Any revolt or civil war faces one huge practical problem; namely, the arms with which to stage a revolt are held tightly by the army and the police. Malaysia's firearms laws are very restrictive - licenses are not granted easily, and must go through the police. Possession of an unlicensed firearm means up to 14 years in prison if caught. Possession of more than two unlicensed firearms, bringing/exhibiting/using an unlicensed firearm in the course of committing a scheduled offense? That's life imprisonment or the death penalty.

This means there must be enough pain for any group to suffer to go through the inconvenience of a revolt. But the Malaysian economy performed well enough post-independence such that, even when the minorities felt the sting of officially sanctioned discrimination, the pie grew quickly enough for them to grumble about it but not take any desperate measures to alleviate it.

In any case, the likelihood that a revolt/civil war will ever happen is, I think, diminished by the fact that the previous general election, which was concluded in 2018, led to a change in regime to one that was more friendly towards reforming the existing system. Now, this regime has since been changed again through some extensive horse-trading (long story!), but the precedent has been established: regime change in Malaysia is possible through peaceful means. This, I think, emboldens reform-minded people enough so that there's still some hope that change can come again through the political process.

I could write a series of articles about this, seeing that I do this professionally, but my experience has been there is close to zero interest in anything to do with Malaysia except for a place to (i) invest in, (ii) travel to, or (iii) retire in. It's too small a country for most people, except the most dedicated foreign policy wonks, to muster enough energy to care about.

(BTW, I'm from Malaysia but not in Malaysia)