However, being mostly Muslim and Malay, it was politically impossible to ignore their plight.
He bore the brunt of Indian anger at discrimination in favour of the Malay majority.
The Waja - which means steel in Malay - is not yet pure Malaysian.
However, beware the tensions among the hodgepodge of Malay, Chinese, Indian and other ethnic groups.
In winning, Mahathir crushed a Malay-Muslim-based multiracial party, Bersekutu, wh ose leader is well known.
An incident this month involved a quarrel between a Malay bus driver and a Madurese passenger.
Singapore's Straits Times at once responded by printing photographs of Malay officers on its front page.
The difficult areas are likely to be the Malay heartland states of Trengganu, Perlis and Kelantan.
It is an island with a Chinese majority surrounded by sometimes unfriendly Malay-dominated countries.
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Reforms to pro-Malay policies he promised when he assumed the leadership, meanwhile, largely did not to materialise.
But such is the effectiveness of Western propaganda that even the Malays themselves want Malay businessmen .
But he did not make any drastic changes to policies which had long favoured the Malay-Muslim majority.
BRN, or Barisan Revolusi Nasional in Malay, is just one of several rebel groups in the south.
The new cabinet includes a large number of ministers from Sabah as opposed to from the Malay heartland.
Mr. Najib probably recognizes the need to move faster, but he can't afford to alienate his Malay base.
The three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat once formed the heart of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate.
Two local Malay youths, Rosli bin Dobi and Moshidi bin Sedek, were tried for murder and later hanged.
One of her posts was laden with expletives and included insensitive remarks directed at the minority Malay community.
At the root of the conflict is the feeling among Malay Muslims that they lack proper political representation.
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They are being brought together by Mr Anwar's supporters moderate, middle-class Malay Muslims under the emphatic leadership of his wife.
But it now works just as much against the mixed but Malay-majority satellite towns and suburbs created by urbanization.
Further, Mr Najib has to contend with a ginger group, Perkasa, that claims to defend Malay rights within UMNO.
The word Perhentian is Malay for 'stop' - not as in cease, but as in 'rest before continuing onward'.
PAS's gains in the November general election, especially as most of those gains came in the traditional Malay heartland.
Each country cultivates its own version of a common language, Malay, which ought to unite them but often divides.
Suppliers (even the Malay ones) now have to bid for contracts, rather than stitch them up in backroom deals.
Ms Ambiga believes the attacks on her, all by Malay men, are racist.
Two new supported languages added, bringing the total to 44: Malay and Urdu.
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"Mahathir has lost the Malay votes, " says Hishamuddin Yahya, acting secretary-general of Pas.
The opposition hopes it can capitalise on these divisions within the Malay community.
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