It has been more than 50 years since Malaysia became an independent
nation. Comparatively speaking, it can be said that Malaysia has been
quite free of strife commonly associated with power and wealth sharing
of a plural society. Much of the success can be attributed to the compromise
made at the point of independence. As has been pointed out earlier,
non-Malays were given equal citizenship and in return tacitly recognized
the special and ‘primacy’ position of Malays. Malays, on the other
hand, were assured of their special position as the indigenous and ‘original’
inhabitants of the country but had to yield something by agreeing to
full citizenship to Chinese and Indians. Fenton (2003) is of the opinion
that the compromise and the symbolic dominance of Malays partnered
by Chinese and Indian elite appeared to solve the ‘problem of political
authority’ and seemed to be working well. It did, for twelve years, until
1969.