What are Chinese-Malay relations like in Malaysia?

Before race became political with UMNO, using the history of the Peranakan/Straits born chinese, products of intermarriage from the time of the Ming Dynasty, things were pretty harmonious. But things appear reverting back to history at least in urban centres where both Malay (youth perhaps) and Chinese voters supported mostly the opposition parties.

I grew up in the 90's. Growing up, Chinese-Malay relations were never really an issue at all, until recently, maybe 2010 onwards (and worsening every year). Never blatant, but we feel it lurking in the shadows. Again, Chinese-Malay relations are also interlaced with the relation between Muslims and Non-Muslims. (Under the Article 160(2) of the Malaysian Federal Constitution, a “Malay” means a Muslim who habitually speaks the Malay language and conforms to the Malay custom.) A highlight in the Chinese-Malay relation would be the May 1969 riots (search "13 May Incident"), which was largely speculated to be politically motivated, also made possible due to the imbalance racial composition of political parties (although not strictly racial-based). After that though, I cannot recall any major issue. Perhaps just small hiccups here and there created by extremists / insensitive people from both races, playing with fire. If we were to go way back, the Malays were often considered as the original people of the land along with the aborigines, "bumiputera" or "sons of the soil". Chinese on the other hand, were considered immigrants, brought in during the British colonial era as labour workers. Of course, there are also Chinese merchants who settle down here. Again, immigrants. Owing to the status of the sons of the soil, Malays are afforded special rights even under the Federal Constitution. Post 13 May Incident, the New Economic Policy was introduced to readjust socio-economy, with a view of moving the Malays from agriculture/farming/fishing. I suppose this was effective. NEP was later replaced by National Development Policy in 1990, to further reaffirm bumiputera privileges. But then again, considering the question is on Malay-Chinese relations instead of Malay-NonMalay relations, the above should not be the issue. Many Malaysians are afraid to comment because the country is slowly becoming ultra-sensitive towards inter-racial issues. Sensing that, the government under the current Prime Minister Najib Razak (fun fact: fondly referred to as "Jib Gor" or "Brother Jib" by the Chinese) introduced "1Malaysia". But then again, that also concerns all races. I could go on and on, and I haven't even begun on how religion mixes into all this. At this juncture, I guess it suffices to say that at my generation (Generation Y), Chinese-Malay relations are good. We used to be able to make racist jokes about each other knowing we are joking. Now, with tension building, and sentiments getting stronger, people are wary. To be safe, we keep the jokes to our close friends, or joke about our own race. At the end of the day, when it comes to Malay-Chinese relations, the majority of the population would rather see themselves as "Malaysians" more than "Malay as opposed to Chinese" or vice versa. Or at least I would like to believe so, since my best friend is Malay. I should also mention that the primary difficulty in a Malay-Chinese relationship is getting the family's blessing, Muslim to accept Non-Muslim and vice versa. In Malaysia, a Muslim can only get married to another Muslim, so a Chinese who is not a Muslim would have to convert. Yes to the Peranakan explanation answered previously. For now, I would say Malay-Chinese couples are significantly less than other interracial relationships, but they are not so rare as to not exist. I myself have dated a Malay, whose father is Malay and mother is Chinese. I know a few other such couples as well.

On an individual level, there is no problem for a Chinese and Malay to be friends; schoolmates, working colleagues, business partners, same hometown etc. etc. Our family's best neighbour of all time was a Chinese family whom we're still in contact with after we moved out of the Seksyen 6 neighbourhood of Shah Alam in 1999, some of my best friends at some time or other had been Chinese, and some of my favourite eating places are Chinese run. So, personally I don't have any prejudice against the Chinese. And I can safely say it is the same for the majority of Malays in general. However, in the late 90s and early 2000s some political opportunists in the name of social justice fanned racial sentiments by highlighting the differences of each race. Using mostly rhetoric, these political opportunists prefer to widen the understanding gap between races rather than celebrating similarities. They painted pictures of gloom about how a particular race take advantage of the economy to a particular audience and sang the tune of how another race is about to monopolize the country's politics and turn Malaysia into a fundamentalist Islamic nation to a different audience. These political opportunists are playing according to the Divide and Conquer rule book, to which the end benefit is only fathomable to them. Whilst the ruling BN might be seen as racist because its component parties are mostly racial based but they are representative based more than anything else. To me, the racial tension in Malaysia is more perspective than real but the trend is getting worse because the political opportunists are relentless in pursuing their agenda by using the race card as the vehicle.

To describe the relation between (kindly add the key word : Malaysian) Chinese and Malay is not an easy task, considering the amount of input that one can fill in this answer section let alone the lack of research. But I will try to answer it in one word, " What are Chinese-Malay relations like in Malaysia?" And I think, word that would likely to describe those two is, "suspicion"Why? Allow me to elaborate,Before the word "suspicion" took place afterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_May_Incident, it was "tolerance" that answered the relation between those two race who dominantly populated the land if anyone would ask. The relationship between Malay and Chinese of Malaysian is not something normal. Normal in the meaning of commonly found in any other countries. We can say that the relationship we have are somehow resembles with what happened in China, when General Mao succeed the revolution he led ,and raise to power to govern China and he decided to shared the country with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang (KMT), because they fought together against Japanese  during the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War (1937–45) except, General Mao didn't share the country with his "allies"; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang (KMT) and KMT is not Malays (they are Chinese too, actually) , he didn't even thank them, (KMT) for helping, he kicked them into a small island (Taiwan) instead. Joke aside, both tolerance and suspicion will not get us, as a country, anywhere but doom. I'm was raised in Penang, Malaysia. Surrounded by the Teochews' speaking people who locally known as "cina' by the Malay, I was always wanted to get into the circle and befriend the 'budak2 cina' ever since I was a kid. I failed so many times and miserably ignored until they finally acknowledge my honesty when I started to speak the dialect. But that was not the end, it just a start of gaining the trust which not easy until I marry(live together) one of their sister's. As a Malay by the law, speaking based on my own experience, to really make two different race co-exist is not that hard, but to create one true Malaysian is another story. It maybe possible if; Malay willingly abandon their customs and religion and follow the Chinese faith Chinese willingly abandon their customary and convert to Islam Both abandon whatever that can be associated with race or religion and adopt Malaysian faith created by a new leader with social-right-liberal-secular-free thinking minded, that honestly rule the country of ours, Malaysia, while free to practice any faith they choose within their own right of freedom,  to truly unite or at least given a room to trust each other I don't think none of the options will ever happen in the near future, so back to the question ask, my answer is, the relation is GOOD ENOUGH for both of us to live within our own space, at least for now.“Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world.”-Vladimir Lenin

Here is what it looks like. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketuanan_Melayu, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_New_Economic_Policy 2. Singapore has the one of the highest military spending in Asia. The only country that spends more GDP on military than Singapore is north Korea. 3. Malay are Muslims who see non Muslims as unclean creatures.