The underlying theme of the paper is that Malaysian society, albeit with its embedded ‘multiculturalism’, has reached a new stage. It is now clearly a beneficiary of capitalist development with the concomitant rise of a new and large middle class exhibiting various middle-class affectations cutting across ethnicity. This has led to the growth of a political culture of “developmentalism??? understood as the social corollary of the developmental state. Developmentalism leads to the many affectations for middle-class consumerist lifestyle – even amongst the working class – but at the same time it creates a political culture that is wont to eschew political risk and political agency.  Publication: 4th International Malaysian Studies Conference; 3-5 August 2004, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi.  Author: Johan Saravanamuttu.