Policy Ideas - The New Economic Policy and Contesting Bumiputera Identity

It is clear that by the time of the implementation of the NEP from the early 1970s onwards, the notion of Bumiputeraism at the centre of the nation-state was increasingly understood as constituting two predominant ethnic markers: Malayness and Islam. [...] Developmentalism and Postcolonial Deterritorialisation of East Malaysian Indigenous Communities The early promise of extending the special position and rights of Malays as Bumiputera to the indigenes of Sabah and Sarawak via the formation of Malaysia was embedded in Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees to “safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives of the States. [...] The unleashing of the NEP in the name of Bumiputeraism from the centre to the periphery of the nation-state simultaneously meant the mediation of developmentalism from the federal government to Sarawak and Sabah, both of which are rich in natural resources. [...] the reality is that the state is more concerned about how to access and exploit the resources that lie within the territories of the indigenous people, without taking into account the welfare of 20 The New Economic Policy and Contesting Bumiputera Identity Among Orang Asli and the Indigenous Peoples of Sabah and Sarawak Photo by Gem Lyn indigenous people who comprise only a small percentage of the. [...] 28 The New Economic Policy and Contesting Bumiputera Identity Among Orang Asli and the Indigenous Peoples of Sabah and Sarawak What does make the Malaysian version of developmentalism unique is the way it was harnessed to the ethnicising state already in the making by the time of the implementation of the NEP.