The NEP and UMNO's political hegemony.

• Main Author: Choo, Jun Fei.
• Other Authors: Liow Chin Yong, Joseph
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science::Political institutions::Asia::Malaysia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/41788
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The New Economic Policy (NEP) was first implemented by the Malaysian government in 1971 as the principal policy response to the post-election racial riot between ethnic Malays and Chinese in May 1969. The racial conflict was largely caused by inter-ethnic resentment brought about by unequal distribution of national wealth concentrated mainly in the hands of the minority Chinese. The policy was formulated with two major objectives, namely to 'eradcate poverty irrespective of race' and to 'restructure society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function' in order to create the conditions for national unity. Despite its declared egalitarian objectives, the implementation of the NEP in practice, has often been racially-exclusive and targeted mainly on improving the socioeconomic condition of the Malays due to ethno-political reasons. This paper is an attempt to examine the political implications of the NEP for the ruling party, United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Specifically, it intends to reveal the extent in which the NEP has often been manipulated by political interest in order to secure UMN0's political hegemony.