In Malaysia, why the Chinese population declines so much in proportion after Independence when…

In Malaysia, why the Chinese population declines so much in proportion after Independence when compared to the Malay population?[1]

This is a simple question: at independence, the Chinese and Malay populations were almost similar in size. Today, the Chinese make up about 20% of Malaysia’s population, while Bumiputras (“sons of the soil”) account for just over 60%. What explains this shift? We decided to answer that question by looking at the detailed state population statistics by ethnic groups provided by the Department of Statistics (DOSM) and then conducting a simple analysis based on comparing annual average population growth rates at different periods of time.

Concentrated first on West Malaysia, we expected that the difference was due to three factors, a) the higher fertility rate of the Malays, b) the outmigration or brain drain of some skilled Chinese, c) the granting of citizenship to some Indonesians immigrants. Adjusting the fertility rate of the Chinese to be close to the Malays[2], raise the Chinese population in 2025 to 9 million, and 29%. The Outmigration of Chinese since 1970 is estimated to be of the order of 1.7 million. The majority went to Singapore (more than 1 million) with significant volumes going to Australia, UK, Canada and USA. If that volume of outmigration did not occur, it is estimated that the Chinese could account now for 25% of the population. Finally the third factor concerns the re-engineering of the Bumiputra population by granting citizenship to selected Indonesian Immigrants who have adopted Malay culture. This took place during the 1980–1990 period; a period which encouraged Indonesian immigration to fill vacancies created by the manufacturing expansion. This explains why in 1991 the Bumiputra population increases from 8.7 million (in 1980) to 9.5 million. If this had not taken place the percentage of Chinese in 2025 would have been 23%. It is interesting to note that if the three factors just reviewed were combined, this would shift the Chinese population to just above 36% almost reestablishing the situation at Independence.

The situation is quite different in Sabah where the demography has been subjected to severe manipulations. Firstly from 1970 to 2000, there were strong immigration flows mostly from the Philippines (Sulu Islands) but also from Indonesia with the addition of refugees from the Moro conflict. The refugees and some immigrants were granted full citizenship while others joined the growing number of non-citizens. Analysis suggests that from 1970 to 2000 at least 1 million was added to the population with 300,000 of them getting full citizenship status. Another important change in the demography was the reclassification of Chinese into the Bumiputra category. This followed the 2010 decree allowing Chinese married to natives and having native ancestors to apply for a reclassification. Many did it as the number of Chinese in year 2010 and onwards dropped significantly. In addition there was some outmigration to Singapore and West Malaysia. If that reclassification had not taken place and allowing for some declining trend the Chinese could have easily be close to 600 thousand in 2025 and not the only 240,000 as recorded.

Sarawak has not been subjected to massive immigration like Sabah but there were also cases of Chinese reclassification in 2010. Chinese that can prove native ancestors Bumiputra. This did involve approximately 150,000 cases. Taking account of this and also that the Chinese population did suffer some decline because of emigration, the calculated percentage (27.5%) came out in 2025 just quite close to what was prevailing in the first years of joining West Malaysia.

So the discrepancy mentioned at the beginning could be fully explained. There are of course different ways of presenting the ethnic distribution in the country. And it is a valid question to ask if it matters how much the Chinese numerically account in the population. Well, it was definitely important for some politicians as illustrated by the number cases of demographic manipulation and engineering.

When considering the 3 main races only (Malay, Chinese, Indian), for West Malaysia the percentage of Chinese is clearly above 20% and closer to 25%. This percentage climbs to 28% if you consider only the west coast states, accounting for 74% of the West Malaysia.

But in short, whatever the percentage of distribution use, there is no doubt that the Chinese population is well implanted in Malaysia and contribute highly to the economic development of the nation.

[1] This in fact a shorter version a longer Blog called “Malaysia, the Power of Demography”.

[2] On average the fertility rate of the Malays had been 55% higher than the Chinese.