The social contract in Malaysia is an artificial political construct first mooted in the 1980s, allegedly to justify the continuation of preferential policies for the majority Bumiputera population beyond the envisaged 20-year initial duration of the Malaysian New Economic Policy. Proponents of the construct allege that it reflects an understanding arrived at - prior to Malaya's independence in 1957 - by the country's "founding fathers" (an ill-defined term which is generally taken to encompass Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, V. T. Sambanthan and Tan Cheng Lock, who were the key leaders of political parties representing the Malay, Indian and Chinese populations respectively in pre-independence Malaya.)