Growth, Economic Transformation, Culture and the Middle Classes in Malaysia

Abstract

Suggests that, to assess the impact of the new middle class in Malaysia, one must discard the notion of a unified class & examine the cultural, political, & economic processes out of which these classes have been constituted. It is shown that economic prosperity in Malaysia has engendered the growth of a variety of occupational categories, including professional & technical workers, state-sponsored Malay entrepreneurs, Chinese owners & managers of small businesses, & party-sponsored capitalists. The literature on Malaysia has generally ignored these classes, in favor of concentrating on either the elite or peasant classes. But it is argued that the structural changes in the Malaysian economy since the 1960s have developed in response to political pressure exerted by these classes in the decade or so after independence. Further, these classes have stressed a form of political modernism that the major parties have not been able to ignore. The middle classes are described as playing a central role in the legitimation of & resistance to political regimes & in cultural representations of the new Malay order. 1 Table. D. M. Smith