Rapid growth of the Malaysian economy in recent years has attracted considerable international attention. Since the ongoing economic boom from the late 1980s was preceded by some economic liberalization, there has been a strong tendency to attribute the rapid growth entirely to this liberalization, and to conclude that deregulation is generally desirable for sustained rapid growth and industrialization. This article offers a more nuanced and complex interpretation of the Malaysian experience, by comparing and contrasting the different implications of various government interventions and regulatory changes for corporate governance. Besides reviewing the changing nature of government-business relations since independence in 1957, the article will also consider relations among businesses as well as enterprise governance, focusing particularly on industrial relations.