'I wouldn't be where I am without bumiputera rights'

MALAYSIA'S YOUNG MALAYS ON RACE AND PRIVILEGE

- Hazlin Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR – Twenty-three-year-old student Aidil Azmady hails from a suburb in Melaka, the west coast state where more than 70 per cent of the population is made up of ethnic Malay/Muslims like him.

He has lived in Bangi, a Malay-majority enclave on the fringes of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur for the last three years, and has few friends from other races.

He is also a beneficiary of affirmative action, which has secured him a spot to study engineering at Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute on a scholarship from a government agency.

For him, the special privileges given to his community are equivalent to "citizen's rights", and should be kept.

"I studied in a private college before – the fees are not affordable for Malay students," he told The Straits Times.

Race and the privileges attached to it continue to create dividing lines in multicultural Malaysia. Malays form the majority with 60 per cent of the 32 million population, while Chinese, Indians and other ethnic groups make up the remaining 40 per cent.

A survey of young people released by independent think-tank Merdeka Center in September revealed that respondents across all ethnicities were evenly split over whether Malaysians should be treated equally regardless of race and religion, with 48 per cent agreeing with equal treatment and 49 per cent in favour of retaining special rights for bumiputeras, or sons of the soil, a grouping comprising mainly Malays and other indigenous people.

But when the survey of 1,605 young people aged 18 to 30 drilled down to answers from Malay respondents, it found that 73 per cent of them backed the continuation of bumiputera privileges and only 24 per cent were in favour of equal rights for all Malaysians.