In the mid-20th century, British business interests owned more than 43 per cent of alienated land in the Malay peninsula, Malays 27 per cent, Chinese and Indians together 23 per cent, and other groups the rest (Abraham, 1997, p. 217). The ownership of land by Chinese and Indians, however, accrued among a select few wealthy capitalists. Even by 1947, just 1.6 per cent of Chinese in Malaya were employers of labour, while the remaining 98 per cent were wage earners, own-account workers, or unpaid family workers (Del Tufo, 1949, p. 533). The same skewed ownership was replicated among Malays, with land belonging mainly to the ruling class.
Employment-wise, the British occupied almost all top positions in the federal government administration as well as having a highly disproportionate share of the professional, managerial, and top posts in modern urban employment. In 1931, only 5 per cent of administrative and professional positions were filled by Malay and non-Malay community groups, while the rest were occupied by Europeans. In contrast, almost no Europeans worked in agriculture or as labourers, where Malays and non-Malays filled virtually all occupations (Hirschman, 1975). Gradually, however, Chinese and Indians moved into the modern urban sectors, while Malays stayed mainly in agriculture, although this community came increasingly to dominate federal and state administrative jobs before the end of the colonial era. The highest administrative positions held by the Malays were by the aristocratic elite who were trained at the Malay College, Kuala Kangsar, Perak, and many Malays were also educated in English-medium schools established and supported by the British administration (Sultan Nazrin Shah, 2019).