That WSJ article refers to Malaysia as a "racially charged Southeast Asian nation." It explains as follows:
Long considered one of the most stable and peaceful countries in Asia, the majority-Muslim Malay country has become increasingly fractured along racial lines in recent years, as ethnic Chinese, Indian and other residents demand changes to boost their stake in the economy. Other groups, ranging from conservative Islamist Malays to secular progressives, have also sought overhauls to give them a bigger say in government and to rein in corruption.The CIA World Factbook gives the ethnicity of Malaysians as follows: Malay 50.4%, Straits Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, other 7.8%. Those numbers suggest the Malays are not much of a "majority" but more of a "modal" group.
An ethnically Chinese MBA student of mine who was a citizen of Malaysia reported that the British, as they were leaving, set up Malaysia's governmental structure to give control of the nation to the ethnic Malays. The large Chinese minority became the merchant class, as they are in Indonesia, Vietnam, and elsewhere across Southeast Asia.
These two large groups - Malay and Chinese - resent and envy each other. Malays resent the Chinese wealth and Chinese resent the government's pro-Malay bias. Add in that Muslims only are roughly 60% of the population. Meanwhile the country acts like a Muslim nation, which is offensive to the nearly 40% who aren't Muslim.
