KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's first serious survey of race relations in more than 50 years indicates that behind the government-promoted facade of unity and peace, racism runs deep in one of Asia's most multi-ethnic melting pots.
The telephone survey of about 1,200 Malaysians also found that the majority of the various races find comfort and security in their respective ethnicity and not, as the official travel and tourism brochures suggest, in a common "Malaysian" identity.
The survey, conducted by the independent Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, also found that negative racial stereotyping was deeply entrenched. For example, minority Chinese and Indians see the majority Malays, who make up 60% of Malaysia's 25 million population, as lazy.
Chinese and Indians, who began migrating to Malaysia in the early 19th century, make up 26% and 8% of the population, respectively.
The survey's results cast a harsh light on the government's New Economic Policy (NEP), which was originally designed to promote social harmony and economic equality. Since 1970, the government has maintained a policy of positive discrimination that favors ethnic Malays over other races-including preferential treatment in employment, education, scholarships, business, access to cheaper housing and assisted savings.
In particular, these measures were aimed at reducing the yawning gap with the ethnic-Chinese community, which still dominates business in Malaysia, as it does throughout most of Southeast Asia.
Malaysia's ethnic-Chinese community was on the receiving end of the murderous 1969 race riots that prompted former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad to pass the NEP. In a bid to maintain social order, Mahathir often blacked out foreign news coverage when racial tensions erupted in nearby Indonesia, where the Chinese are also a minority population.
Originally designed to last for 20 years, the NEP has continued without check, sparking envy and resentment between Malays and non-Malays. Private companies must hand over 30% of equity to ethnic Malays and a portion of housing and commercial property must be sold to them.
"The findings are not at all surprising," social scientist Chandra Muzaffar said of the survey. "This is partly because ethnic boundaries are real in our society and almost every sphere of public life is linked to ethnicity in one way or another."
In a nation that claims to be a "melting pot", only 11% of the respondents said they had eaten often with friends from other races in the previous three months, and 34% said they had never had a meal with people of other races.
Full article: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HC24Ae01.html
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