Comments by "Persona" (@ArawnOfAnnwn) on "Looking Back at Malaysia’s New Economic Plan" video.

@MrDanisve It isn't all that odd as it's often done by autocratic rulers to favor their ethnic faction, or by colonial rulers to help reward obedient native populations over restive ones (as well as facilitate their divide-and-rule tactics for maintaining control).
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@hdjfjd8 Singapore has a formal division of the population into ethnic buckets that also is institutionalized in its policy, yet they don't have much issue with it. On the contrary it's been highly successful in creating ethnic harmony, most notably by explicitly preventing the kind of ghettoization that is so common to ethnic enclaves all over the world. Rather than being divisive, it's actually reduced divisions substantially by deliberately mixing the populations amongst each other (especially via housing and zoning laws), something which almost never happens naturally.
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@angeluscorpius "And the separation of ethnic groups politically is a mistake" - Singapore has a formal division of the population into ethnic buckets that also is institutionalized in its policy, yet they don't have much issue with it. On the contrary it's been highly successful in creating ethnic harmony, most notably by explicitly preventing the kind of ghettoization that is so common to ethnic enclaves all over the world. Rather than being divisive, it's actually reduced divisions substantially by deliberately mixing the populations amongst each other (especially via housing and zoning laws), something which almost never happens naturally.
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@angeluscorpius Perhaps I misunderstood. I was referring to the idea of states recognizing and drafting different rules and quotas for different ethnic (or religious or racial or whatever) groups, which is what Singapore's ethnic integration policy does. It seemed as if you were suggesting that states should always be neutral / blind to such things, which would be totally unrealistic in many many places. Contrary to the concept, nations often don't achieve parity by treating everyone the same, indeed it often just exacerbates the differences between the groups. Left to their own devices, people usually tend to concentrate, not integrate or assimilate. Which also eventually affects the politics. I was stressing that an active hand is needed. How said hand should be used is another question, varying based on local context
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