The Discursive Legitimation of Capitalist Development in Colonial and Early Post-Independence Malaysia

Abstract

One of the most important influences of colonialism is the discursive construction of the meaning of economic development. While this construction marginalised non-Western alternative interpretations, it simultaneously legitimised capitalism as normal, rational, necessary and desirable. This situation was more consolidated by the establishment of the Bretton Woods system and its institutions after the Second World War, which classified states into hierarchical categories such as "first world," "third world," and "underdeveloped". Malaysia, as a postcolonial state, is no exception. Under British colonial rule, capitalist institutional structures were normalised, rationalised, and idealised. After independence, Malaysia continued to legitimise capitalism. This article examines how the idea of capitalist development was legitimised in Malaysia by analysing the selected discourses of colonial administrators and early independence politicians. Employing critical discourse analysis, the findings demonstrate that British colonial capitalism employed different discursive strategies to legitimise its exploitative system, and that its effects continued to shape Malaysia’s early post-independence economic trajectory.