CALONKINI | In his youth, Ong Siang Liang was a budding lawyer. The country’s economy was doing well at the time, but for Ong, unequal treatment of minorities had bred resentment.

Ong, 45, who hails from the sleepy hollow of Trong, Perak had to scrounge to put himself through a private law school while his lesser qualified peers entered public universities...