Affirmative Action in Private Sector in Malaysia - Observer Research ...

What is probably more useful takeaway from the Malaysian experience is its focus and
strategies in investing on building massive human resource capacities among Bumiputeras in
order to enable them participate in the modern sectors of economy. As has been noted earlier,
the state and its agencies mounted an unprecedented amount of resources to have more
Bumpiputeras in higher education particularly in technical and high skilled professions. Apart
from expanding access to higher education, the state spent generously to bring up new
institutions, provided hundreds of scholarships for overseas education and training for
Bumiputeras apart from giving them critical launching pad to set up their businesses and so
on. Millions of Bumiputeras entered private sector through education and training route and
within just two decades could change the previous workforce composition to their advantage.
Of course, there are issues like many of them are placed in lower end jobs and they are yet to
massively get into top technical and managerial positions. But this achievement is no small
feat. And if the current trends are any true, more and more qualified Bumiputeras are now
getting in big ways to top private sector positions. In short, Malaysia’s most enduring
achievement is probably its emphasis on creating a large pool of eligible Bumiputeras than
the forced equity restructuring and so on. It is here probably India can draw much lessons
while designing affirmative action programmes for its disadvantaged groups which has a
negligible presence in growing private sector. Therefore, human resource route is the key to
aid disadvantaged sections to find greater representation in private sector.
To sum up, the preceding analyses point to the preeminent role of the state in terms of
facilitating selective interventions in private sector and most practical way of doing this
would be through human resource route than blanket quota. And given the fact that the
country is going through a high growth trajectory, it can afford to direct substantial resources
and in some cases can persuade private sector players to come out with innovative
affirmative methods/tools and surely avoid quota fixation as Malaysia had employed. In
short, Malaysian experience certainly expands the affirmative choices by offering more
menus for thoughts to make private sector more inclusive than it looks today.
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