The Bumiputera as a Political Creation

Analysing Malay Identity in a Globalising Malaysia

Abstract

In the 2013 Malaysian General Elections, the coalition of political parties collectively known as Barisan Nasional (BN), which has ruled politically since Malaysia’s independence, found its rule heavily contested by the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Within their competing visions laid out to gain the support of the people, one issue that emerged as a point of contention was that of the bumiputera, revealing the parties’ view of the Malay people’s identification with the ‘Malay’ identity. The label of bumiputera (lit. son of the soil) has been used by the government since Malaysia’s inception in 1957 to categorise Malay citizens, creating the largest racial group in the multicultural nation. The term is most commonly encountered when discussing the affirmative action policies known collectively as the Bumiputera policy, officially termed the New Economic Policy (NEP), which provides preferential treatment to Malays identifying as bumiputera. The driving force behind this politics of race lies in Malaysia’s colonial history, and an Orientalist lens – the lens used by Edward Said in Orientalism to dissect Western-created representations – can be brought to bear as a tool to examine the state-driven development of the ‘Malay’ identity.