The Collapse of Malaysia’s Middle Class On the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s New Economic Policy, the middle class it famously built may be collapsing. Will its goal of national unity collapse with it? By August 01, 2021 A man wearing a face mask stands behind barbed wire in s locked down area due to the new coronavirus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, May 15, 2020. Credit: AP Photo/Vincent Thian Advertisement On July 12, 2021, Malaysia’s New Economic Policy (NEP), an emblem of developmentalist growth credited with creating a national middle class, marked its 50th anniversary. The very next day, Malaysian Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz published a column in Singapore’s Straits Times arguing that the nation whose COVID-19 National Recovery Plan he leads is not a failed state. A couple of days later, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald that while his government “could have done certain things better,” their vaccination program was on track after procuring more Pfizer supplies.