is difficult if not impossibe to convert to another religion. Also Atheism is considered as unconstitutional. However, who infringes, gets punished. A syariah police strictly controls the adherence of Islamic rules. This includes, for example, that a Muslim person is prohibited from having sex before marriage. At the same time, religious- mixed marriages are illegal in Malaysia, which means that the non-Islamic partner has to convert to Islam to marry his/her beloved one. You can imagine, which massive problems are caused due to this law.
Politics and Human Rights in Malaysia 