Malaysia is a really weird place when it comes to ethnicity. It used to be that there was a ton of affirmative action in place to the advantage of people of Malay descent, as opposed to of Chinese or Indian, because they were assumed to be “simple folk” who would be steamrolled by the superior intellects of the latter.

(it could be simply that most Malays were from rural backgrounds without the access to education that the more urban Chinese or Indian population, but AFAIK the legislation was explicitly based on ethnicity)

Anyone with more knowledge about this feel free to chime in. I living in Malaysia as a kid but that was many many years ago.