Institutionalized racism is subtle but pervasive and becoming increasingly aggressive, speakers at a public forum in Kuala Lumpur said yesterday.

The government in the past 40 years has adopted “Malay-centrism as its central populist ideology” to remain in power, said Kua Kia Soong, director of the human-rights NGO “Suaram.”

This has entailed impressing upon Malay-Muslims, who comprise 60 percent of the population, that they are the owners of the country while other communities are mere “immigrants,” he explained.

Lim Tech Ghee, director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives, said the “tentacles” of institutionalized racism “extend into practically every sphere of life – economic, social, administrative, and even culture and religion.”

He said the forum, attended by around 200 people, was the first of a planned series to bring the issue of institutionalized racism out in the open for public discussion.