During the 1970s — the heyday of the NEP — "Malay dominance" was a largely accepted fact of life for Malaysians. Whereas the 1957 to 1969 period was viewed as a time when "Malay dominance" was at least tempered by a form of "inter-ethnic bargaining" within the Alliance government, from the 13 May Incident onwards, political pundits argued that the political environment was now under marked "hegemonic control" from the Malays and UMNO; in 1970, one Cabinet member pronounced that Malay special rights would remain for "hundreds of years to come". The Tunku observed in 1977 that "it appears in the minds of the non-Bumiputras that they are being turned into second-class citizens in the country." The government's ethnic policies continued to be based on and justified by the two basic arguments Mahathir had applied in his "Dilemma"; the "historical" status of Malay primacy over Malaya, and the "special needs" of the Malays. As public discussion or questioning of these issues had been criminalised, there were few locally published works critically discussing Malay supremacy, complicating attempts to evaluate it or establish further grounds for government policy beyond the main two traditionally put forth.