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

A JAPANESE FIRM IN MALAYSIA 115
affirmative action approach of the NEP aimed to create entrepreneurial
opportunities which would place 30 per cent of national equity in Malay hands by
1990. 8 This was to be achieved by economic growth rather than the redistribution
of existing shares, although there was redistribution at the expense of foreign, mainly
Western, investors. This policy further increased Malaysia’s reliance on foreign
investment, largely from Japan, to provide partners, capital and technical knowhow,
for fledgeling Malay capitalists. It is in this context that industrialisation has
special significance in Malaysia, particularly after the NEP, because of its stimulus
towards social as well as economic change. In the economic sense it promised
economic growth and more waged occupations for the population. In the social
sense it promised raised living standards and symbols of modernity, but these are
only to be achieved within the social matrix of highly politicised ethnic diversity.
Despite the fact that a large Malay working class has been generated by the
NEP, the union movement has been emasculated in the process (Smith 1996:45).
Moreover, a significant byproduct of the NEP era has been the transformation of
the class consciousness of the workers into a preoccupation with ethnic rivalries
and consumer ideals.
Although Malay participation in the national economy has increased significantly
under the NEP which provided education opportunities, capital loans and other
benefits, on a population quota or even discriminatory basis in favour of the
Malays, poorer Malays benefited least. Indeed, the NEP hastened the development
of the middle class of all ethnic groups, as Chinese businessmen acted as silent
partners of new, inexperienced Malay entrepreneurs. More important for this
chapter is the fact that NEP-led industrialisation generated a class of managers
and other professionals in occupations involving the ‘mental production’ process. 9
Despite rapid growth of the middle class and its more or less common lifestyle,
foreign companies employing these new Malaysian professional managers cannot
avoid the pervasive ideology of ethnic division. Under the Industrial Coordination
Act (ICA) of 1974, ethnic percentages which mirror national population ratios must
be represented at all levels of the organisation. Until the mid-1980s there were not
enough Malays with the necessary tertiary qualifications to fill managerial positions
in many new large corporations. To fulfil the conditions of the ICA, companies
were forced to recruit large numbers of Malay graduates and promote them to
positions of responsibility before they were sufficiently experienced. This led to
accusations of ethnic favouritism in promotions, and also to a stereotype that the
Malays were incompetent. Foreign managers also encountered ethnic tensions on
the shop floor, though some learned to use these to the company’s advantage
(Smith 1994a:170).
At all levels of Malaysian society, consumerism is a powerful force, sometimes
mitigating the forces of ethnic traditionalism, sometimes strengthening them. The
material gains of the new middle class–urban housing, ownership of Proton Saga
motor cars, the ability to shop in large shopping malls, many of them designed
around a Japanese department store–are clearly visible to factory workers.
Although they do not have the income levels to replicate the lifestyles of the middle