Similarly, the Bumiputera Affirmative Action Policy is regarded by many non-Malays as culturally divisive, a criticism which is echoed internationally by the U.S. government, the European Union, international organizations and others.
Its pledges to unwind a decades-old race-based affirmative action policy designed to give a leg up to the majority ethnic-Malay population and reduce corruption have a strong appeal among mostly younger voters, analysts say.
WSJ: Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak Dissolves Parliament, Paving Way for Elections
The opposition also has also pledged to unwind a race-based affirmative action policy designed to give a leg up to the majority ethnic-Malay population and to reduce corruption, changes that younger voters strongly support, analysts say.
Just for starters, two years ago, the affirmative action case out of the University of Michigan, you know, she was the person who wrote the opinion that said that the affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan Law School, not the undergraduate school, was constitutional.
In the current term, the court is deciding a case involving an affirmative-action policy at the University of Texas, and the court may reverse at least part of a 2003 ruling that allowed some consideration of race in university admissions.
Proposal 2 "allows alumni to simply drop in on admissions committee members to lobby for a legacy policy, " while affirmative-action proponents must "hit the streets with petitions to amend the Michigan Constitution before they can have the same chance, " said Mark Fancher, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan's Racial Justice Project.
Fueling their latent sense of discontent is the National Development Policy (previously known as the New Economic Policy), a long-established affirmative-action program that gives preferential treatment to indigenous Malays over other races in business, education and other fields.
"We are very concerned that the department is moving forward with what is clearly a fundamental change in longstanding policies regarding affirmative action, " said Jeffrey McGuiness, president of the HR Policy Association, a trade group for human-resource executives at more than 300 of the largest private-sector U.S. companies.
The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear an appeal of a case involving affirmative action only nine years after it approved limited application of the race-based policy in higher education.
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