Jawan Jayum will discuss the intention of the New Economic Policy in Malaysia and how it helped share relations between the various ethnic communities since its introduction in 1971.  The discussion will bring into focus how increasing modernization has also helped to open up some democratic spaces and open public discourses that lead to more open contestation of various interests of the multi ethnic communities in Malaysia.  The discussion will conclude with how a new balance of power, shifting from the traditional Malay-Chinese dichotomy to a new tripartite balance between Malay, Chinese and Indigenous East Malaysians is emerging to dominate the order.