Ethnic affirmative action has shaped Malaysian policymaking and political discourse for more than five decades.
The transformational New Economic Policy (NEP) and subsequent similar frameworks have anchored national debates on inequality, opportunity and the country’s broader social contract.
Yet despite how central these policies are to our politics, our understanding of where inter-ethnic inequality actually stands today is surprisingly patchy: we know the broad narrative, but not the details. We talk about progress or regression, quotas and meritocracy, but rarely examine who has moved up, who has stalled and why.
BFM talks to Lee Hwok-Aun, a senior fellow and co-coordinator of the Malaysia Studies Programme at Iseas–Yusof Ishak Institute. He recently published an article titled Inter-ethnic income inequality in Malaysia: Revisiting old records, exploring new narratives, which takes a hard look at these questions and challenges some of our long-held assumptions.
Presenter & producer: Dashran Yohan/BFM
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
