Introduction

The prevailing practice of affirmative action typically involves introducing measures to raise the participation of members of an economically disadvantaged group in the areas of education, employment and business, where they had been historically excluded or underrepresented. Measures taken are generally in the form of preferential policies toward members of a designated group, based on criteria such as a particular ethnicity, gender, or religion. Precisely because affirmative action measures entail bestowing preferential treatment on members of a designated group, they invariably will generate controversy; in particular preferential treatment on the basis of ethnicity and gender has generated intense, passionate debate.

While affirmative action policies vary substantially across countries in terms of the beneficiary groups, nevertheless, in nearly all countries the beneficiaries are groups which are economically and socially disadvantaged and politically subordinate. Malaysia's affirmative action policy differs from those of other countries in one crucial respect — it is “the politically dominant majority group which introduces preferential policies to raise its economic status as against that of an economically more advanced minorities”. The majority ethnic group that has the power to legislate the affirmative action policies and receive the benefits from those policies in Malaysia are the Malays. Conversely, it is the Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities, the most advanced economic groups, who have felt most victimized by the affirmative action policies.

Another unique feature of Malaysian affirmative action is that preferential treatment for the Malays and other indigenous groups was written into the Malaysian Constitution, under Article 153. In other words, affirmative action in Malaysia is a consitutionally sanctioned and exclusively ethnic-based policy where only the Malays and other native groups are entitled to receive preferential treatment. Besides being written into the Constitution, the wording of Article 153 links the ethnic preferential treatment to the safeguarding of the “special position” of the Malay community. This has given rise to the prevalent and prevailing Malay popular opinion that views preferential treatment as part of their “special rights” and thus not open to negotiation.