A Ketuanan Melayu cabinet
His cabinet is the ultimate Ketuanan Melayu cabinet. Out of 70 ministers and deputy ministers, there are only two non-bumiputra ministers and five deputy ministers, the lowest representation in terms of percentage we’ve ever seen.
Dennis Ignatius
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin now has a cabinet. For non-Malays, it represents the most regressive cabinet we’ve ever had, a cabinet premised upon the idea that non-Malays don’t count, don’t deserve to participate in the governance of this nation. Muhyiddin used his coup to nullify the non-Malay vote; now he has used his cabinet to silence their voice.
His cabinet is the ultimate Ketuanan Melayu cabinet. Out of 70 ministers and deputy ministers, there are only two non-bumiputra ministers and five deputy ministers, the lowest representation in terms of percentage we’ve ever seen. Every other prime minister, whatever their own prejudices, felt obliged to take into account the fact that Chinese and Indians are a significant minority in Malaysia and must be acknowledged via adequate representation in cabinet. Muhyiddin has now dispensed with this.
Right-wing Malay politicians have long been unhappy with the post-independence construct that shared power with all of Malaysia’s ethnic groups. After GE14, when for the first time, a fairer political representation emerged, they were determined to stop any move towards shared governance.
The narrative that Malaysia is for Malays and that Islam does not permit non-Muslims to hold senior positions in the administration of the country took on a life of its own. It also found expression in rumblings that the DAP was controlling the government and undermining Malay institutions like Felda and Tabong Haji, that Christians were trying to change the official religion of the country and that non-Malay terrorist groups like the communist and LTTE were trying to subvert the nation. It was all rubbish, of course, but it served its purpose.
The message was clear: other than a token representation, non-Malays should have no political role in the governance of the nation. They are interlopers and pendatangs, here by an accident of history, less Malaysian than Malays.
Muhyiddin – who in Trumpian fashion once described himself as Malay first, Malaysian second – has now given the Ketuanan Melayu crowd what they’ve always wanted, a cabinet overwhelmingly dominated by Malays.
