Looking Back at Malaysia’s New Economic Plan

Malaysia is an interesting country. Located in Southeast Asia, its population is made up of the native Malay people along with substantial minorities of Chinese and Indians. Malaysia has one of the largest populations of overseas Chinese in the world.

It is also one of the more successful economies in Southeast Asia. Growing at an average of 6.5% per annum over the 50 years after Independence, the Malaysian economy is doing well on the whole. Social stability between the races are decent.

It was not always like this. In the late 1960s, the country found itself gripped in racial turmoil. Then in 1971, the Malaysian government embarked on a 20-year radical restructuring of its economy. No, its entire society.

The plan was called the New Economic Policy ("NEP"). The NEP rewrote the social contract between the Malays and the Chinese. It is pretty intense, yet the Wikipedia page is oh so dry. In this video, I want to talk a bit about it.

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