A great story in today’s paper on how Malaysia’s decision to modify its bumiputra or positive discrimination policy. Bumiputra, which offered preferential treatment to ethnic Malays, has been in place since 1971 as a pillar of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s New Economic Policy.

How this change will affect business, which had been legally required to reserve an equity stake of 30 per cent for Malay investors, will be interesting to see.

A lot of it seems to be down to the leadership of the recently appointed prime minister, Najib Razak (pictured), who has surprised observers with his reformist zeal.

For another, broader take on life in Malaysia, Ian Buruma recently wrote about the state of Malaysian politics and society in the New Yorker magazine (registration required to read the whole piece). It gives a good sense of the roots of the policy and wider society.

UPDATE: My colleague Gideon Rachman on ethnic quotas and sodomy in Malaysia

July 1, 2009 10:10am in Management | Comment