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When talking about racism most people think of racial tensions that still exist in the United States. In fact any country you go to you will find that racial tensions exist. Malaysia while trying to appear to be a fully integrated race tolerant country to the rest of the world, in fact suffers from underlying racial tension between the three main races.

UMNO has been the ruling party in Malaysia since they gained independence from Britain. In the last general election while UMNO won, they did not win with their customary landslide. As a result a lot of mud flinging went on and racial tensions were rising. The reigning Prime Minister was forced to resign and a new leader was appointed. The people have spoken, its time for a change only problem is no other race can ever attain the title of Prime Minister as that is reserved for the Malays only. With the installation of the new Prime Minister he is working towards the concept of 1Malaysia, meaning we are not Indian, Chinese or Malays, we are Malaysians. While this is a lovely sentiment it will take many more years before the people of Malaysia to think of themselves as just Malaysians.

Malaysia is made up of three main races. While there are the aboriginal peoples they are left out of the equation. The highest population is first the Malays, second the Chinese and third the Indians. The Chinese have prospered very well in Malaysia and it is often said that without the Chinese Malaysia would still be in the dark ages. Even the past Prime Minister has called out to the Malays to emulate the Chinese and they too will prosper. The Indians on the other hand have always been thought of as the lower class race, but slowly over the years the Indians have become wealthier as many own their own businesses, have become doctors and lawyers and have finally found a voice.

The word keling has now become the centre of a storm, with the Pelapor India Muslim chairman trying to have the word removed from the Dewan Kamus (Malay Dictionary). It was an innocent enough Malay word, which means a person of the Indian race. The Malays and the Chinese both use this term but over the past twenty years or so the Indian community now deems it to be offensive. The word seems to have it's origins in academic and historical references to the Kalinga Kingdom in India. In the fifteenth century Malay historical records made reference to the people of Kalinga who held sway over cultural and economic influence in South East Asia.

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