Borneo Today - Borneo - page 552

voters are in an increasingly anti-establishment mood and receptive to the opposition
People's Alliance.

Ethnic Preferences
Following the race riots of 1969, the Malaysian government implemented a policy of 'af-
firmative action' (ie positive discrimination) to give the majority Malays a more equitable
share of the economic pie. The result was a range of subsidies and preferences designed to
benefit a category of people called bumiputra ('sons of the soil') that encompasses Malays
and, in Sabah and Sarawak, indigenous groups (Dayaks) - that is, virtually everyone ex-
cept the Chinese (and, on the mainland, Indians). Some Dayaks jokingly refer to them-
selves as 'third-class bumiputra ' because while they are supposed to be among the bene-
ficiaries of affirmative action, most advantages seem to accrue to Malays.
As a result of these policies, ethnic Chinese
have found themselves facing quotas and dis-
crimination in housing, higher education and
public-sector jobs. Critics say the system has
created incentives in which individual merit
counts less than your background, that wealthy
Malays game the system at the expense of the
poor Malays it was intended to help, and that Malaysia's global competitiveness is being
sapped. Some Chinese have become frustrated and alienated, causing a brain drain the
country can ill afford. Reform, however, has not been on political parties' pre-election
agendas because entrenched Malay interest groups oppose reforms with populist passion.

In Brunei, the government offers financial incent-
ives to convert to Islam. The Baha'i Faith is
banned.

Inter-Ethnic Relations

Relations between the dozens of ethnic groups in Sarawak and Sabah tend to be more re-
laxed and open than in Peninsular Malaysia, but the states are not quite the multicultural
paradise portrayed in Tourism Malaysia's 'Malaysia - Truly Asia!' campaign. Malays
form the majority in a country based on ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy), but they
are a minority in Sabah and Sarawak; ethnic Chinese wonder about their place in a society
that often treats them as outsiders, generations after their ancestors put down roots; mem-
bers of indigenous groups (Dayaks) juggle tribal identity and religious affiliation (the ma-
jority are Christian) in a Muslim-majority society that knows little about them.
Marriages are common between Dayak groups that hunted each other's heads just a few
generations back, and between Dayaks and Chinese. Some Dayak parents, seeking the
best education for their children, send them to academically rigorous Chinese schools