ABSTRACT
Over the two decades before the currency crisis of late 1997, Malaysia experienced rapid industrialisation and increased prosperity. This was achieved through the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1971-90, and particularly through Prime Minister Mahathir’s successful repositioning of the economy from an agricultural to a manufacturing orientation, relying on high levels of foreign investment, especially from Japan. These factors were effectively combined under Mahathir’s Look East Policy (LEP) of 1981, which gave even more emphasis to the importance of Japan in Malaysia’s economic development, and enhanced the NEP in its decisive role in shaping the social and cultural character of Malaysia’s new rich. Principally through its ‘social engineering’ strategy favouring the Malays (bumiputera), the NEP fostered the creation of a large new middle class and waged working class, both of whom constitute Malaysia’s ‘new rich’.1 In part, this process centred on high levels of Japanese investment which created many positions for professional managers, technicians and process workers in the new factories. The transplant of Japanese work ethics and systems of management, with associated training and exchange programmes, also influenced people’s mentalities and life strategies. Finally, the predominance of Japanese consumer goods had great impact in the sphere of consumption and lifestyles (Smith 1994b).
