Is Malaysia A Hierarchical Society?

I didn't notice how much time left and took too much time writing my response to this question ~_~ Oh, well....


Question: Is Malaysia a hierarchical society? 

Is Malaysia consider a hierarchical society? Please provide supporting reason in relation to Malaysian culture (history, religion, politics....)

Thank You!

Source:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130809012908AAV4J6v


Hikari's Answer

By hierarchical society, did you mean something like Indian social caste?

1) As a whole, I guess so. There's Kings (Yang Dipertuan Agong, Sultan), Queens (Permaisuri), Prime Minister,  and Citizens. Only the Malays could become Kings or Prime Ministers in Malaysia (Malay = the name of the race, sia = land). But then again according to our country constitution, anyone could have become a Malay as long they're a Malaysia citizen, a Muslim and can speak Malay (our official language) so it's not really a racist system but rather separate you by religion.

Our country administration uses Islam as its base. Not yet Muslims just won't get it. While the Kings must be Malays/Muslims, it's not a written law that the Prime Minister must be Malay/Muslim. While we don't really treat people differently in Malaysia, Muslims made up the majority of the country citizen and the country official religion is Islam so it doesn't make sense for the Muslims to let the not yet Muslims to rule the country.

Historically, Tanah Melayu (changed to Malaysia after gaining independence from British) was owned  and still owned by The Malay Kings. Its citizens were like 80-90% Malays/Muslims. During the colonization era, the British imported the Chinese (mostly Buddhists) and Indians (mostly Hindus) from China and India as additional work force in certain sectors. The British used divide and conquer method administering the country so that's why the Malay people used to be very poor while the Chinese and Indian people were very rich in comparison. Anyway the point is this country is a Muslim country even before the colonization era and it's still a Muslim country today which affects the way we administer the country.

2) As a subculture, not really. I mean.. The Malays don't have such caste systems, I'm not aware of the Chinese having such system, the Indian in Malaysia no longer ruled by such custom but I do notice that the practice is still alive in some place and I'm not aware if the other races like Iban, and Kadazan have such system but I'm pretty sure they don't.