Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

114 WENDY A.SMITH
The chapter is divided into three sections. It begins with a brief survey of
Malaysia’s industrialisation process and, in particular, Japan’s contribution through
direct investment and the LEP. Section two presents an ethnography of the
cultural construction of the new rich in the context of the Japanese firm Iroha (M).
Here, I begin with a brief description of the firm, and then examine how the internal
dynamics within the firm’s management system, combined with external factors,
influence the recruitment process of local managers and shape their subsequent
career development as executive officers resulting in their entry into the middle
class. Several brief biographical case studies of these managers are presented to
illustrate their class origin and the cultural construction of their social life as newrich
members of post-NEP Malaysian society. Section three reflects on the need to
understand the intricate linkages between the economy and cultural practice from
macro to micro levels of focus.
MALAYSIA’S INDUSTRIALISATION
State, culture and class
Compared with other plural societies, Malaysia shows an unusually balanced
ethnic structure made up of two dominant groups: the indigenous groups, or
bumiputera (Malays and others), who make up about 62 per cent of the population,
and the immigrant groups (Chinese and Indians) who make up the rest. Malaysian
society as a whole is characterised by highly diversified cultural practices in terms
of language and religious beliefs which provide the sanctions for diet, dress and
other behavioural codes, creating a challenging situation for social interaction
between Malaysians, both in the workplace and in the community at large. For
example, while eating together is a fundamental way of developing social cohesion,
there are many contexts where religious taboos prevent Malaysians of different
ethnic origins from eating and drinking together. 7
The correlation between ethnic identity, on the one hand, and economic function,
educational performance, political dominance and cultural practices, on the other,
has become a matter of concern for both the state and the people: it continuously
dominates everyday discourse, as well as grassroots and formal political
processes. Indeed, it shapes social interaction at all levels of the society. The
situation can be characterised as one of stable tension (Shamsul 1994), although
the ethnic riots that occurred in May 1969 demonstrated the fact that the
ethnicisation of the economy and popular political discourse can result in open
bloody conflict.
The state justified the launch of the NEP of 1971—90 as the solution to some of
the problems related to this incident. The policy clearly favoured Malays and other
indigenous groups, and aimed to redress their grievances by promoting economic
growth to eradicate poverty and to restructure society away from the perceived
correlation of economic function with ethnic identity. In substance, the pro-Malay