This is not the reason, however, that almost half of all Malays voted for Pas.
Malays get privileged access to public-sector jobs, university places, stockmarket flotations and, above all, government contracts.
Another important issue was the future of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in Sabah.
The Chinese looked to China, the Indians to India, while the Malays had a Pan-Malayan outlook.
But such is the effectiveness of Western propaganda that even the Malays themselves want Malay businessmen .
Ironically, most Malays are probably more comfortable with UMNO's moderate approach to Islam than with Pas's stricter position.
Renong, for instance, was once the commercial arm of Malaysia's dominant political party, the United Malays National Organisation.
Relations between the Chinese and the Malays, who make up 15% of Singapore's population, have sometimes been strained.
The party saw a significant number of Malays switch support to the Islamist Pas in last year's parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, the Malays out in the villages who benefit most from the preferences and cash handouts find the changes threatening.
Malays as a whole, like other races, have got richer but the gap between the Malay haves and have-nots has widened.
More Malays are now being promoted to senior ranks in the army and new laws are proposed to outlaw job discrimination.
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These days, many argue that all the quotas and affirmative-action programmes to help the Malays are now not only obsolete, but counter-productive.
He was responding to public reaction after a woman's comments lashing out at Malays holding weddings in spaces under public housing flats.
"The way Anwar was treated has made Malays angry, " says Nik Mahani.
Mahathir needs to present his case to win back the doubters, including those within his party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
The pundits waited for a response from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose 1970 book The Malay Dilemma tackled the economic marginalization of Malays.
The last time the Malays were so split was during the 1990 polls, which an UMNO breakaway faction contested as a separate party.
Winding up his speech to the annual assembly of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the 70-year-old party chief lashed out against money politics.
Such reforms are also being adopted by the government's other investment agencies, such as the state pension fund and a government-backed fund for Malays.
He is voicing a very serious concern "that Malays are not competitive enough both in the local and global market place, " says economist Charles Santiago.
It has been 10 months since he was sacked as deputy prime minister, finance minister and deputy president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
Sabah's 48 constituencies are drawn around the state's three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Kadazandusun, a catch-all term for Sabah's 30 or so indigenous groups.
Mr Abdullah stepped down in 2009, handing power to Mr Najib who became prime minister and leader of the main coalition party, United Malays National Organisation (Umno).
To be sure, not all Malays, perhaps not even a majority of the sharia-minded, approve of the acts of boorishness committed in the name of their faith.
There was that constant rub of Kuala Lumpur's political governance, by which the ruling coalition sought to smother differences in a multiracial society while boosting ethnic Malays.
After 14 years of Mahathir's premiership, the Malays, like Malaysia's other ethnic groups, are enjoying the greatest period of prosperity since the days of the Malacca Sultanate.
Naturally Lim asserts they have, especially in pushing for a policy of integration not assimilation and in fighting to preserve the language, education and culture of non-Malays.
Most analysts believe that despite the avowed Islamism of the insurgents this is primarily an ethnic-separatist fight of Malays against Thais, rather than part of any international jihad.
Singapore is an ethnically diverse country, with the majority Chinese making up about 75% of the community, Malays, Indians and people of mixed ethnicities making up much of the remainder.
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