This is important because these are the same officials responsible for conceiving and implementing any government reform proposals.
Another consequence is distortions in the investment climate. For example, firms in key sectors are obliged to reserve at least 30 per cent of their equity for Bumiputras, and many require a Bumiputra business partner for registration. Special categories of bank loans are created exclusively for Malay-owned businesses and all banks are required to earmark at least 20 per cent of all money lent to Bumiputras.
Generous government assistance is provided to Malay businesspeople, including preferential access to contracts, licences, franchises, technical assistance, management training and reduced rent assistance. Businesses with at least one quarter of Malay executives are entitled to a 10 per cent corporate tax deduction.
Preference is given to Malay firms in the lucrative government procurement sectors: a real prize given the size of the government corporate sector as well as the fact that public investment exceeds private investment. Of all government contracts, 95 per cent go to Bumiputras.
Rather than creating a critical mass of dynamic Bumiputra entrepreneurs, Malaysia is plagued by the rise of rent-seeking Bumiputra elites dependent on state largesse and demanding the continuation of affirmative action policies on both sides of politics.
Many of those who should be best placed to drive the country's plan to escape the middle-income trap in which Malaysia finds itself already have voted with their feet. According to the World Bank, more than one million Malaysian citizens (out of a population of about 29 million) live abroad, with 90 per cent ethnic Chinese and much of the remainder ethnic Indians, both traditionally dominating the entrepreneurial and professional classes in the country.
Back to the election, it seems the majority of non-Bumiputra Malaysians who voted put their hopes in the opposition, figuring that any change could hardly be worse. We will now never know.
But an Anwar-led government would have encountered the same entrenched obstacles as Prime Minister Najib will continue to suffer.
Influential Bumiputra groups on both sides of politics - decisive in a country in which they represent the majority ethnicity - mostly wanted a greater share of state largesse for their stakeholders, not the winding back of affirmative action policies.
Unfortunately, even a genuinely free and fair election will not easily solve Malaysia's problems.
