马来社会富有良知的达祖丁教授，曾撰写过一篇题为〈大马马来人的道德两面性〉文章。他说，马来人一方面是虔诚的伊斯兰教徒，愿意每天祈祷5次、承担起到麦加朝圣的昂贵费用、对“非清真”的食物、日常用品和收入谨慎翼翼。然而，他们另一方面却对马来公务员的贪污腐败、警界的滥权渎职、政府高官敛财掌控司法等，视而不见、无动于衷。笔者赞赏达祖丁教授说明其两面性之馀，感受到不足之处是没阐明这种民族性的形成，现愿补上这一空挡。
一个民族的民族性，有其形成过程，但民族性只能说是一个被看成同属一个民族群体内的一般而又相当普遍的现象。同一群体内也有特殊与其他一般人不同认知的人，这也是自然的。简单的说，民族性是历史文化熏陶而成的思维和行为方式、价值观和人生态度等的心理特征。它也受环境自然条件、人文与宗教价值观和政治经济环境等因素酝酿而成。民族性有两面性，就像有的人有双重性格一样，不足为奇。
很多人爱谈论日本人和犹太人这两个民族的的特殊民族性。我们看看这两个民族性又是如何形成的。诸多学者认为日本的民族性具有矛盾的双重性。美国社会学家柯特（Pauline Kent）1999年出版的“菊与刀”，是分析日本民族性颇有影响力的一本书。
柯特总结日本民族的矛盾性是：日本人极其好斗但又非常温和、黩武但又爱美、倨傲而又彬彬有礼、顽固而又善变、驯服但又不愿受人摆布、忠贞却又易于叛变、勇敢却又怯懦、保守但又非常欢迎新的生活方式、士兵既使受过彻底训练，却又在严厉的等级制强调顺从下具有反抗性等等。这么多的矛盾性性格，简直把日本人形容的像个双面人。
我们不敢说作者柯特对日本人没有偏见，但只要承认有一些特征存在，就不得不认真理解这种性格的由来，它必定跟日本现代化以前因生存条件艰难恶劣，和封建幕府时期的苛政残馀有密切的联系。另外，日本从其崇尚自然神灵的神道基础，吸收了中国儒家的忠、孝、仁、义观念，渗透入他们对国家、社会和家庭的责任感。责任感造就的日本民族特性，也就是柯特最欣赏的，即做事认真、执著要求完美，而又非常善于学习。
接下来谈犹太人。犹太人指的是以信仰犹太教为基础、居住在以色列和散居世界各地操各种语言的一个宗教民族。犹太人的民族特性以他们的宗教文化认同为基础，这种文化认同成为他们的共同精神纽带、宗教和日常生活延续的依据。
历史和政治因素
犹太人自两千年前以色列被罗马军队占领后散居各地，其价值观和民族性成因就跟他们长期受压迫、歧视、没有政治权利和地位有关。譬如说，犹太人虽早已定居法国，但只在200多年前法国大革命提倡平等、自由、博爱、人权等普世价值时，才被赋予公民权。
传统上，在欧亚基督教和伊斯兰教地区，人数稀少的犹太教徒被视为异教徒，往往在就业和土地拥有权都受限制，只能从事商业和手工业行业。作为一个脆弱群体，统治者除了敲诈，还经常以他们为代罪羔羊，加于迫害。为了生存，近代犹太人在商业、专业和学术界取得很大成功，其成就远超过他们在人口中的比例。自然，成功的条件不外是勤勉、专注和不屈不饶的奋斗精神。长期对知识的追求和钻研，似乎也成为了他们民族性格和文化心理基因的一部分，但跟生理基因无关。
马来人的两面性心理基因成因，应该是从其近代历史和政治因素造成。生活在热带风调雨顺的马来人，在西方殖民者到来之前，人口稀少，世代务农生计简朴太平。15世纪逐渐皈依伊斯兰教之后，其民族性格受宗教影响起著关键性作用。二战前的马来人心地基本宽广谦逊，甚少放纵情绪，比起当时来自广东福建的低文化华人移民的行为举止应该还要好一些。
大马独立后马来人为何变了呢？主因是马来民族主义的偏激发展而成。二战后马来民族主义筹组独立、并在抗英和排外的思潮下，他们认定只有抓紧政治权利才能保证马来人作为一个所谓“经济弱势”群体的未来。族群领袖特别是巫统领袖理解到，在一人一票的民选制度和国会选区划分对马来人多地区有利条件下，只要马来人能保持团结，尽管贪腐也在所不惜。
贪腐一旦普及化，就会逐渐促成受种族主义色彩包庇官员的滥权、不太负责行政政务也不必担心受惩罚，形成一种既便贪腐但又能长期依赖包庇的侥幸性格，而对社会不公现象就视为正常。数十年下来，这种现象在反对党反击乏力的情况下，发展成马来民族主义维护当权者之间，包括跟异族朋党的共同利益和族群凝聚力，而不可自拔。
既然以马来种族主义为基础，而贪腐对像又基本是非马来人，国家税收的一大部分也来自非马来人，伊斯兰宗教组织也就更乐意用政府税收的钱财兴建更多清真寺，宣扬“正统”伊斯兰教义，马来知识份子也更心安理得享有种族主义色彩赋予自己的既得身份和地位，乐于让贪腐继续下去。
《论马来人道德矛盾的两面性》（Contradictions of Malays' Dualistic Moral Values）英文稿：
Professor Tajuddin, a man of good conscience in the Malay society, once wrote an article entitled "The Two Faces of Malay Morality in Malaysia". He said that on the one hand, Malays are devout Muslims, willing to pray five times a day, bear the expensive cost of the Haji pilgrimage to Mecca, and are cautious about non-halal sources of food, daily necessities and income. On the other hand, however, they turn a blind eye and are indifferent to the corruption of Malay civil servants, the abuse of power by the police, and the illegitimate wealth accumulation of high-ranking government officials and their control of the judiciary. I appreciate a great deal Professor Tajuddin’s account of such dualistic feature of the Malays. But I have a feeling that he has run short in bringing up the causation of this dualistic feature, and now I am willing to make up for this gap.
The character of an ethnic group has its formation process. But any character can only be regarded as a general or quite common phenomenon as there are always exceptions within the same ethnic group who have special cognitions different from other ordinary people. Simply put, ethnic characteristics are the psychological state of thinking, behaviour, values, and attitudes towards life that are nurtured by history and culture. It is also brewed by factors such as environmental natural conditions, humanistic and religious values, and political and economic environments. Ethnic characteristics are likened to two sides of a coin, just as some people have dual personalities, which is not surprising.
Characters of the Japanese and Jews
Many people like to talk about the unique characteristics of two particular ethnic groups, the Japanese and the Jews. Let us look at how such uniqueness is formed in these two ethnic groups. Many scholars believe that the Japanese national character has a contradictory duality. In an influential book "Chrysanthemum and the Sword", published by American sociologist Pauline Kent in 1999, the author summed up the contradictions of the Japanese character like this: Japanese people are extremely aggressive but very gentle, militant but beautiful, arrogant but polite, stubborn but fickle, tame but unwilling to be manipulated, loyal but prone to betrayal, brave but also cowardly, conservative yet very welcoming of a new way of life, soldiers who are thoroughly trained but are resistant under a strict hierarchical system that emphasizes obedience, and so on. With so many contradictory personalities, the Japanese may be described as a double-faced person.
We dare not say Kent has no prejudice against the Japanese, but as long as she addresses such characteristics, we need to understand the origin of the formation of such character. To a great extent, the formation, I believe, has to do with the harsh living conditions in Japan before modernization and the harsh rule of the feudal shogunate. In addition, Japan has absorbed the Chinese Confucian notions of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness from its Shinto foundation of advocating natural gods. All these have infiltrated into the Japanese a sturdy sense of responsibility to the country, society, and family. The characteristics of the Japanese nation created by this sense of responsibility are what Kent admires most -- Japanese are serious in doing things, perseverant in perfection, and very good at learning.
Next, let’s talk about the Jews. By Jews, it is referred to a religious grouping based on Judaism, living in Israel and diasporas all over the world and speaking various languages. The national identity of the Jews is based on their religious and cultural identity, and this cultural identity becomes their common spiritual bond, the basis for the continuation of their religion and daily life. When Israel was occupied by the Roman army two thousand years ago, Jews have lived in scattered places. Their values ??and grouping character have been related to their longstanding oppression and discrimination, as well as being deprived of political rights and status. For example, although Jews have long settled in France, they were granted citizenship only when the French Revolution advocated universal values ??such as equality, freedom, fraternity, and human rights more than 200 years ago.
Traditionally, in the Eurasian Christian and Islamic regions, Jews as a minority were regarded as infidels, often restricted in employment and land ownership, and could only engage in commerce and handicraft industries. As a vulnerable group, in addition to blackmail, rulers often used them as scapegoats and persecuted them. In order to survive, modern Jews have achieved great success in business, professional and academic fields, and their achievements far exceed their small size in the overall population. Naturally, the condition for success is nothing but diligence, focus and unyielding spirit of struggle. The long-term pursuit and study of knowledge seems to have become part of their unique character and cultural psychological genes. Yet, I believe this success has nothing to do with physiological genes.
Causation of Modern Malay Character
The psychological genetic duality of the Malays should be attributable to modern history and political factors. Before the arrival of the Western colonialists, Malays who lived in warm tropical climate were sparsely populated, and for generations their farming livelihoods were simple and peaceful. After gradually converting to Islam in the 15th century, religion has begun to influence substantially their ethnic character. Before World War II, the Malays were broad-minded and humble, and they rarely indulged their emotions. Their interpersonal behaviour should be understood as better than that of largely low-cultured and poorly educated Chinese immigrants from Guangdong and Fujian at that time.
Why did the Malays change after Malaysia's independence? The main reason is the overwhelming development of Malay racial-led nationalism. After the Second World War, Malay nationalism had been deployed to prepare for independence. Under the anti-British and xenophobic ideological inclination, they believed that only by grasping tightly political rights could the future of Malays as a so-called "economically disadvantaged" group be guaranteed. Ethnic leaders, especially UMNO leaders, understood that the democratic one-person-one-vote system and the division of parliamentary constituencies in favour of Malays must be used to maintain their monopolistic control. Radical Malay leaders have the conviction that Malays should place their priority on staying united, and if corrupt practices would do no harm to such unity, so let it be.
When corruption gets widespread and out of control, abuse of power by officials shielded by racism has become implicitly acceptable as this does not hinder the continuity of the racial-based monopolistic rule. Consequently, senior administrators are no longer obliged to be fully responsible for administrative affairs as they can rely on political shielding and do not have to worry about being penalised. Social injustice is regarded as normal. Over the past few decades, Malay nationalism has continued to develop to defend crony interests in collaboration with big Chinese and Indian businesses. Opposition parties are just not strong enough to do much.
With the claim that wealth of Malays is still far behind the Chinese and Indians, Malay racism has continued to soldier on and champion Malay interests. As the target of corruption is largely operated towards non-Malays, and a large part of the national tax revenue also comes from non-Malays, Islamic religious groups are well comfortable to spend government tax money to build more mosques and propagate "orthodox" Islamic teachings. For Malay intellectuals, they are also more at ease to enjoy the vested identity and status given to them by racism, and are willing to let corruption continue.
