Malaysia

A nation of Southeast Asia, Malaysia consists of two components: peninsular Malaysia, which is part of mainland Southeast Asia, and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Although there are considerable areas of lowland and coastal plain, much of the country consists of mountainous terrain, clothed in dense rain forest. With the exception of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, elevations are modest 3,000 to 6,000 feet (1,000 to 2,000 meters). Since Malaysia lies entirely between one and seven degrees north of the equator, it experiences a humid equatorial-tropical climate.

Peninsular Malaysia covers an area of 50,806 square miles (131,587 square kilometers) and consists of the states of Perlis, Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu, Pinang, Perak, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, and Johore. The federal capital, Kuala Lumpur, occupies a small enclave in the state of Selangor, designated in 1974 as Federal Territory. About 82 percent of Malaysia's population reside in peninsular Malaysia. The populations in Sabah, with an area of 28,460 square miles (73,711 square kilometers), and Sarawak, with an area of 48,050 square miles (124,449 square kilometers), account for about 8 and 9 percent respectively.

Malaysia is a pivotal nation in Southeast Asia, even though it is the smallest except for Singapore and Brunei. It is one of the world's leading producers of tin, natural rubber, oil palm, and tropical lumber.

Land and Climate

Mountain ranges extend southward from Thailand into peninsular Malaysia. The weathering of granites and other associated rocks has created extensive areas of deep and relatively well-drained soils. Tin-bearing minerals are concentrated in the gravel beds of several of the major river systems. These rivers transported much sediment, building extensive areas of coastal alluvial plain especially along the Strait of Malacca. These areas are either exploited for their swamp forest resources or are drained to become agricultural land, especially for growing rice.

Much of the center of Borneo consists of mountain systems. Sarawak, in the northwest, represents a slightly uplifted basin with its southern portion folded into a series of parallel ridges from southwest to northeast. Its northern portion is a still sedimenting coastal plain under which have been found considerable petroleum resources. The mountain ridges of Sarawak pass northeastward into Sabah, where they form a more compact coastal mountain chain. This culminates in Mount Kinabalu, which at 13,698 feet (4,175 meters) is the highest point between northeastern India and the island of New Guinea.

Temperatures and humidity remain high throughout the year. In Kuala Lumpur the daily minimum and maximum temperatures are about 73 and 90 F (23 and 32 C). Annual rainfall averages about 100 inches (250 centimeters). From December to March a northeasterly airflow predominates, and portions of the country, especially those areas farther from the equator, have a distinct dry season. From May to October a southwesterly flow predominates, and rainfall is widespread.

People

The population of Malaysia in 1986 was about 16 million, of which native ethnic groups accounted for 58.6 percent, Chinese 32.1 percent, Indians 8.6 percent, and others 0.7 percent. The growth rate from 1981 to 1986 was 2.6 percent. The population, however, is shifting in its distribution. The major cities notably Kuala Lumpur, George Town, Ipoh, and Johor Baharu are expanding rapidly. The annual growth rate of the urban population is 6 percent. The Malays and the other native ethnic groups that were previously largely rural are migrating in increasing numbers to urban centers.

Malaysia has great ethnic diversity. In peninsular Malaysia there remain some 60,000 members of groups referred to as the Orang Asli, or aboriginal peoples. Included are several groups of Negritos and Senoi and such others as the Jakun and the Temelai, who may in fact be more closely related to the later Malay arrivals. These peoples are believed to be remnants of groups that have lived in the peninsula for thousands of years but who were driven into remote parts of the mountains and forests by subsequent migrant groups.

The later arrivals began infiltrating Southeast Asia from the north about 2000-1500 BC. They settled in the valleys and plains, but in certain areas they also occupied the mountainous interiors. These groups include the Malays in peninsular Malaysia; the Iban, Kayan, Kelabit, Kenyah, Bidayuh, Bisayah, Melanau, and Kelabit in Sarawak; and the Bajau, Kadazan, and Murut in Sabah. These groups are generally referred to collectively as the Bumiputra groups, or the of the soil.

Under colonial rule Chinese especially from the southern provinces were encouraged to come to peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak. Indian laborers from South India were also brought to work on the rubber plantations. The Chinese and Indians together make up almost half of the population of peninsular Malaysia, though their proportions in Sarawak and Sabah are much lower.

The Malays of the peninsula were influenced by the Indianized kingdoms of Southeast Asia, though few cultural traces of this Hindu-Buddhist phase remain. During the 15th century Islam entered the region from India by way of northern Sumatra, and the Malay peoples quickly embraced this religion. The social and cultural life of the Malays revolves around their religious obligations and activities. Every village or kampong has its mosque. Malay children are often sent to religious as well as state schools. Many Malays make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, and the major festival of the year is the celebration with which the Muslim month of fasting ends.

Chinese and Indian immigrant groups who arrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries brought with them their own languages and religions. Several southern Chinese dialects were represented among the Chinese immigrant population, but Cantonese and Hokkien were the two major ones. Tamil-speaking Hindus from around Madras were a large element among the Indians. The Chinese and Indians made strong efforts to maintain their distinctive ethnic identities, but with the coming of independence Malaysia worked toward a more unified national image. Education in all languages except Malay Bahasa Malaysia is being phased out, though the use of other languages is not prohibited. The population also includes small numbers of Europeans, Americans, Arabs, and Thai.

Economy

Malaysia is a country in which the production and export of raw materials is a major part of the economy. But the country has made great strides in attempting to diversify its economy and to encourage the growth of modern industries and services. In 1985 it was estimated that 36 percent of the labor force was engaged in agriculture and other primary industries, 15 percent in manufacturing, 7 percent in construction, 17 percent in commercial and financial activities, 15 percent in government, and 10 percent in miscellaneous occupations.

Natural rubber has long been the most significant commercial crop. It is produced mainly in peninsular Malaysia, both from large-scale plantations and from smallholdings. Many of the smallholdings were created beginning in the 1960s in an extensive program of pioneer settlement the establishing of impoverished families as farmers in government-planned settlement (FELDA) schemes. Smallholders were responsible for two thirds of the million and a half metric tons of rubber produced annually in the early 1980s. Palm oil, also from both plantations and smallholders, is another major commercial crop.

Rice has been cultivated in the region for centuries and remains a staple food item. Most rice cultivators are Malay peasant farmers on smallholdings. Yields and output have increased as a result of irrigation projects such as the Muda Scheme in Kedah and Perlis and the use of high-yielding rice strains. Annual production of padi at 1.7 million tons represents 80 to 85 percent of national self-sufficiency. Coconuts, cacao, peppers, pineapples, and tobacco are also grown. Tropical timber is exported. Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, and Sabah share more or less equally in this form of trade. The rate at which the country's 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of primary forest is being cut, however, has been slowed.

Malaysia is the world's leading tin producer, accounting for 30 percent of world supplies. Like most primary products, tin faces an uncertain future. Quotas are in force to restrict production. It was estimated that in 1985 Malaysia produced 40,000 tons of tin.

Petroleum is a later industry with reserves estimated at more than 3 billion barrels. Production is almost entirely from off-shore rigs that lie to the east of peninsular Malaysia and to the north of Sarawak and Sabah. Production of petroleum reached nearly 450,000 barrels per day in 1984 but was reduced in response to declining prices. The petroleum fields also contain vast reserves of natural gas that have been little exploited. There are plans to make natural gas the basis of several new industrial complexes, including one for aluminum smelting at Miri in Sarawak.

Industrialization in Malaysia began early. In its first stages it was linked to the production and export of industrial materials. Rubber processing, tin smelting, and palm-oil extraction all made their appearance before 1960. In the 1960s a policy of import substitution was initiated, with favorable terms accorded companies that began local industries to serve the Malaysian market. Such major industries as iron and steel, sugar refining, cement production, and fertilizers were begun. In the 1970s there was a policy shift toward encouraging the establishment of export-oriented industries. This led to factories in major urban centers, especially of peninsular Malaysia, that produced components for the international electronics industry. It also spurred the rapid growth of textiles and other manufactured items for sale in Europe and North America. The motor vehicle industry, though still dependent on imported parts, progressed by 1986 to the point of producing a prototype of a passenger car intended for the North American market.

By 1986 it was estimated that 880,000 workers were employed in manufacturing industries. Manufacturing accounted for 35 percent of the total export value in 1985 of M$38,007 million (US$15,836 million), contributing to a favorable trade balance.

A notable feature of economic policy planning in Malaysia is the attempt to raise the economic status of the country's Malay population, long below that of the immigrant peoples. Development plans include land settlement schemes and shareholding trust funds that share in the purchase and management of modern industries. This has been done, however, at the cost of some alienation of the Chinese and Indian segments of the population.

History and Government

In the middle of the 1st millennium, city-states emerged in Southeast Asia that reflected Hindu and Buddhist influences from India. The lands that now make up Malaysia were at different times affected by these states, but no major Indianized state seems to have existed in Malaysia. In the 15th century Melaka was founded, and shortly thereafter its ruler was converted to Islam. Melaka rapidly became the center of a commercial empire that controlled much of the trade in precious spices from the islands to the east, especially the Moluccas. From Melaka Islam spread farther to the east, establishing itself in Borneo.

European powers soon began to intrude into the region, each seeking to control the highly profitable spice trade. The Portuguese captured Melaka in 1511. A century later the Dutch replaced the Portuguese. The British were the main rivals of the Dutch, and these two powers remained in contention until after the Napoleonic wars. In 1824 they signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, which divided Southeast Asia into spheres of influence that were later to become colonial possessions. By this treaty Britain gave the Dutch all, or trading posts, in Sumatra, recognized Dutch control over Java, and agreed not to establish posts or enter into treaty relations with rulers of islands of the Straits of Singapore.In return the Dutch agreed to give up all their posts and claims on the Malay peninsula as well as to cede posts in India. This colonial division created the territorial structure of the present-day federation of Malaysia. In addition to developing control over the Malay peninsula, the British established themselves on the northern coast of Borneo now Sarawak and Sabah as these areas did not lie of the Straits of Singapore.

As the 19th century progressed, Britain's hold on the territory tightened. Britain exercised direct rule over the Straits Settlements George Town, Melaka, and Singapore, a port founded by Stamford Raffles in 1819. Various Malay sultanates were placed under treaty relationships. James Brooke obtained permission in the 1840s from the sultan of Brunei in Borneo to pacify and rule the southwestern part of Sarawak, and the area he controlled subsequently increased. In North Borneo, later Sabah, the British North Borneo Company was granted a charter in 1846. Resistance to this intensification of colonial rule was widespread, and revolts simmered for years.

Economic change was rapid in the latter part of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. Chinese tin miners had long been operating in the Malay peninsula, and the establishment of British control enabled them to expand their activities. Large numbers of Chinese laborers flowed into the region to work in the mines, many staying to start other businesses. Railroads were constructed to help export the tin. Various types of agricultural and plantation enterprises were established primarily coffee, tea, and rubber. Rubber was native to the Amazon Basin in South America, but seeds were transported to London in 1876 and from there to Singapore. After experiments in Singapore, rubber was recommended as a plantation crop in Malaya, and plantings expanded rapidly.

The native populations participated in the growing cash economy only to a minor extent. On the peninsula they continued to be hunters and in the forests they continued to grow irrigated rice and other crops.

As a raw-materials producer, Malaya suffered severely during the years of the Great Depression. In the late 1930s economic conditions improved, but in 1941 Malaya, Sarawak, and Sabah were all invaded by the Japanese and remained under Japanese control until 1945. The British returned after the war to reestablish colonial rule in Malaya and took over Sarawak and Sabah. British plans for independence for its territories met with strong opposition. They included citizenship for both native and immigrant peoples and were perceived as reducing the status of the Malay princely states. The outbreak of a Communist-led insurgency in 1948 also interfered with plans to grant independence. In 1957 Malaya became independent, but Sarawak and Sabah continued as British territories for several years.

In 1963 Britain proposed a federation to incorporate not only Malaya but also Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei. All but Brunei agreed to form the Federation of Malaysia. Singapore withdrew in 1965, leaving the nine states of Malaya, along with Sarawak and Sabah, to continue in the federation.

Each state in the federation has an elected legislature and a chief minister. At the federal level there is a bicameral, or two-house legislature, or parliament. Government is in the hands of a prime minister, who is chief of the majority party in the Dewan Rakyat, or lower house. Each of the non-Malay states (Melaka, Pinang, Sarawak, and Sabah) has an appointed governor who functions as a constitutional ruler for the state. Each of the nine Malay states has a ruler, or sultan, who functions as a constitutional monarch but is also responsible for questions relating to the Muslim religion and the Malay language. The constitutional monarch for the whole federation is the Yang Dipertuan Agung, elected by the traditional Malay rulers from among themselves for a term of five years.

The Malays constitute the major political power block, and they dominate the nation's political life. They have found it necessary, however, to maintain a political alliance the Barisan Nasional with elements in Sarawak and Sabah and with Chinese and Indian groups of peninsular Malaysia. The Barisan and its predecessors have held a majority in parliament without interruption since the granting of independence in 1957. Opposition to the Barisan comes from radical elements of the Chinese, Indians, and Malays on the left and from Islamic reformers on the right who seek to establish a Muslim state.