How do Chinese Malaysians hold a bigger share of the economy than ethnic Malays despite pro-Malay policies?

虽然马来西亚政策偏向马来人，为何马来西亚华人还是在经济上更有分量？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Eliyahu Ezra

It is a common misconception that Chinese Malaysians hold a bigger share of the economy than ethnic Malays in Malaysia. In reality, the distribution of wealth and economic opportunities in Malaysia is complex and influenced by a variety of factors, including historical and cultural factors, government policies, and individual choices and actions.

While there are policies in Malaysia that aim to promote economic opportunities for ethnic Malays, such as the New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in the 1970s, the impact of these policies on the distribution of wealth and economic opportunities is a matter of ongoing debate.

马来西亚华人在经济中的比重比马来人高，这是一个普遍的误解。现实是，马来西亚的财富和经济机会的分配十分复杂，受到多种因素的影响，包括历史和文化因素，政府政策，以及个人的选择和努力。

虽然马来西亚在政策上更照顾马来人的经济机会，比如20世纪70年代实施了新经济政策，但这些政策对财富分配和经济机会的实际影响如何还有争议。

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of promoting a more inclusive and equitable economy in Malaysia, with efforts to address issues related to income inequality and promote greater economic participation and opportunities for all Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity.

It is also worth noting that Chinese Malaysians are not a monolithic group, and there is significant diversity within the community in terms of economic status, education, and other factors. Similarly, there are many successful Malay entrepreneurs and business owners in Malaysia who have benefited from government policies and other factors that have enabled their success.

近年来，人们越来越意识到提高马来西亚经济的包容度和公平度的重要性，开始努力解决与收入不平等等问题，努力提高所有马来西亚人(不分种族)的经济参与度和机会。

同样值得注意的是，马来西亚华人并不是一个单一的群体，在经济地位、教育和其他因素方面，社区内部存在着显著的多样性。同样，马来西亚有许多成功的马来企业家和企业主受益于政府政策和其他使他们成功的因素。

Overall, the relationship between ethnicity, government policies, and economic opportunities in Malaysia is complex and multifaceted, and it is important to avoid oversimplifications or stereotypes when discussing these issues.

总的来说，马来西亚的种族、政府政策和经济机会之间的关系是复杂多面的，在讨论这些问题时，还是要尽量避免过度简化或抱着成见不放等做法。

Edmund Ui-Hang Sim

A lot of the answers/responses that I have read so far mentioned the unrivalled diligence ingrained among the Chinese Malaysians and assumed that this attributed to the bigger share in the economy held by them. This perception has limited veracity and accuracy.

Firstly, the notion that economy in Malaysia is dominated by Malaysian Chinese is an argument of the past. Today’s Malaysia is a different world altogether. I think if we delve objectively and truthfully into the data we could be looking at comparable share in the economic pie among all the different major races.

到目前为止，我看到很多答贴中都提到了马来西亚华人刻在骨子里的勤劳，认为华人就是靠着勤劳才在经济中拥有举足轻重的地位。这种看法的真实性和准确性都有待商榷。

首先，马来西亚经济由马来西亚华人主导的观点已经过时了。今天的马来西亚已经不同往日。如果我们客观而真实地研究这些数据，就可以发现所有种族在经济中所占的比重。

Secondly, no doubt, Malaysian Chinese have been viewed as hardworking (and many of them truly are), but the socioeconomic scenarios of Malaysia today compels everyone and every race to be hardworking - with the exception of a privileged few. We have seen again and again that no matter how much affirmative actions and race-based policies are put in place, a majority of the targeted population does not consistently reap the benefits. Honestly, even with pro-Malay policies, Malays who do not work hard do not gain much from those policies. Hence, hardworking Malays is a fact now in Malaysia.

其次，毫无疑问，人们认为马来西亚华人十分勤劳(很多华人确实如此)，但马来西亚的社会经济现状迫使所有人、所有族裔都必须努力工作——除了少数特权阶层。我们发现，无论实施多少平权行动和基于种族的政策，大多数目标人群并无法长期受益。老实说，就算有亲马来人的政策，那些不努力工作的马来人也不可能从这些政策中获得多少好处。因此，现在马来西亚的马来人也很勤劳。

Lastly, Chinese (no matter whether Malaysian, Singaporean or elsewhere) are fixated with money and matters related to money. It’s perhaps in their DNA. Those who don’t have the love for money are considered the mutated few. A typical Chinese will only invest time, resources and energy into ventures or activities that can make more money. When I am with any of my Malaysian Chinese friends and relatives, all they talk about is investment schemes, stock markets and business opportunities. Naturally, this increased the perception that Malaysian Chinese are more economically dominant but it is only a perception. People seldom think or talk about the many failed business ventures and losses from investment activities among the Malaysian Chinese.

最后，中国人（无论是马来西亚华人、新加坡华人还是其他国家的华人）都很重财和与钱有关的事。这可能已经刻在他们的DNA里了。不爱钱的中国人会被视为异类。普通中国人都会把时间、资源和精力投入到能赚更多钱的企业或活动中。当我和我的马来西亚华人朋友和亲戚碰面时，他们谈论的都是投资计划、股票行情和商业机会。当然，这也强化了马来西亚华人在经济上更占优势的看法，但这只是一种看法。人们很少谈及马来西亚华人在投资活动中的亏损情况。

In summary, I do not subscribe to the narrative that Chinese Malaysian hold a bigger share of the economy than ethnic Malays. This situation may be true in the past but certainly not anymore now.

总之，我不同意马来西亚华人在经济中的比重比马来人大的说法。过去也许真的如此，但现在肯定跟过去不一样了。

Jason Gates

There are many opinions and suggestions on this topic, I simply believe there is no one single reason for this, but rather a host of reaction to these pro-Malay policies that had caused the current situation. However the crux of the matter is that governmental intervention of any form in both the social and economic spheres generally do not get the targeted results, or that the side effects of said policies causes whatever results to be diminished and mitigated. It's not entirely right to say that the goverment is ineffective in enacting such policies, but the fact that they are trying to do something about it that makes it worse.

对这个话题，大家有很多不同的意见和建议，我相信原因不止一个，而在于这些亲马来人政策导致的一系列反应。不过问题的关键在于，马来西亚政府在社会和经济领域的种种干预手段通常都没能取得预期的结果。也不能说马来西亚政府在制定政策时是个草包，但他们确实一直帮倒忙。

Case in point, when looking back at history, the Malays has settled in the Malay archipelago much earlier than the later Chinese settlers that were brought in by the then imperialist British goverment of Malaya as labourers for the tin mines, which has always been the narrative of school textbooks, however there is an undisclosed amount of Chinese immigrants that has left China with wealth to start new lives and businesses in Malaya. So in effect, what we have 3 to 4 generations ago was an influx of Chinese immigrants with wealth. This established an economic disparity among the Malays and Chinese early on.

举个例子，历史上马来人在马来群岛定居的时间要比华人定居者早得多，华人定居者是当时的英国马来亚帝国主义政府带到马来群岛挖锡矿的，学校的教科书都是这么写的。但当时也有一些中国移民带着财富离开中国，到马来群岛开始新的生活和生意。所以在3到4代人之前，有大量富有的中国移民涌入马来群岛。马来人与华人之间的经济差距很早就形成了。

As a comparison, looking at the history of the US, the earliest settlers were the British, namely Scots in particular, and in the 300 odd years of American history since, many other immigrant group has moved to the States. Broadly speaking, up until the recent influx of wealthy Chinese immigrants, most of these immigrant groups were not better off than the inhabitants of the States. Note that the US also has a similar pro-indigenous people economic policy to help close the gap on Native American wealth disparity with the broader US population, though it has to be said these policies are more recent advents. I couldn't find any conclusive evidence on when the original policies were 1st put into place.

我们还可以看看美国的历史，最早的定居者是英国人，特别是苏格兰人，在美国300多年的历史中，也有很多其他移民群体迁往美国。在最近中国富裕移民涌入之前，这些移民群体中多数并不比美国居民富裕。请注意，美国也有这种亲原住民的经济政策，旨在缩小美国原住民与其他美国族裔之间的财富差距，但必须说这些政策是最近才出台的。我现在也找不到确凿的证据证明政策是什么时候开始实施的。

With some basic history explained, we can conclude with some reservation that in Malaysia the wealth disparity of the Malays and Chinese were already in place, I would also skip past the colonial years as the effects of colonial policies only strengthened this disparity.

Going back to the US, one would assume that earlier immigrant groups would hold onto to much more the country's wealth as a result of being there first and having a longer timeline to acquire and store wealth, however current surveys and studies have found no strong links to prove that point, simply put just because your ancestors were in the US first did not mean that you would have more inherited wealth.

在了解一些基本的历史背景后，我们可以得出一些结论，即马来西亚马来人和华人的财富差距早就存在了，殖民时期就不说了，因为殖民政策只会加大这种差距。

说回美国，人们认为早期的移民群体更容易转去更多财富，因为他们到得早，有更长的时间来获取和储蓄财富，但目前的调查和研究并未发现强有力的关联证据，简单地说，光凭祖先到美国到得早并不意味着你就能继承更多的财富。

So in conclusion, though there are a myriad of other reasons as well, goverment economic policies targeted at wealth gaps along racial lines are ineffective no matter how long it has been in place, I would leave the arguments of why this is to others, but I would like to say generally speaking doing away with these types of economic policies might be a better option. As the oft miscredited quote “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

综上所述，尽管还有无数其他的原因，政府针对种族贫富差距的经济政策并没有成效。总的来说，废除这种经济政策也许是一个更好的选择。正如常被人误解的那句话：“疯狂就是一遍又一遍地做同样的事情，却期待不同的结果。”

My suggestion is to simply raise the entire economy as a whole, have real competition whilst at the same time closing the wealth gap as a whole, targeted policies might buy votes and hope, but its the tool of politicians not true economists. The rising tide raise all boats, there comes a point when you raise the economy enough that the poverty line is merely an arbitrary number and even the meanest and poorest of us could live with no concern for basic needs.

我的建议就是，提升整体经济，引入真正的竞争，同时缩小贫富差距，有针对性的政策可能会赢得选票和希望，但这只会是政治家的工具，而非真正的经济学家。这个道理就好比水涨船高，当经济提高到一定程度时，贫困线就只是一个数字了，最穷的人也无需担心基本生活需求了。

Tunku Awang

This is a fallacy. If you look at the big supermarket chains, fast food restaurants, energy industry etc. They are all controlled by upper class Malays. Yes, there are still many Malays who are poor or blue collar workers but that doesn't mean that the elite Malays do not control vast chunks of the economy. All listed companies must have at least 30% bumiputera ownership. So, who are these filthy rich Malays. In case you are not aware, the Malaysian government has announced that all freight forwarding companies in Malaysia must have at least 51% bumiputera ownership.

这只是一个谬论。你看看大型连锁超市、快餐店、能源行业等，都是被上层马来人控制的。没错，很多马来人都是穷人或蓝领工人，但这并不意味着精英马来人并未控制着国家经济。所有上市公司中马来股东持股不得少于30%。你说这些卑鄙的马来人都是谁呢？马来西亚政府还宣布，马来西亚所有货运代理公司中马来股东持股不得低于51%。

Nurhanisah Mahdan

Based on my observation, it's due to hard work and effort because they know they dont have it easy.

My boss is a Malaysian Chinese who comes to work on weekends. I know a Chinese uncle who works during Chinese New Year, every single year without fail. There are even Chinese shops or restaurants that are still open during festive seasons regardless of the amount of customers because one is always better than none. Businesses run like usual despite public holidays etc.

据我观察，原因在于华人的勤奋工作和努力拼搏，因为他们知道财富来之不易。

我的老板是马来西亚华人，他周末也会来上班。我认识一位中国叔叔，他每年春节期间也一样工作，从未间断。有些中国商店或餐馆在节日期间也坚持营业，不管顾客有多少，有总比没有好。在公共假期，华人企业都会照常营业。

Policies wont necessarily help people. They are just tools to encourage, a step stone. Policies needs to be equipped with hard and diligent work, or it will fail in the middle of the way. Hence it's not really about policies, it's about the people themselves.

政策不一定能帮到人。政策只是一种激励工具，一块垫脚石。除此之外，还需要吃苦耐劳、勤奋工作，否则就会中途失败。所以这不是政策的问题，这是各人自己的问题。