How ethnic interests are addressed in the nation’s economic and social development will be one of the major determinants of the success or failure of 1Malaysia.

It was with the advent of British colonial rule and the mass influx of Chinese and Indian migrant labour that the question of ethnicity in its present form emerged as a formidable challenge.

In fact, it was because colonial capitalism had become so dominant, and had, in the process, enhanced the power of both the British and their Chinese compradors that the former, at the urging of the Malay elite, introduced Malay reserves, and set aside business licenses and scholarships for the community as a sort of sop to a people who had been marginalised in the land which carried their name and embodied their identity...