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Malaysia
This Week in AsiaOpinion
Hwok-Aun Lee
Hwok-Aun Lee

Opinion | Can Mahathir’s government get Malaysians to believe in shared prosperity – regardless of race?

  • The ruling coalition’s road map for progress emphasises Bumiputra development, while establishing ‘decent living for all’ as a goal
  • But Malaysians don’t need to choose between needs-based and race-based policies – and Pakatan Harapan needs to show them both can coexist

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The Kuala Lumpur skyline, as seen through a cracked glass pane. Photo: Bloomberg
Hwok-Aun Lee
The recent soft launch of the Shared Prosperity Vision (SPV), Malaysia’s development road map from 2021 to 2030, places a heavy emphasis on Bumiputra development, while setting “decent living for all” as an overarching goal. Understandably, the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition is under pressure to show the majority Bumiputra population – comprised of Malays and indigenous groups – that their interests and apprehensions are addressed.
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At the May 2018 general elections, Pakatan Harapan secured about 25-30 per cent of the Malay vote in Peninsular Malaysia, with the other 65-70 per cent going to the opposition in a split between Malay party Umno and Islamist party PAS. The ruling coalition has continually struggled to make further inroads into the Malay heartland. The Umno-PAS opposition pact, forged in September 2019 to rally around Malay primacy, further boxed Pakatan Harapan into a corner.

The prominence of pro-Bumiputra policies and inter-ethnic inequalities in the SPV is expected. The second of three key objectives sets out to “reduce disparities in income and wealth” across various dimensions, including race, ethnicity, income groups, and regions. While the government insists that all dimensions matter, the ethnic dimension markedly takes precedence. The SPV’s placement of income and wealth at its core also poses problems for policy orderliness and efficacy.

Predictably, the government is facing a resistance over the road map, notably from non-Bumiputra communities who overwhelmingly voted for Pakatan Harapan in 2018. A crescendo rises, of laments at the persistence of race-based policies in the “New Malaysia”. How might the Pakatan Harapan government branch away from this polarising and seemingly intractable state of affairs? Can a coherent, effective and cohesive policy vision cut through the fog and tension?

Two reformulations to the SPV will greatly help. First, Pakatan Harapan should clearly and methodically articulate how pro-poor, needs-based policies are distinct from pro-Bumiputra, race-based policies – and specify the different areas of intervention. Second, policies that target ethnic groups – whether Bumiputras, Indians, or the Orang Asli indigenous peoples – must build upwards, by focusing first and foremost on capability and participation instead of income and wealth, which are currently given pride of place.
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