Many writers have commented on what they conceive to be an apparent antipathy of Malays for money, commercial relations and even labour. This conception which has its roots in the colonial era has led to a long debate centering on the nature or causes of a supposed ‘economic retardation’ among Malays and refutations of this charge. While I do not wish to enter into the detail of this debate here, it is significant that much of it has centred around a perceived contrast between the Malay values and those of Chinese traders and middlemen with whom the former are in intense contact. (See, for example, Mahathir 1970, Freedman 1960.) The question of why it is that Chinese traders have managed to be highly successful in precisely the spheres which the Malays are conceived as having difficulty in penetrating has thus pushed the discussion towards a consideration of ethnic differences between Malays and Chinese.

There is an evident contrast between the kinship morality of the Malays and the business ethics of the Chinese. This has been documented by Lim (1981) for a Malay fishing village in Brunei. Lim argues that the moral emphasis of Malay fishermen is on mutual help based on kinship, while those of the Chinese traders centre on commercial relations and the profit motive. The Chinese, who are external to the moral community of the Malays, are thus ideally placed to play the commercial role which is antipathetical to the Malays themselves.