This chapter traces the political marginalisation of the main Bumiputera (indigenous) political grouping in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. Often ignored by scholars working on Malaysia, their political plight and marginalisation by the Muslim powerbrokers in both states in the past two decades are symbolic of the making of a ‘Malay Muslim’ state, rather than the promise of multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysian federation. In theory, the Bumiputera were favoured in all political, economic and social spheres under the infamous New Economic Policy (NEP). They are supposed to get easy access to government jobs, scholarships and places in public universities, special licences and easy credit. In reality, it would appear that these benefits are only available to Muslim Bumiputera (MB) while the majority Bumiputera, being non-Malay and non-Muslim, are marginalised or get very little benefit from the NEP and other affirmative action policies.

Since the early 1990s politics in Sarawak and Sabah can best be described as an unequal contest between the three main groups: the Muslim Bumiputera (MB), the Non-Muslim Bumiputera (NMB) and the Chinese. The largest NMB political grouping in Sarawak is the Dayak and in Sabah the Kadazandusun.

Sarawak: Divide and Rule by Melanau Elite

Politically, the Dayak (a collective term to describe all non-Muslim native groupings) should be the most powerful group or, at least, the second most powerful, in Sarawak politics. Numbering more than 40 per cent of the population, they should at the very least be able to command a key position in the state political structure. The first two Chief Ministers of Sarawak, Stephen Kalong Ningkan and Tawi Sli, were both from the Iban-Dayak community. From the 1960s till the mid-1970s it was widely understood that any group wanting power in Sarawak had to have the support of the Dayak community. This is no longer the case. What happened?

In simple terms, the Dayak community was deliberately split into many factions and political groupings. This made it impossible for the Dayak to unite under a single political party. In the 1960s and 1970s, Dayak support was mainly found in two parties: the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) and the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP).