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General Information
- Population: c.a. 23,000,000
- Capital: Kuala Lumpur
- Ethnicity : 59% Malay & other indigenous, 32% Chinese and 9% Indian.
- Religion: Muslim, Buddhism (Chinese), Hindu (Indian), Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism and tribal religions.
- Languages: Malay (official), English, Chinese (Mandarin, Hakka dialects, Cantonese), Tamil and tribal languages.
Malaysia is located in the heart of Southeast Asia, slightly north of the Equator.
Consisting of 127,000 sq. miles (330,200 sq. km), Malaysia is divided into two main regions: - Peninsular Malaysia, which lies just south of Thailand, and East Malaysia, which can be found north of Indonesia on the island of Borneo.
These two regions are divided into thirteen states and federal territories.
History of Malaysia
The original in inhabitants of Malaya, the "Orang Asli" were actually refugees from the south-western provinces of Yunan in China, fleeing conflicts in that area some 10,000 years ago. It then came under the rule of several different regional empires including the Hindu Sri Vijaya and Majapahit from the Indonesian Archipelago.
By the middle of the 14th century Islam arrived in Malaya via traders and merchants from India and began to spread rapidly as the local nobles embraced it.
By the middle of the 15th century Melaka's wealth and power had grown to a point where it was considered the center for trade in the south-east Asian region, this was mainly due to its strategic positioning on the Straits of Melaka, right in the middle of the spice trade route and the successful persecution and subjugation of the numerous pirate clans in the region, merchant ships from all over Asia including India, the Middle East and China regularly crowded its harbour. The first European visitors to Melaka, a small flotilla of Portuguese ships landed at Melaka in 1509. With the coming of the Dutch in the late 1520's the Portuguese rule of Melaka was coming to an end.
The less autocratic and generally more tolerant Dutch were considerably more successful than the Portuguese and succeeded not only in controlling Melaka, they also acquired holdings and fortifications in various other states on the peninsula.
The Dutch East India Company's days were numbered for after the establishment of Penang by Sir Francis Light in 1786 and Singapore by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1819 the influence of England began to overshadow the Dutch. The Anglo Dutch Treaty of 1824 finally formalized the succession of English rule.
The British Straits Settlements born in 1826, consisted of the three states of Penang, Singapore and Melaka with the capital moving from Penang to Singapore in 1832, all matters of policy though initially referred to the British administration in India were later centralized at the Colonial Office in London.
By 1896 local rulers wielded only token influence and The Federated Malay States consisting of Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan was formed under direct control of the Resident General's office in Kuala Lumpur. In 1909 the Treaty of Bangkok was signed and the kingdom of Siam relinquished the states of Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu and Perlis to British rule, thus the Unfederated Malay States were formed.
Malaya underwent a period of rapid growth and development with the construction of transport and communication infrastructure such as the building of roads, a railway and a telegraph system, natural resources were heavily exploited with the construction of tin, gold and coal mines, reforms were also made in the agricultural sector with the introduction of modern agricultural methods and the extensive farming of cash crops such as rubber and sugar cane. The population of Malaya would see a massive influx of labourers from China and India at this time, an event which caused a racial mix which has persisted to the present day.
In 1941 Peninsula Malaya was attacked by a Japanese invasion force composed of elements of the Japanese Imperial Army fresh from their conquest of French Indo-China. Moving quickly down the Peninsula and eliminating small pockets of resistance from the retreating British and Malay forces along the way, they took Kuala Lumpur and the British forces under the command of General Percival surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore on February 15th 1942.
After witnessing first hand an Asian country soundly defeating a supposedly invincible western nation, nationalistic fervour was running high and the masses believed that they no longer needed the dubious "protection" of the west.
The formation of the present day Federation of Malaysia began in 1961 when Tunku Abdul Rahman announced his plan for the formation of closer economic and political ties between the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak. In November 1961 Tunku Abdul Rahman and Singaporean premier signed an agreement on the merging of The Federation of Malaya and Singapore. Sabah and Sarawak would require further effort and the assistance of the British Government and the setting up of an Enquiries Commission to gather the opinions of the peoples of these two states.
Tunku Abdul Rahman the father of Malaysia's independence stepped down in 1970 and succeeded by Tun Abdul Razak bin Dato' Hussein. Tun Abdul Razak implemented many new development policies to stabilize the economy and to better the lot of the still largely poor and undeveloped rural Malay population by providing better infrastructure, education and healthcare.
With the untimely passing away of Tun Abdul Razak in 1976, the third Malaysian prime minister, Tun Hussein Onn, later to be known as The Father of Unity took over the task of guiding Malaysia's fortunes. From his background as a soldier, a police commandant in Johor and later a district officer in Selangor, Tun Hussein Onn was instilled with a deep concern for the welfare of the people. Thusly his policies were directed along similar lines as Tun Abdul Razak's with a deep emphasis on public order and unity of the races, public security and safety was also greatly emphasized and Malaysia's harsh anti drug laws were vigorously enforced.
Tun Hussein Onn's was also responsible for the implementation of the National Unit Trust Scheme, implemented in 1981 and before that the Rukun Tetangga, a neighborhood watch / militia plan to curb rising crime. Poor health and a heart surgery in 1981 caused Tun Hussein to step down as Prime Minister in the same year. The next Prime Minister would be a visionary who would put Malaysia firmly in the spotlight of the international community. Dato' Sri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, the fourth Malaysian Prime Minister began an aggressive campaign to turn Malaysia's economy from being primarily agricultural based to one concentrated towards manufacturing and electronics. To attract foreign investors and to rally the support of the people to his plans, he began the construction, not of monuments (though that is the generally perceived notion) but a sense of identity and strength.
By building the first national car, the third longest suspension bridge in the world, the tallest building in the world, the Multimedia Super Corridor, the most modern and high tech airport, and a host of other high profile projects, Dr. Mahathir planned to unite the people behind these achievements from such a small and young country, to forge a sense of pride and nationalism that Malaysians need not be timid, submissive and insignificant in the eyes of the international community. Vision 2020, Dr. Mahathir's plans to transform Malaysia into a fully developed and industrialized nation in 25 years is perhaps the most ambitious of all.
Through his visionary leadership Malaysia experienced an economic boom with double digit GDP growth rates throughout the early and mid nineties. After the 1997 Asian currency crisis in which many regional economies were ruined as rampant speculation caused currency values into an uncontrolled downward spiral, Malaysia is now well on the road to economic recovery and facing new challenges in globalization and an increasingly smaller and more competitive world.
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