Malaysia's state funds have grown into a RM2tn empire, but the country remains stuck in the middle. The government-linked investment companies no longer merely own local companies. The government-linked investment companies system was never designed to build productive, worker-owned wealth. The PuTERA35 plan, launched in 2024 by the Malaysian government, instructs government-linked companies and investment companies to set aside funds for bumiputra entrepreneurs. A trap that repeats itselfThe semi-peripheral condition explains why this trap is structural, not merely corrupt.