ABSTRACT
Malaysia's economy grew at an average annual rate of almost 6.5 percent from 1961 to 2011. With sustained growth came profound structural change, transforming a post-colonial commodity exporter into one of Asia's newly industrialised countries. Many surveys of Malaysian development follow similar chronological schema by dividing the country's economic history into discrete phases marked by changes in the focus of development policy. The new economic policy inter-ethnic restructuring mission, and the expansion of the government's economic role that accompanied it, were responses to powerful domestic political pressures arising from a changing Malaysian social structure. The focus of explanation must therefore go beyond institutions as necessary factors to the strategic imperatives animating Malaysia's political leadership. A key starting point is the recognition that, more than a question of economic policy, development strategies have been central to the political regime's legitimation, and specifically to the maintenance of the hegemony of the ruling coalition and its dominant party, United Malays National Organisation.
