Malaysia

Malaysia's political system was dominated by a single coalition (Barisan Nasional, led by UMNO) for 61 years until its defeat in the 2018 election — one of the longest one-party-coalition rules in democratic history. The economy operates through a structured ethnic bargain codified in the New Economic Policy: Malay bumiputera receive preferential access to government contracts, university admissions, and equity ownership, while ethnic Chinese and Indian communities dominate private commerce. This creates a dual economy where political power and economic power are deliberately separated across ethnic lines — a power-sharing arrangement that produces stability at the cost of market efficiency. Malaysia is the world's second-largest palm oil producer and hosts critical semiconductor assembly facilities, making it a node in two strategically important global supply chains. The governance model resembles a federation of symbiotic organisms where each ethnic community occupies a distinct economic niche, maintained by constitutional protections rather than competitive dynamics.