Ethical Issues in the Malaysian Education System

Abstract

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country in which the government gives preferential treatment in education, employment, and ownership to its majority ethnic group: Bumiputera. However, affirmative action policies in the current Malaysian context should work according to John Rawls’ Theory of Justice by being based on income rather than ethnicity. Certainly Malaysian Government should be praised for giving freedom to the Chinese and Indians to select their preferred school and this is partly consistent with Amartya Sen’s view of freedom; however this article argues that these communities are apparently given constraint freedom of choice.

Keywords:

• Malaysia
• freedom
• equality of opportunity
• affirmative action
• education

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to the editor of this journal and three anonymous referees for detailed comments on earlier drafts. The author is also grateful to Barry Bull for comments and suggestions. The author is responsible for any remaining errors.

Notes

1. Bumiputera is a new political label that literally means ‘sons of the soil’ and that includes Malays as well as other indigenous groups. In other words, Bumiputera means the original people of Malaysia. This includes the Malay ethnic group and natives of Sabah and Sarawak such as Kadazan, Murut, Bajau Bidayuh, Melanau and others (Siddique & Suryadinata, 1981).

2. People’s conceptions of good refers to what is valuable for them in life.

3. The attitudes of British colonials towards education were influenced by the identification of ethnicity with specific economic functions. At that time, the role of education is to prepare individuals for their assigned task in the colonial scheme. Thus, education merely provides them with basic skills that are needed to perform their economic role. For instance, it prepares Chinese immigrants to labor in the tin mining industry and commercial sectors, Indian immigrants in the rubber plantation sector and Malays to work in the paddy fields (Andaya & Andaya, 2001).