Malaysia Update

It's time to take a look at Malaysia, a nation which has been independent from the British Empire for 55 years. Upon leaving the Brits set up a situation that strongly favored the majority ethnic Malays, who were then (and are still) substantially poorer than the ethnic Chinese minority who control most of the wealth in the country.

It would appear that the Malay affirmative action programs are losing support among ethnic Chinese, see a long, thorough Reuters article on a Yahoo News website. The article leads this way:

Ethnic Chinese voters, upset over policies that favor majority Malays, have become increasingly alienated from Malaysia's ruling coalition, raising the risk of racial polarization.

Multi-ethnic democratic countries are difficult to govern under the best of circumstances, as we know in the U.S. and our Canadian neighbors to the north know much better.

Footnote: The English-speaking majority in Canada has been effectively blackmailed for decades by their French-speaking minority. Openly blackmailed, and without shame, with the threat of separation. This scenario is unlikely in Malaysia.