All to school
Malaysian children must attend school from the age of 6, although many attend private kindergartens from the age of 4. Education is free and compulsory for 6 years of primary school and 5 years of secondary school. At the end of these 11 years, students are awarded the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) certificate. Students wishing to complete their education with secondary studies must undertake a fee-paying preparatory course lasting between 1 and 2 years, depending on the course chosen. Higher education can be undertaken at public or private universities or specialized training schools, all of which charge fees. On paper, the education system is egalitarian and open. It guarantees a basic level of knowledge for all young Malaysians. In reality, community segregation begins at school. Public schools are mainly attended by Malays. The Chinese have created their own network of schools, often considered to be of a much higher standard than public schools. Mandarin is taught systematically, and 95% of Chinese children attend these schools, even if the school-leaving certificate is not recognized by the government. As a result, Chinese schoolchildren are denied access to public universities and colleges. Many of these young Chinese Malaysians go abroad to pursue their higher education and rarely return home. Even so, 50% of them want to leave Malaysia and start a career abroad. Indians, too, have a few private schools, especially in the big cities. Children from the wealthier social classes attend international schools, with fees ranging from MYR 4,000 to MYR 115,000 per year. With an average salary of just under 3,000 ringgits, providing a good education for one's children can represent a real sacrifice for parents.
Cleavage around work
The world of work also crystallizes community tensions. The Malays accuse the Chinese of dominating the business world and of having a much higher standard of living. At the time of independence in 1957, the Malays were mainly farmers. The Chinese, on the other hand, had sided with the British colonialists and were actively involved in the country's economic development. In order to level out the income disparities between the communities, the government enshrined the concept of "Bumiputra" in its Constitution, establishing positive discrimination in favor of the Malays and aboriginal populations. These include government posts, easier access to loans, scholarships, preferential status for companies in public tenders, automatic discounts on property purchases and many other special rights. In 1971, an ambitious economic development plan was launched to enable the Bumiputras to own 30% of companies, up from 2.4%. In this way, the government hoped to reduce poverty, accelerate the country's economic development and put an end to tensions between communities. The 20-year plan did not achieve all its objectives. The Bumiputras held just 21.9% of the overall economy in 2008, but poverty had fallen by 47 percentage points, to just 5% of the population. Generally speaking, Malays can be said to be present in all sectors of the economy, although they are still largely dominant in the agricultural sector. The Chinese dominate the industrial and service sectors. Indians, on the other hand, are mainly employed in the public sector (education, health), but they are also among the poorest workers, with low-skilled jobs. The Chinese have a reputation for working hard and not taking the 26 days' vacation that Malaysians are entitled to every year. They set their ambitions very high, and it's no coincidence that 11 of Malaysia's 13 billionaires are of Chinese origin. But their appetite for dazzling financial success often comes at the expense of the family.
The family, at the center of social life
The family cocoon is undoubtedly the subject that unites all Malaysians. Social success is not complete without marriage and children. As in France, Malaysians marry after finishing school and entering the workforce. On average, men are 28 years old and women 25.7 on the day they get married. Wedding tradition is of course defined by religion. Inter-community marriages are the exception, although there have been a few unions between Malays and Indians of the Muslim faith. On the other hand, the birth rate is falling at an alarming rate. It was 6 children per household in 1963, and is now painfully low at 1.9 children. The population renewal rate is no longer assured, and the population is aging.
It is on the occasion of calendar or occasional festivals that the Malays gather as a family in their original kampung . You won't find a Malay in town on the occasion of the Eid festival, which celebrates the end of Ramadan. The villagers of the kampungs are considered the guardians of the habits and customs of the Malay community. They are also the pillars of the family, in the broadest sense. Wherever possible, Indians perpetuate the tradition of the family clan. The new wife joins her husband's family and becomes responsible for the running of the household. Grandparents, sons and daughters-in-law, and children all live under the same roof. The Chinese have humorously given themselves the nickname "banana", which sums up the situation: yellow outside and white inside. They live closer to the Western way of life. For example, the traditional red wedding dress has been abandoned in favor of voluminous gowns in dazzling white. They focus on their professional lives, and the family can wait. So much so that a local Chinese party has organized a dating club in the hope of fostering love stories that could lead to the birth of children.
The difficulty of being a woman in Malaysia
Long dominated and confined to domestic tasks, Malaysian women are gradually becoming emancipated. Today, 66% of girls have completed higher education, and 47% of wage earners are women. Even so, they are still subject to strong social pressure. However, the government created a Ministry of Women's Affairs in 2001. Its mission is to promote the integration of women into society and reduce inequalities. Numerous initiatives have been taken to ensure greater safety for women, particularly in cities. Pink carriages and buses are reserved for women on public transport, and in 2011 Kuala Lumpur introduced an all-female cab service, from driver to passengers. Domestic violence is one of the social issues that regularly grabs the headlines. Although marital rape became illegal in 2007, women are still obliged to obey their husbands under Islamic family law. This obligation opens the door to numerous abuses. 39% of Malaysian women over the age of 15 admit to having been abused by their partner. Nevertheless, the Penal Code allows women to lodge a complaint against their husbands in the event of physical violence or threats. Malay women in particular are the furthest from emancipation. As Muslims, they enjoy fewer rights than their Chinese and Indian counterparts. They have no right to divorce, and their husbands can have up to 4 wives. Genital mutilation is widely practiced. The Malaysian National Council for Religious Affairs issued a fatwa in 2009 making female circumcision compulsory, even though "the painful practice should be avoided"(sic). As a result, 90% of Malaysian women of Muslim faith undergo partial removal of their clitoris. The practice is maintained out of religious obligation, but also because of an unshakeable set of beliefs: that it is more hygienic and avoids premarital sex.
No future for LGBTQ people
Sex and everything connected with it are among the most taboo subjects. This is due not only to religion, but also to the British prudery of the colonial period. Sodomy and fellatio are enshrined in the Penal Code and severely punished by law in the name of a strange British heritage. What could pass for an eminently intimate trivial subject can have sordid consequences. Former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2015 for sodomy. This law is also regularly brandished against male homosexual activists. Same-sex relationships are prohibited by federal law and by some of the country's Sharia states. Transgender people are just as much of a concern, but on the basis of other laws. When they are arbitrarily arrested, it's for public indecency (federal law) or transvestism (Islamic law). It is in Kuala Lumpur that the battle for acceptance of members of the LGBTQ community is being waged. The more open capital is home to a number of gay and transgender rights associations, including Justice For Sisters, led by Nisha Ayub, a transgender woman. Members of these associations are not as vulnerable to popular vindictiveness, or even to manhunting, as can happen elsewhere in the country, under the sometimes benevolent gaze of the authorities. In 1994, a militia in the state of Selangor pursued and arrested 7,000 people suspected of homosexuality. The militiamen were publicly congratulated a year later by the Minister of Religious Affairs. In May 2019, police raided a gay bar in Kuala Lumpur. No political figure has yet taken up the issue in the hope of changing the very precarious situation of this community. Some politicians are content to make occasional statements in response to events. A study by the Pew Research Centre found that 86% of Malaysians were against the decriminalization of homosexuality. The rainbow flag is not about to fly in Merdeka Square.
