ABSTRACT
Few Malaysian issues are as complicated and consequential – and at the same time, as inflamed and muddled – as affirmative action. The policies address a specific problem: under-representation of a population group – categorised by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, region, and so on – in socio-economic positions that affect the collective esteem and stature of the group. Affirmative action is cross-cuts broader aspirations, chiefly national unity and multicultural integration. However, such aspirations are contingent on myriad other factors –cultural policy, basic schooling, education curricula, political discourse – and the role of affirmative action is indirect and supplementary. The ethnicity-basis of affirmative action and various problems associated with its implementation in Malaysia have raised questions on alternatives – specifically, the utilisation of policies that target assistance on the basis of need. Malaysia's Constitution clearly provides for affirmative action – not as a perpetual obligation but as possible action contingent on necessity.
