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Malaysian
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The Federation
of Malaysia is a federation of 13 states in
Southeast Asia, formed in 1963.
The country consists of two geographical
regions divided by the South China Sea:
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West
Malaysia (or Peninsular Malaysia) on the
Malay Peninsula shares a land border on
the north with Thailand and is connected
by the Johor Causeway and the Tuas Second
Link on the south with Singapore. It
consist of the 11 states Johor, Kedah,
Kelantan, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang,
Perak, Perlis, Penang, Selangor and
Terengganu, and the two federal
territories Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur.
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East
Malaysia occupies the northern part of the
island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia and
the Sultanate of Brunei. It consists of
the federal territory of Labuan and the
states of Sabah and Sarawak.
History of
Malaysia
The Malay Peninsula has long benefited from
its central position in the maritime trade
routes between China and the Middle East.
Ptolemy showed it on his early map with a
label that translates as "Golden
Chersonese", the Straits of Malacca as
"Sinus Sabaricus". |
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 The
earliest recorded Malay kingdoms grew from
coastal city-ports established in the 10th
century AD. These include Langkasuka and
Lembah Bujang in Kedah, as well as Beruas
and Gangga Negara in Perak and Pan Pan in
Kelantan. It is thought that originally
these were Hindu or Buddhist nations. The
first evidence of Islam in the Malay
peninsula dates from the 14th century in
Terengganu.
In the early 15th century, the Sultanate of
Malacca was established under a dynasty
founded by Parameswara, a prince from
Palembang, who fled from the island Temasek
(now Singapore). Parameswara decided to
establish his kingdom in Malacca after
witnessing an astonishing incident where a
tiny rain deer kicked a dog into the river.
With Malacca as its capital, the sultanate
controlled the areas which are now Peninsula
Malaysia, southern Thailand (Patani), and
the eastern coast of Sumatra. It existed for
more than a century, and within that time
period Islam spread to most of the Malay
Archipelago. Malacca was the foremost
trading port at the time in Southeast Asia.
In 1511, Malacca was conquered by Portugal,
who established a colony there. The sons of
the last sultan of Malacca established two
sultanates elsewhere in the peninsula - the
Sultanate of Perak to the north, and the
Sultanate of Johor (originally a
continuation of the old Malacca sultanate)
to the south. After the fall of Malacca,
three nations struggled for the control of
Malacca Strait: the Portuguese (in Malacca),
the Sultanate of Johor, and the Sultanate of
Aceh. This conflict went on till 1641, when
the Dutch (allied to the Sultanate of Johor)
gained control of Malacca.
Britain established its first colony in the
Malay peninsula in 1786, with the granting
of the island of Penang to the British East
India Company by the Sultan of Kedah. In
1824, the British took control of Malacca
following the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
which divided the Malaya archipelago between
Britain and the Netherlands, with Malaya in
the British zone. In 1826, Britain
established the crown colony of the Straits
Settlements, uniting its three possessions
in Malaya: Penang, Malacca and Singapore.
The Straits Settlements were administered
under the East India Company in Calcutta
until 1867, when they were transferred to
the Colonial Office in London.
Sultan Abdul Samad Building in Kuala Lumpur
houses the High Court of Malaya at Kuala
Lumpur and the Trade Court. Kuala Lumpur was
the capital of the Federated Malay States
and is the current Malaysian capital.
During the late 19th century, many Malay
states decided to obtain British help in
settling their internal conflicts. The
commercial importance of tin mining in the
Malay states to merchants in the Straits
Settlemens led to British government
intervention in the tin-producing states in
the Malay Peninsula. British gunboat
diplomacy was employed to bring about a
peaceful resolution to civil disturbances
caused by Chinese gangsters, and the Pangkor
Treaty of 1874 paved the way for the
expansion of British influence in Malaya. By
the turn of the 20th century the states of
Pahang, Selangor, Perak, and Negeri Sembilan,
known together as the Federated Malay States
(not to be confused with the Federation of
Malaya), were under the de facto control of
British Residents appointed to advise the
Malay rulers. The British were "advisers" by
name but in reality they were the puppet
masters behind the Malay rulers who had to
abide to their whims and fancies.
The remaining five states in the peninsula,
known as the Unfederated Malay States, while
not directly under rule from London, also
accepted British advisors around the turn of
the 20th century. Of these, the four
northern states of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan
and Terengganu had previously under Siamese
control.
On the island of Borneo, Sabah was governed
as the crown colony of British North Borneo,
while Sarawak was acquired from Brunei as
the personal kingdom of the Brooke family,
who ruled as white rajahs.
Following the Japanese occupation of Malaya
(1942-1945) during World War II, popular
support for independence grew. Post-war
British plans to unite the administration of
Malaya under a single crown colony called
the Malayan Union foundered on strong
opposition from the Malays, who opposed the
emasculation of the Malay rulers and the
granting of citizenship to the ethnic
Chinese. The Malayan Union, established in
1946 and consisting of all the British
possessions in Malaya with the exception of
Singapore, was dissolved in 1948 and
replaced by the Federation of Malaya, which
restored the autonomy of the rulers of the
Malay states under British protection.
During this time, Chinese rebels under the
leadership of the Communist Party of Malaya
launched guerrilla operations designed to
force the British out of Malaya. The Malayan
Emergency, as it was known, lasted from 1948
to 1960, and involved a long anti-insurgency
campaign by Commonwealth troops in Malaya.
Against this backdrop, independence for the
Federation within the Commonwealth was
granted on 31 August 1957 (see Hari Merdeka.
In 1963 the Federation was expanded with the
admission of the then-British crown colonies
of Singapore, Sabah (British North Borneo)
and Sarawak, and renamed Malaysia. The
Sultanate of Brunei, though initially
expressing interest in joining the
Federation, withdrew from the planned merger
due to opposition from certain segments of
the population as well as arguments over the
payment of oil royalties.
The early years of independence were marred
by conflict with Indonesia (Konfrantasi)
over the formation of Malaysia, Singapore's
eventual exit in 1965, and racial strife in
the form of racial riots in 1969 (popularly
known as the "May 13" riots). The
Philippines also made an active claim on
Sabah in that period based upon the
Sultanate of Brunei's cession of its
north-east territories to the Sultanate of
Sulu in 1704, which is still ongoing.
After the May 13 racial riots of 1969, the
controversial New Economic Policy - intended
to increase the share of the economic pie
owned by the bumiputeras as opposed to other
ethnic groups - was launched by Prime
Minister Tun Abdul Razak. Malaysia has since
maintained a delicate ethno-political
balance, with a system of government that
has attempted to combine overall economic
development with political and economic
policies that favour Bumiputras, the native
population which includes the majority
Malays.
Between the 1980s and the early 1990s,
Malaysia experienced significant economic
growth under the premiership of Tun Dr
Mahathir bin Mohamad. The period saw a shift
from an agriculture-based economy to one
based on manufacturing and industry in areas
such as computers and consumer electronics.
It was during this period, too, that the
physical landscape of Malaysia has changed
with the emergence of numerous
mega-projects. The most notable of these
projects are the Petronas Twin Towers (at
the time the tallest building in the world),
KL International Airport (KLIA), the Sepang
F1 Circuit, the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC),
the Bakun hydroelectric dam and Putrajaya, a
new federal administrative capital.
In the late 1990s, Malaysia was shaken by
the Asian financial crisis as well as
political unrest caused by the sacking of
the deputy prime minister Dato' Seri Anwar
Ibrahim. In 2003, Dr Mahathir, Malaysia's
longest serving prime minister, retired in
favour of his deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,
commonly known as Pak Lah. |
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