our number ONE recommendation for Malaysia

Plantation Rewards, DPO Masterclass Lunch Buffet

Common (and safe) investments in Malaysia are unit trusts (UT), fixed deposits (FD) and investment-linked insurance (ILI). Are they risk-free? Bluntly put, no. These vehicles are antiquated, UT’s have annual fees that can be more than the returns, ILI’s force you to wait up to 25 years to see the return and in our opinions benefit the institutions far more than the investor.

Alternative investments are the way to make money. Savvy investors have flocked to the plantation businesses. Its local. Under the laws the investors grew up with. Since Covid-19 some food industries have exploded by more than 700%.

The Durian business simply cannot be ignored as the number one fastest growing and singularly most profitable food industry on the planet and is forecast to get stronger.

We have chosen Plantation Rewards from a plethora of possibilities. There are other worthy mentions like, New Leaf. But Plantation rewards in our opinion is Malaysia’s No.1 safest way to learn about a stand-alone second income. This PR company does not collect any investment capital but represents two of Malaysia’s main suppliers of high quality produce to supermarkets. Together the combined strength of these plantations makes them eligible for licenced export to China. A kilo of the “King” in Malaysia retail averages at 60 RM a kilo. In China the same fruit retails for as much as $175 USD per kilo. Investors now are set to make a profit never seen before. Risk? It’s the food industry. Who doesn’t need to eat? Longevity? Well the Mao Shang Wang tree can harvest profitable fruits that pay out annually from 25 or to 85 years. Making this a true family investment. Plantation rewards simply diverts some of its existing profits from its high street supermarket sales to acquire a selection of gift incentives (see below) to attract Malaysia’s high profile preferred shoppers and reward them for their time attending. The Durian Plantation Ownership Masterclass or as Plantation Rewards calls their one and a half hour lunch session, the “DPO Masterclass”. A lunch buffet to learn how to create stand alone, second income equivalent to 5-10 times the interest in the bank beating all the above mentioned traditional methods. Unique to Plantation Rewards, invitees are existing customers being local shoppers so the feedback from attendees is one of, “no pressure and an interesting session over lunch”. And this is why we recommend Plantation Rewards. A unique situation where every attendee is an existing customer so there is no pressure to invest and looking at their Google reviews, attendees that do not invest are as satisfied with their visit as those that do. And to us at Investment Informer that’s important.

The highly acclaimed Durian Ownership Master Class is back for 2021.

The Durian market was the sleepy sector until, the dragon, the Chinese market. The demand has seen a 754% growth in Durian trading. And while China is flooded with Thai Durians. The demand for the Mao Shan Wang, known as the “Musang King” is currently at frenzy levels. Chinese food research firm called Mintel’s, explained the King’s sales skyrocketing to over 185 a kilo because, “It’s the King of Fruits. It’s like iPhone in China” the firm says. “It’s so expensive it makes you feel above the rest of people. So, they’re ok to pay (top dollars)”.

This demand has sent a tsunami of savvy Malaysian investors flooding the Durian Plantation Ownership Master class. Entry is free, sponsored by Malaysia’s most respected plantations. But, this highly sought-after class is limited to a select few enquirers and needs to be strictly pre-qualified. Only Malaysia’s top 10% of families, VIP’s or local influencers may apply.

What do the qualified get in return? Well, a champagne glass reception and a lobby filled with Malaysia’s most influential. Catering is restaurant quality supplied by a local luxury hotel.

Dessert samples the highest quality Musang King in the form of sweets, savouries and ice creams. Straight from the Plantations, straight to the taste buds of the ‘student couples’ as the event affectionately calls them. Unique to this event, real plantation staff casually meet each couple and chat about their family’s potential desires and profits with expert confidence during the sampling fun. Proving that Malaysian families can return more than five times their bank rate of interest with a passive second income while keeping their money under their control, under their own laws. Regulated and back by independent local Kuala Lumpur trustees. We highly recommend the master Class as one of the safest ways to make a proficient yearly return.

Of course, community funding the explosion of the Durian Boom is as profitable for plantations as it is for the students, so these events are heavily sponsored by Malaysia’s leading farms. Those qualified to attend may choose a selection of high value rewards for their time. The latest technology in the form of 6th Generation Smartwatches in what the event calls its, “business technology package”. As well as this, spa weekends away can be selected by the fortunate few allowed entry. The main event award however is the Grand Prize, where one student couple will be drawn to receive a 30,000 RM cash prize and another will drive away the ultimate businessman’s toy, a Mercedes G-Wagon.

Grand Prize Draw

The new Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon is just like you, sophisticated, sporty and elegant. It features the state-of-the-art motoring technology you deserve. The Mercedes-Benz GWagon User Experience (MBUX) is a totally new way to operate a luxury vehicle using intuition and the art of machine learning. The Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon will eventually know your preferences better than you do yourself.

Current Rewards

The new 6th Generation Smartwatch delivers in every area – performance, aesthetics and customizability. It features a crisp, bright display, GPC, NFC and heart rate sensor for accurate fitness tracking. The 5.0 Bluetooth Smartwatch comes with a 40 and 42 mm face, 1.4 IPS, ECG Blood Pressure Heart Monitor, Step Counter, Bluetooth Bracelet Activity, and a Fitness Wristband for Android IOS PK Series 4 IWO 12 Watch.

Luxury International Vacation

Instead of being stuck in city traffic jams every day, imagine entering your luxury hotel suite that is decked out in marble and teak and offers the ultimate back-to-nature tranquility. You could have your own garden or pool enveloped by ferns to boot. Receive a four-day, three-night holiday certificate of your choice at any of our participating luxury hotels in Asia including Singapore, Bali, Kota Kinabalu, Seoul, Hong Kong or Tokyo (pre-paid and valid for a full 12 months).

Luxury Local Staycation

Take a breather from the hustle and bustle of daily life and escape into our unabashedly luxurious and exclusive hotels. Take an enchanting getaway into Malaysia’s calming environment that still offers unique excitements. You will receive a staycation certificate at gorgeous accommodations in Bukit Tinggi, Port Dickson and Malacca. Your loved one will be forever grateful.

Introduction

Malaysia, country of Southeast Asia, lying just north of the Equator,that is composed of two noncontiguous regions: Peninsular Malaysia(Semenanjung Malaysia), also called West Malaysia (Malaysia Barat),which is on the Malay Peninsula, and East Malaysia (MalaysiaTimur), which is on the island of Borneo. The Malaysian capital,Kuala Lumpur, lies in the western part of the peninsula, about 25miles (40 km) from the coast; the administrative centre, Putrajaya, islocated about 16 miles (25 km) south of the capital.

Malaysia, a member of theCommonwealth, represents thepolitical marriage of territories that were formerly under Britishrule. When it was established on September 16, 1963, Malaysiacomprised the territories of Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia),the island of Singapore, and the colonies of Sarawak and Sabah innorthern Borneo. In August 1965 Singapore seceded from thefederation and became an independent republic.

Land

Peninsular Malaysia occupies most of the southern segment of theMalay Peninsula. To the north it is bordered by Thailand, withwhich it shares a land boundary of some 300 miles (480 km). Tothe south, at the tip of the peninsula, is the island republic ofSingapore, with which Malaysia is connected by a causeway andalso by a separate bridge. To the southwest, across the Strait ofMalacca, is the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. East Malaysiaconsists of the country’s two largest states, Sarawak and Sabah,and is separated from Peninsular Malaysia by some 400 miles(640 km) of the South China Sea. These two states occupyroughly the northern fourth of the large island of Borneo and sharea land boundary with the Indonesian portion (Kalimantan) of theisland to the south. Surrounded by Sarawak is a small coastalenclave containing the sultanate of Brunei. Of the country’s total area, which includes about 265 squareMalaysiaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

miles (690 square km) of inland water, Peninsular Malaysiaconstitutes about 40 percent and East Malaysia about 60 percent.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Relief

The long, narrow, and rugged Malay Peninsula extends to thesouth and southwest from Myanmar and Thailand. The Malaysianportion of it is about 500 miles (800 km) long and—at its broadesteast-west axis—about 200 miles (320 km) wide. About half ofPeninsular Malaysia is covered by granite and other igneousrocks, one-third is covered by stratified rocks older than thegranite, and the remainder is covered by alluvium. At least halfthe land area lies more than 500 feet (150 metres) above sea level. Peninsular Malaysia is dominated by its mountainous core, whichconsists of a number of roughly parallel mountain ranges alignednorth-south. The most prominent of these is the Main Range,which is about 300 miles (480 km) long and has peaks exceeding7,000 feet (2,100 metres). Karst landscapes—limestone hills withcharacteristically steep whitish gray sides, stunted vegetation, caves created by the dissolving action ofwater, and subterranean passages—are distinctive landmarks in central and northern PeninsularMalaysia. Bordering the mountainous core are the coastal lowlands, 10 to 50 miles (15 to 80 km) widealong the west coast of the peninsula but narrower and discontinuous along the east coast.

East Malaysia is an elongated strip of land approximately 700 miles (1,125 km) long with a maximumwidth of about 170 miles (275 km). The coastline of 1,400 miles (2,250 km) is paralleled inland by a900-mile (l,450-km) boundary with Kalimantan. For most of its length, the relief consists of threetopographic features. The first is the flat coastal plain. In Sarawak, where the coastline is regular, theplain averages 20 to 40 miles (30 to 60 km) in width, while in Sabah, where the coastline is rugged anddeeply indented, it is only 10 to 20 miles (15 to 30 km) wide. Inland from the coastal plain is the secondtopographic feature, the hill-and-valley region. Elevations there generally are less than 1,000 feet (300metres), but isolated groups of hills reach heights of 2,500 feet (750 metres) or more. The terrain in thisregion is usually irregular, with steep-sided hills and narrow valleys. The third topographic feature is themountainous backbone that forms the divide between East Malaysia and Kalimantan. This region,which is higher and nearer to the coast in Sabah than in Sarawak, is composed of an eroded and ill-defined complex of plateaus, ravines, gorges, and mountain ranges. Most of the summits of the rangesare between 4,000 and 7,000 feet (1,200 and 2,100 metres). Mount Kinabalu towers above this mountain complex; at 13,455 feet (4,101 metres), it is the highest peak in Malaysia and in the SoutheastAsian archipelago as a whole.

Drainage

Peninsular Malaysia is drained by an intricate system of rivers and streams. The longest river—thePahang—is only 270 miles (434 km) long. Streams flow year-round because of the constant rains, butthe volume of water transported fluctuates with the localized and torrential nature of the rainfall.Prolonged rains often cause floods, especially in areas where the natural regimes of the rivers have beendisrupted by uncontrolled mining or agricultural activities.

As in Peninsular Malaysia, the drainage pattern of East Malaysia is set by the interior highlands, whichalso form the watershed between Malaysia and Indonesia. The rivers, also perennial because of the year-round rainfall, form a dense network covering the entire region. The longest river in Sarawak, theRajang, is about 350 miles (563 km) long and is navigable by shallow-draft boats for about 150 miles(240 km) from its mouth; its counterpart in Sabah, the Kinabatangan, is of comparable length but isnavigable only for about 120 miles (190 km) from its mouth. The rivers provide a means ofcommunication between the coast and the interior, and historically, most settlement has taken placealong the rivers.

Soils

The soils of both portions of Malaysia have been exposed for a long period of time to intense tropicalweathering, with the result that most of their plant nutrients have been leached out. Soils typically arestrongly acidic and coarse-textured and have low amounts of organic matter. Any organic matter israpidly oxidized when exposed to weathering, and the soils consequently become even poorer. Soilerosion is always a danger on sloping ground, where such preventive measures as building contourembankments or planting protective cover crops are required.

Only a small proportion of the soils of Peninsular Malaysia is fertile, necessitating regular application offertilizer to sustain crop yields. Generally, soil conditions in Sarawak and Sabah do not differ greatlyfrom those on the peninsula. Of these three regions, only Sabah has appreciable areas of fertile soils.These are found in the southeastern coastal areas, where the parent substance from which the soil isformed is composed of chemically basic volcanic materials.

Climate

Both peninsular and insular Malaysia lie in the same tropical latitudes and are affected by similarairstreams. They have high temperatures and humidities, heavy rainfall, and a climatic year patterned

around the northeast and southwest monsoons. The four seasons of the climatic year are the northeastmonsoon (from November or December until March), the first intermonsoonal period (March to Aprilor May), the southwest monsoon (May or June to September or early October), and the secondintermonsoonal period (October to November). The onset and retreat of the two monsoons are notsharply defined.

Although Malaysia has an equatorial climate, the narrowness and topographic configuration of eachportion—central mountainous cores with flat, flanking coastal plains—facilitate the inland penetrationof maritime climatic influences. The monsoons further modify the climate. The northeast monsoonbrings heavy rain and rough seas to the exposed coasts of southwestern Sarawak and northern andnortheastern Sabah, and it sometimes causes flooding in the eastern part of the peninsula. The southwestmonsoon affects mainly the southwestern coastal belt of Sabah, where flooding is common. Neitherpeninsular nor insular Malaysia is in the tropical cyclone (typhoon) belt, but their coasts occasionallyare subject to the heavy rainstorms associated with squalls.

Temperatures are uniformly high throughout the year. On the peninsula, they average about 80 °F (27°C) in most lowland areas. In coastal areas in East Malaysia, minimum temperatures range from the lowto mid-70s F (about 23 °C), and maximum temperatures hover around 90 °F (32 °C); temperatures arelower in the interior highland regions. The mean annual rainfall on the peninsula is approximately 100inches (2,540 mm); the driest location, Kuala Kelawang (in the district of Jelebu), near Kuala Lumpur,receives about 65 inches (1,650 mm) of rain per year, while the wettest, Maxwell’s Hill, northwest ofIpoh, receives some 200 inches (5,000 mm) annually. Mean annual precipitation in Sabah varies fromabout 80 to 140 inches (2,030 to 3,560 mm), while most parts of Sarawak receive 120 inches (3,050mm) or more per year.

Malaysia: rainforest

Plant and animal life

The characteristic vegetation of Malaysia is dense evergreen rainforest. Rainforest still covers more thantwo-fifths of the peninsula and some two-thirds of Sarawak and Sabah; another fraction of the country isunder swamp forest. Soil type, location, and elevation produce distinctive vegetation zones: tidal swampforest on the coast, freshwater- and peat-swamp forest on the ill-drained parts of the coastal plains,lowland rainforest on the well-drained parts of the coastal plains and foothills up to an elevation ofabout 2,000 feet (600 metres), and submontane and montane forest (also called cloud forest) in higherareas. The highly leached and sandy soils of parts of central Sarawak and the coast support an openheathlike forest commonly called kerangas forest.

The flora of the Malaysian rainforest is among the richest in theworld. There are several thousand species of vascular plants,including more than 2,000 species of trees, as well as the parasiticmonster flower (Rafflesia arnoldii of the Rafflesiaceae family),which bears the world’s largest known flower, measuring nearly 3feet (1 metre) in diameter. Numerous varieties of the carnivorouspitcher plants (Nepenthes) also grow in Malaysia’s forests. Oneacre (0.4 hectare) of forest may have as many as 100 different species of trees, as well as shrubs, herbs,lianas (creepers), and epiphytes (nonparasitic plants that grow on other plants and derive nourishmentfrom the atmosphere). The forest canopy is so dense that little sunlight can penetrate it. As a result, theundergrowth usually is poorly developed and—contrary to popular belief—is not impenetrable. Much ofthe original rainforest has been destroyed by clearances made for agricultural or commercial purposes,by severe wind and lightning storms, and by indigenous peoples clearing it for shifting cultivation.When such cleared land is subsequently abandoned, coarse grassland, scrub, and secondary forest oftendevelop.

The forests and scrublands are inhabited by a large variety of animal life. Mammals on the peninsulainclude elephants, tigers, Malayan gaurs (or seladang, massive wild oxen), Sumatran rhinoceroses,tapirs (hoofed and snouted quadrupeds), wild pigs, and many species of deer, including pelandok, orchevrotains (small, deerlike ruminants, commonly called mouse deer). Crocodiles, monitor lizards, andcobras also are indigenous to the country, while green sea turtles and giant leatherback turtles nest onthe beaches of the east coast.

Animal life in East Malaysia is even more varied than it is on thepeninsula. In addition to the peninsular species, East Malaysia is also thehome of fast-disappearing orangutans and rhinoceroses, sun bears (alsocalled honey bears), and unique proboscis monkeys—a reddish tree-dwelling species. There also are vast numbers of cave swifts, whose nests are regularly collected andsold as the main ingredient of Chinese bird’s nest soup.

People

The people of Malaysia are unevenly distributed between Peninsular and East Malaysia, with the vastmajority living in Peninsular Malaysia. The population shows great ethnic, linguistic, cultural, andreligious diversity. Within this diversity, a significant distinction is made for administrative purposesbetween indigenous peoples (including Malays), collectively called bumiputra, and immigrantpopulations (primarily Chinese and South Asians), called non-bumiputra.

Ethnic groups and languages

The Malay Peninsula and the northern coast of Borneo, both situated at the nexus of one of the majormaritime trade routes of the world, have long been the meeting place of peoples from other parts ofAsia. As a result, the population of Malaysia, like that of Southeast Asia as a whole, shows greatethnographic complexity. Helping to unite this diversity of peoples is the national language, astandardized form of Malay, officially called Bahasa Malaysia (formerly Bahasa Melayu). It is spokento some degree by most communities, and it is the main medium of instruction in public primary andsecondary schools.

Peninsular Malaysia

In general, peninsular Malaysians can be divided into four groups.In the order of their appearance in the region, these include thevarious Orang Asli (“Original People”) aboriginal peoples, the Malays, the Chinese, and the SouthAsians. In addition, there are small numbers of Europeans, Americans, Eurasians, Arabs, and Thai. TheOrang Asli constitute the smallest group and can be classified ethnically into the Jakun, who speak adialect of Malay, and the Semang and Senoi, who speak languages of the Mon-Khmer language family.

The Malays originated in different parts of the peninsula and archipelagic Southeast Asia. Theyconstitute about half of the country’s total population, they are politically the most powerful group, and,on the peninsula, they are numerically dominant. They generally share with each other a commonculture, but with some regional variation, and they speak dialects of a common Austronesian language—Malay. The most obvious cultural differences occur between the Malays living near the southern tipof the peninsula and those inhabiting the eastern and western coastal areas. Unlike the other ethnicgroups of Malaysia, Malays are officially defined in part by their adherence to a specific religion, Islam.

The Chinese, who make up about one-fourth of Malaysia’s population, originally migrated fromsoutheastern China. They are linguistically more diverse than the Malays, speaking several differentChinese languages; in Peninsular Malaysia, Hokkien and Hainanese (Southern Min languages),Cantonese, and Hakka are the most prominent. Because these languages are not mutually intelligible, itis not uncommon for two Chinese to converse in a lingua franca such as Mandarin Chinese, English, orMalay. The community that is colloquially called Baba Chinese includes those Malaysians of mixedChinese and Malay ancestry who speak a Malay patois but otherwise remain Chinese in customs,manners, and habit.

The peoples from South Asia—Indians, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans—constitute a small but significantportion of the Malaysian population. Linguistically, they can be subdivided into speakers of Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and others) and speakers of Indo-European languages (Punjabi,Bengali, Pashto, and Sinhalese). The Tamil speakers are the largest group.

Sarawak

The population of East Malaysia is ethnographically even more complex than that of PeninsularMalaysia. The government, tending to oversimplify the situation in Sarawak and Sabah, officiallyrecognizes only some of the dozens of ethnolinguistic groups in those two states.

The main ethnic groups in Sarawak are the Iban (Sea Dayak), an indigenous group accounting for morethan one-fourth of the state’s population, followed by the Chinese, Malays, Bidayuh (Land Dayak), andMelanau. An array of other peoples, many of whom are designated collectively as Orang Ulu (“UpriverPeople”), constitute an important minority. The various indigenous peoples of Sarawak speak distinctAustronesian languages.

The Iban, formidable warriors of the 19th and early 20th centuries, trace their origins to the KapuasRiver region in what is now northern West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The traditional Iban territory inSarawak spans the hilly southwestern interior of the state. Iban who still live in rural regions usuallycultivate rice through shifting agriculture, whereby fields are cleared, planted for a short period, andthen abandoned for several years to allow the soil to regenerate. The Iban language is related to, butdistinct from, Malay.

The Chinese of Sarawak generally live in the region between the coast and the uplands. In the ruralareas, they usually grow cash crops in smallholdings. They speak mostly Hakka and Fuzhou (a NorthernMin language) rather than Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hainanese, which are predominant amongpeninsular Chinese.

Few Malays of Sarawak are of peninsular origin; rather, most are the descendants of various indigenouspeoples who since the mid-15th century have converted to Islam. Despite their diverse ancestries, theMalays of Sarawak and those of Peninsular Malaysia share many cultural characteristics, cultivatedlargely through the practice of a common religion. Sarawak Malays, however, speak dialects of theMalay language that are distinct from those spoken by their peninsular counterparts.

Like the Iban, the Bidayuh originally came from regions that now lie in northwestern IndonesianBorneo; in Sarawak the Bidayuh homeland is in the far western portion of the state. Most rural Bidayuhpractice shifting rice cultivation. Although they have for centuries lived in close proximity to the Iban,the Bidayuh speak a separate language, with a number of different but related dialects that to someextent are mutually intelligible.

Sarawak’s south-central coastal wetlands between the city of Bintulu and the Rajang River are thetraditional territory of the Melanau. The Melanau are especially known for their production of starchfrom the sago palms that surround their villages. Culturally and linguistically linked to certain inlandpeoples to the southeast, the Melanau purportedly moved to the coast from the interior centuries ago.The dialects of the northeastern portion of the Melanau region differ so starkly from those of thesouthwest that some local Melanau speakers hear the dialects as separate languages.

Smaller indigenous groups, such as the Orang Ulu—an ethnic category embracing the Kenyah, Kayan,Kelabit, Bisaya (Bisayah), Penan, and others—also contribute much to Sarawak’s ethnic and culturalcharacter. The Kenyah, Kayan, and Kelabit generally trace their origins to the southern mountains onthe border with North Kalimantan, Indonesia. Other Orang Ulu groups stem from lower-lying inlandareas, primarily in Sarawak’s northeastern region. Many distinct languages, some with multiple dialects,are spoken by Sarawak’s indigenous peoples, often within just a few miles of each other.

Sabah

Sabah also has a kaleidoscopic mixture of peoples. The largest groups, who in roughly equal numbersaccount for about half of the population, are the Kadazan (also called Dusun or Kadazan Dusun), theBajau, and the Malays. Indigenous peoples, such as the Murut, Kedayan, Orang Sungei, and Bisaya,together constitute a significant portion of the state’s inhabitants as well. Chinese, Europeans, Eurasians,Indonesians, Filipinos, and South Asians make up the remainder.

Until the late 20th century, the Kadazan were generally called Dusun, an ethnic term that, like the termOrang Ulu in Sarawak, applied to a number of related peoples. Since that time, however, Kadazan hasbecome the more common term in colloquial usage. For administrative purposes, the government hasused both names together, sometimes merging them into the term Kadazandusun (especially whenreferring to language). The various Kadazan peoples speak related dialects that most other Kadazan canunderstand.

Sabah’s Chinese population is predominantly Hakka-speaking, but there are also many speakers ofCantonese, Hokkien, Chaozhou (Chaoshan), and Hainanese. The Bajau are a diverse community splitinto two main groups: sedentary agriculturists of the north coast and seafaring people of the east coast.Their languages, which are related to those of the southern Philippines, are not all mutually intelligible.The Murut of Sabah inhabit an area from the western lowland south through the hills into NorthKalimantan, Indonesia. The lowland-dwelling Murut generally call themselves Timugon, while theirupland counterparts are known as Tagal. Both communities engage in shifting agriculture. Murutlanguages are, for the most part, mutually intelligible.

Religion

Islam, Malaysia’s official religion, is followed by about three-fifths of the population. Islam is one of the most important factors distinguishing a Malay from a non-Malay, and, by law, all Malays are Muslim. The Chinese do not have a dominant religion; many, while subscribing to the moral precepts of Confucianism, follow Buddhism or Daoism; a small minority adheres to various denominations of Christianity. Most of the Indians and Sri Lankans practice Hinduism, while the Pakistanis arepredominantly Muslim. Some Indians are Christian. The Sikhs, originally from the Indian state of Punjab, largely adhere to their own religion, Sikhism.

Among the non-Malay indigenous peoples, many of thepeninsula’s Orang Asli have adopted Islam, but somecommunities maintain local religions. In Sarawak, the Iban, theBidayuh, and most others tend to follow Anglicanism, various other Protestant Christian denominations,or Roman Catholicism. The Melanau, however, are primarily Muslim, with a Christian minority. Localreligions have been maintained by only small segments of Sarawak’s population. Local religions alsoare practiced by a minority of the non-Malay indigenous populations of Sabah. The Kadazan and Murutare primarily Christian, although there is also a significant Muslim community. Most Bajau followIslam.Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque

Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque, Johor Bahru,Malaysia.J. Allan Cash Photolibrary/EncyclopædiaBritannica, Inc.

Settlement patterns

Rural settlement

About one-fourth of Malaysia’s population is rural. The basicadministrative unit in both East and Peninsular Malaysia is thekampung (village, or community of houses).Malaysia: Urban-ruralEncyclopædiaBritannica, Inc.

In Peninsular Malaysia rural houses usually are built of wood andraised on stilts. Some still feature a thatched roof, called an atap,woven from the leaves of the nipa palm (Nypa fruticans; a speciesalso used for basketry). In the 21st century, however, roofs of corrugated metal are much more common.Each house is typically surrounded by a grove of coconut palms and scattered banana, papaya, and otherfruit trees. The four main types of rural Malay settlement—fishing villages, paddy or wet-rice (irrigated)villages, cash-crop villages, and mixed-crop villages—all conform to this basic structural pattern on thepeninsula.

Most other villages in Peninsular Malaysia are associated with peoples who have settled in the countrysince the early 19th century. The first of these immigrant settlements were mining camps, established

primarily by Chinese around tin fields in the west. Some of the camps have since grown into largetowns, but others—especially in the Kinta River valley—have remained small. In the mid-1800s theBritish introduced the plantation system of agriculture, and the subsequent cultivation of rubber (Heveabrasiliensis) and oil palm trees (Elaeis guineensis) changed the face of rural Peninsular Malaysia.Added to the landscape was the plantation (estate) settlement, typically a group of buildings consistingof the processing factory and storehouse, the labourers’ quarters, and the manager’s house. Many of theworkers on these plantations were from southern India, brought to Malaysia by the British colonialgovernment, especially during the rubber boom of the early 20th century; plantation housing hascontinued to be occupied largely by Indian Malaysians.

New Villages represent a type of settlement that is unique to Peninsular Malaysia. They were originallyestablished by the government as roadside relocation settlements for rural Chinese during the MalayanEmergency (1948–60), a period of intense conflict between the British administration and a (largelyChinese) communist guerrilla insurgency that arose after World War II. With the end of the emergencyin 1960, some of the New Villages were abandoned, but most of them became permanent settlements.

A more recent and significant government program has involved the resettlement of poor Malays intoforest areas, which are cleared and planted in rubber trees and oil palms. Since the mid-20th century,hundreds of thousands of families have been resettled.

Much of the population of East Malaysia still lives in rural areas, where a great variety of settlementtypes is encountered. This variety is a direct reflection of the considerable ethnic diversity of thepopulation and of the mixture of indigenous and immigrant groups that have settled in the rural areas.The non-Malay indigenous ethnic groups are thinly scattered in the foothill country, the mountains, and,to some extent, in the coastal lowlands as well. They are primarily shifting cultivators and live inlocations on or near riverbanks. The traditional dwelling of most of these peoples is the longhouse. Eachlonghouse is raised on piles and is composed of a number of rooms, known (in both Iban and Malay) asbilik; each bilik houses a family. A longhouse can grow by accretions of related families, and an Ibanlonghouse, for example, may in time reach a length of dozens of bilik. Many groups, especially theMelanau of Sarawak and the Kadazan of Sabah, have abandoned the longhouse settlement form infavour of single-family dwellings. Some, however, particularly in Sarawak, have chosen to maintain oldlonghouses or to build new ones, often using an upgraded design.

Longhouse roofs in the Kenyah village ofLong Moh, Sarawak, Malay.© Gini Gorlinski

The Malays and the Melanau of East Malaysia share manycharacteristics with their rural counterparts on the peninsula. Theytend to be riverine and coastal peoples, with an economy based onagriculture and fishing. Many live in villages in the midst of

coconut palms, mangroves, or other swamp trees. Their houses generally are built on stilts. The ruralChinese, by contrast, typically live in homesteads strung along both sides of the roads. Their houses arecommonly built at ground level and thus are easily distinguishable from the stilt-raised dwellings of theindigenous peoples.

Urban settlement

some of the states of Peninsular Malaysia by the early 21st century. The largest towns are Kuching, Miri, andSibu in Sarawak and Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, and Tawau in Sabah. The large towns invariably arelocated on coastal or riverine sites. The layout and appearance of these towns are markedly similar: awharf area, rows of Chinese shop-houses in the central business districts, more-substantial buildings inthe governmental administrative area, and one or more villages of timber and thatch (or corrugatedmetal) built on the riverbanks.

Demographic trends

Before World War II, there was aThe cities and large towns of Peninsular Malaysia were built up during the colonial and postcolonialperiods and are distributed mainly in the tin and rubber belt along the west side of the peninsula. Thetowns are associated with mining, manufacturing and industry, trade, and administrative functions,although each town usually functions in several of these areas. Some towns are located at coastal orriverine sites, reflecting the early importance of water transport, while more recently developed townshave been built in inland areas that rely on road, rail, and air transport.Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at dusk.Digital Vision/Getty Images

Urbanization in Peninsular Malaysia has been especially rapid since the1970s. Planned satellite towns, such as Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam(made the state capital of Selangor in 1978), outside Kuala Lumpur, haveemerged as cities, while new settlements have sprouted alongside them.Most of the towns of Peninsular Malaysia, however, are unplanned, having grown up around smallnuclei. Urban land use generally is mixed, and buildings are put to multiple uses. Many streets that werebuilt for a more leisurely era are now too narrow and often congested. In the larger cities, such as KualaLumpur, Ipoh, and George Town (on the island of Penang), distinct central business districts havearisen. These areas are densely populated and characterized by heavy street traffic, high land values, anda concentration of shopping, banking, insurance, entertainment, and other facilities.

Urbanization in Sarawak and Sabah also has proceeded at a quick pace, indeed surpassing that of free flow of people to and from both Peninsular and East Malaysia,and the rate of population growth was greatly influenced by a net surplus from immigration. However, aseries of laws passed since 1945, particularly after the political separation of Singapore in 1963,

restricted the entry of immigrants from all countries. Thus, legal immigration has long ceased to be amajor cause of population growth.Malaysia: Age breakdownEncyclopædiaBritannica, Inc.

The major area of population concentration in PeninsularMalaysia is an axis of economic development on the west side ofthe peninsula. Smaller concentrations are found in the Kelantanand Terengganu river deltas in the northeast. Most of the remainder of the peninsula—the interioruplands and most of the east—is sparsely populated. The bulk of the population of the peninsula’s urbancentres is Chinese and Malay, with Indians and Pakistanis forming a small but salient minority.

Population density of Malaysia.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The population density of East Malaysia is considerably less than that of therest of the country. As on the peninsula, settlements are concentrated alongthe coasts and rivers. In Sarawak the density of people in the southwestmakes this region the most important in East Malaysia. In Sabah the population is similarly clustered onthe coast, but riverine settlements are less important there than they are in Sarawak. Malays are lessprominent in Sabah’s cities than on the peninsula; Chinese, various non-Malay indigenous peoples, and,in some areas, Indonesians account for the vast majority of the urban population.

Economy

Malaysia’s economy has been transformed since 1970 from one based primarily on the export of rawmaterials (rubber and tin) to one that is among the strongest, most diversified, and fastest-growing inSoutheast Asia. Primary production remains important: the country is a major producer of rubber andpalm oil, exports considerable quantities of petroleum and natural gas, and is one of the world’s largestsources of commercial hardwoods. Increasingly, however, Malaysia has emphasized export-orientedmanufacturing to fuel its economic growth. Using the comparative advantages of a relativelyinexpensive but educated labour force, well-developed infrastructure, political stability, and anundervalued currency, Malaysia has attracted considerable foreign investment, especially from Japanand Taiwan.

Since the early 1970s the government has championed a social and economic restructuring strategy, firstknown as the New Economic Policy (NEP) and later as the New Development Policy (NDP), that hassought to strike a balance between the goals of economic growth and the redistribution of wealth. TheMalaysian economy has long been dominated by the country’s Chinese and South Asian minorities. Thegoal of the NEP and the NDP has been to endow the Malays and other indigenous groups with greatereconomic opportunities and to develop their management and entrepreneurial skills. Official economicpolicy also has encouraged the private sector to assume a greater role in the restructuring process. A

major component of this policy has been the privatization of many public-sector activities, including thenational railway, airline, automobile manufacturer, telecommunications, and electricity companies.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing once formed the basis of the Malaysian economy, but between 1970and the early 21st century their contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) declinedfrom roughly one-third to less than one-tenth. Similarly, the proportion of the labour force engaged inagriculture decreased from about one-half to less than one-eighth over the same time span, and the trendhas continued.Malaysia: farmworker

Farmworker picking tea leaves in Malaysia.© laughingmango—iStock Editorial/GettyImages

The main food crop, rice, is grown on small farms. Despite thewidespread advances brought about by the introduction ofimproved plant varieties and chemical fertilizers and pesticides(the so-called Green Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s), riceproduction declined steadily during the second half of the 20th century. The main causes of this declinewere unfavourable weather conditions and the loss of farm labour to urban manufacturing jobs.Increasingly deficient in rice production, the country has been forced to make up the shortfall withimports, chiefly from Thailand. Consequently, the government has taken measures to raise its self-sufficiency in rice, largely by implementing programs to consolidate smallholdings and to increaselabour productivity through group farming schemes; by 2000 production had begun to rise, despite thecontinued labour shortage.

Rubber and palm oil are the dominant cash crops. Although the contribution of rubber to GDP hasdeclined significantly since the mid-20th century, rubber production remains important and closely tiedto domestic manufacturing. Palm oil plantations have proliferated since the 1970s, to some degree at theexpense of rubber plantations. By the early 21st century, Malaysia had become one of the world’s topproducers of palm oil. Other common cash crops include cocoa, pepper, coffee, tea, various fruits, andcoconuts.rubber trees

Latex being tapped from trees on a rubberplantation near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.P. Morris/Ardea London

The extensive forests of both Peninsular Malaysia and EastMalaysia are heavily exploited for their timber. The lowlandevergreen tropical rain forest, rich in species of the economicallyvaluable Dipterocarpaceae family, is the principal forest formationof commercial importance. Sarawak and Sabah account for the greater part of all timber production.Concern has been raised, however, about the pace of deforestation caused by the combination of shiftingagriculture and intensive logging operations in East Malaysia. Attempts have been made to curtail log

exports from the region and to substitute wood-based industries, such as the manufacture of plywoodand furniture. Logging remains important in Peninsular Malaysia, although much of the easilyaccessible timber has been cut. The region also has a long history of careful forest management andconservation. The government in 2005 launched a forest plantation scheme—part of a sustainabilityinitiative pitched to the private sector—to plant lands primarily with rubberwood but also with acacia,teak, and an easily workable hardwood called sentang.

Historically, most of Malaysia’s fish catch has been from the shallow seas off its coasts, where thewater’s nutrient levels—and hence its productivity—generally have been low. In the 1970s the country’sfishing industry was improved and expanded, notably by the addition of trawlers and mechanizedfishing boats. This allowed the more abundant offshore fish resources to be tapped, leading to adramatic increase in catches. Malaysia has become a major fishing country, even though productionpeaked in about 1980 and much of the fishing industry has remained confined to the overexploitedshallow onshore waters. As a result, the government has actively promoted deep-sea fishing andaquaculture production. Although the latter industry has been rather slow to develop, by the early 21stcentury more than one-tenth of Malaysia’s fish yield came from aquaculture.

Men unloading jellyfish from a small boatnear Bako, western Sarawak, Malay.© Gini Gorlinski

Resources and power

Malaysia is rich in mineral resources, and mining (includingpetroleum extraction) accounts for a significant portion of GDP,although it employs only a tiny fraction of the workforce. The major metallic ores are tin, bauxite(aluminum), copper, and iron. A host of minor ores found within the country include manganese,antimony, mercury, and gold. Tin is found largely in alluvial deposits along the western slopes of theMain Range in Peninsular Malaysia, with smaller deposits on the east coast of the peninsula; itsproduction formed one of the pillars of the country’s economic development in the mid-20th century.Malaysia’s bauxite production is centred near Johor at the south end of the peninsula, while thecountry’s copper comes from western Sabah.

Since the 1970s, tin output has declined dramatically because of the depletion of readily accessiblealluvial deposits, rising mining costs, and fluctuating demand in the world tin market. Nevertheless, thecountry has remained among the world’s top suppliers of tin. Production of other minerals (exceptpetroleum) similarly decreased during the last decades of the 20th century, although the mining of ironore began to rebound in the mid-1990s.

Malaysia’s most valuable mineral resources are its reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Crude oil,refined petroleum, and, more recently, liquefied natural gas together account for a major portion of the

country’s commodity export earnings. Almost all the major oil and gas fields are offshore—off the eastcoast of the peninsula, the northeast coast of Sarawak, and the west coast of Sabah.

Malaysia is self-sufficient in energy production, and petroleum resources constitute the major energysource for power generation. The country’s proven reserves of coal and peat are not economical to mineand have remained largely unexploited. Wood and charcoal were once common domestic fuels, but inthe urban areas they have been replaced by bottled gas. A small portion of Malaysia’s power isgenerated by hydroelectric plants, mostly on the peninsula. The abundant rainfall and steep gradients ofthe rivers in the interior highlands of both Peninsular and East Malaysia hold great potential for furtherhydroelectric development; in Sarawak, construction of a large hydroelectric dam on the Balui Riverbegan in the 1990s and continued into the 21st century. Malaysia also has begun to produce biofuelfrom palm oil.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing has undergone rapid expansion since the 1970s, with the aim of producing goods forexport, while shifting away from import substitution (a policy of replacing imported products with thosemade domestically). By the early 21st century the sector had become the backbone of Malaysia’seconomic growth, constituting the largest share (nearly one-third) of the country’s GDP and employingmore of the workforce than all the primary activities (e.g., agriculture and mining) combined.

An electronics factory in the free trade zoneon Penang Island, Malaysia.Milt and Joan Mann/CameramannInternational

Growth has been especially notable in the assembly of electronicequipment, electrical machinery, and appliances, as well as in theproduction of chemicals and textiles. There also has beensubstantial development of a variety of heavy industries, includingsteelmaking and automobile production—the latter implemented through a Malaysian-Japanese jointventure. Peninsular Malaysia, especially the urban area of Kuala Lumpur and the rest of the developedzone along the western side of the peninsula, is responsible for the bulk of the country’s manufacturingoutput.

One strategy designed to promote manufactured exports has been the establishment of a number of free-trade zones, which have provided duty-free access to imported raw materials and semifinished parts inaddition to numerous investment and export incentives. Industrial estates also have been established inless-developed parts of the country to stimulate manufacturing and to balance industrial growth, butmanufacturing capacity has remained highly concentrated. The country’s heavy industries—moreimportant politically than economically—generally have been saddled with excess capacity and highproduction costs. Increasingly, development strategy has shifted to the promotion of small and medium

industries that manufacture their own parts and acquire technology from more economically developedcountries, the aim being to move beyond the stage of assembly-only manufacturing. Such initiativeshave enabled Malaysian industries such as automobile manufacturing to move from assembly-onlyproduction in the mid-1980s to full-fledged production—with minimal reliance on importedcomponents—in the 21st century.

Finance

Malaysia has an active and growing financial sector, which has been encouraged by governmentpolicies that promote foreign investment, market competition, and the privatization of publicly heldenterprises. Banking and insurance are regulated by the state-run Bank Negara Malaysia, which issuesthe national currency, the ringgit. The state permits a variety of banking activities, including semipublicbanks that operate on Islamic financial principles. Since 1990 the island of Labuan, off the southwestcoast of Sabah, has served as an international financial centre; a regulatory authority there issuesoffshore banking licenses. Kuala Lumpur has a commodity exchange and a stock exchange.

Five-ringgit banknote from Malaysia (frontside).Image source: Audrius Tomonis -www.banknotes.com

Trade

Malaysia’s export structure shifted dramatically during the lastdecades of the 20th century, from one dominated by rubber and tinto one in which manufactured goods accounted for well over halfof all export earnings by the early 21st century. Electrical and electronic products constitute the largestproportion of exported manufactures. Commodities exports, however, especially palm oil and rubber,remain important. Imports are dominated by electronics parts, machinery, and other manufacturedgoods. Malaysia’s chief trading partners are Japan, Singapore (because of its status as an entrepôt port inthe region), the United States, and China. Other prominent partners include Thailand, Taiwan, andSouth Korea. Malaysia belongs to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the WorldTrade Organization (WTO).

Malaysia: Major importsourcesEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Malaysia: Major exportdestinationsEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Labour and taxation

Malaysia’s rapid economic expansion has created a great demandfor additional labour for the manufacturing, construction, andservice sectors. Although the labour shortage has tended toincrease wages—attracting many workers from rural regions—companies nevertheless have found it necessary to recruit foreign labour, primarily from Indonesia, thePhilippines, Bangladesh, and Thailand. The presence of foreign workers in large numbers has become a

source of social and political tension within Malaysia. Moreover, the rural-to-urban migration promptedby industrialization has led to severe labour shortages in the rural economy.

The primary role of the country’s fiscal system is to raise revenue for governmental expenditure, and thegreater part of its revenue is raised through taxation. Direct (income) taxes on companies (includingpetroleum companies) and individuals constitute the primary source of tax revenue. Indirect taxes (e.g.,customs and excise duties), however, also contribute significantly to the national budget.

Transportation

Although Malaysia’s transportation systems improved considerably in the second half of the 20thcentury, demand generally has continued to outstrip capacity. In addition, much more attention has beengiven to developing the infrastructure of Peninsular Malaysia than that of East Malaysia. Thepeninsula’s road network includes high-speed express highways and numerous hard-surfaced secondaryroads; it is especially well developed in the major industrial states of the western region. The roadnetwork in Sarawak and Sabah is less extensive, with fewer paved roads. Malaysia’s small railwaysystem is of much less significance than its roads and is confined primarily to the peninsula, where itruns from the southern tip (where it is connected to Singapore) northward to the border with Thailand.The country’s first light-rail transport was inaugurated in Kuala Lumpur in 1996. Since then, severalmonorail and express lines have opened in the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area, and a private companyhas established regular and rapid commuter service on double-tracked, electrified lines between KualaLumpur, Port Kelang on the western coast, and several other cities nearby.

Small boats moored at Port Kelang on thewestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia.Bernard Pierre Wolff/Photo Researchers

River transport is of great importance in East Malaysia, especiallyin Sarawak. In addition, Malaysia’s long and accessible coastlineshave fostered maritime trade for more than a millennium. Severalports, notably Port Kelang (the principal port) and Penang on theStrait of Malacca, have become major container-handling facilities. Numerous other ports have beendeveloped, including Tanjung Pelepas and Pasir Gudang in the southern state of Johor, Kuantan on theeastern coast of the peninsula, Kuching in Sarawak, and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

Air transport has grown rapidly, with passenger traffic increasing especially on the peninsula. Aninternal air network connects almost all Malaysian states. Airports in Penang, Kota Kinabalu, andKuching have limited international service. In 1998 a new international airport opened in Sepang, about30 miles (50 km) south of Kuala Lumpur, replacing the old international airport in Subang, about 15miles (25 km) west of the capital city. The airport in Subang has continued to offer some domestic andspecialized service.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial head of state—a monarch—who bearsthe title Yang di-Pertuan Agong (“paramount ruler”) and who is elected from among nine hereditarystate rulers for a five-year term. The Malaysian constitution, drafted in 1957 following the declarationof independence (from the British) by the states of what is now Peninsular Malaysia, provides for abicameral federal legislature, consisting of the Senate (Dewan Negara) as the upper house and theHouse of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) as the lower. The paramount ruler appoints a prime ministerfrom among the members of the House of Representatives. On the advice of the prime minister, themonarch then appoints the other ministers who make up the cabinet. The number of ministers is notfixed, but all must be members of the federal parliament. The federal government also includes anindependent judiciary and a politically neutral civil service.

The powers of the federal parliament are relatively broad and include the authority to legislate inmatters concerning government finances, defense, foreign policy, internal security, the administration ofjustice, and citizenship. The constitution also provides that some issues may be addressed by either thefederal legislature or a state legislature. Of the roughly 200 members of the House of Representatives,about two-thirds are from Peninsular Malaysia, one is from the federal territory of Labuan, and theremaining seats are divided fairly evenly between Sarawak and Sabah. Members are elected to officefrom single-member constituencies to terms of five years. The Senate consists of about six dozenmembers; of these, nearly two-thirds (including those from the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur andLabuan) are appointed by the paramount ruler on the recommendation of the prime minister, and theothers are elected by the state legislative assemblies. Election to either house is by a simple majority,but amendments to the constitution require a two-thirds majority. A bill passed by both houses andsanctioned by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong becomes a federal law.

Local government

Malaysia comprises 13 states and 3 federal territories. Each state has its own written constitution,legislative assembly, and executive council, which is responsible to the legislative assembly and headedby a chief minister. The federal territories, which include the capital city region of Kuala Lumpur, theadministrative capital of Putrajaya, and the island of Labuan off the coast of East Malaysia, carry thesame status as states, but they do not have separate legislatures or heads of state.

Most of the peninsular states are led by hereditary rulers. Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Perak,Selangor, and Terengganu have sultans, while Perlis has a raja (“king”), and Negeri Sembilan is ruled

by the Yang di-Pertuan Besar (“chief ruler”). The heads of state of Melaka, Penang Island (PulauPinang; also Penang), Sarawak, and Sabah—known as Yang di-Pertuan Negeri (“state ruler”)—areappointed to office. The ruler of a state acts on the advice of the state government. The constitutionprovides for federal parliamentary elections and for elections to state legislatures, to be held at leastevery five years.

All states in Malaysia are subdivided into districts. In Sarawak and Sabah, however, these districts aregrouped into larger administrative units called divisions. The village, headed by a tua kampung (“villageleader”), is the smallest unit of government.

Justice

The constitution of Malaysia, which is the supreme law of the country, provides that the judicial powerof the federation shall be vested in two High Courts—one in Peninsular Malaysia, called the High Courtin Malaya, and the other in East Malaysia, called the High Court in Sarawak and Sabah—and also insubordinate courts. Appeals from the High Courts are heard first by the Court of Appeal; they may thenbe appealed to the highest court in Malaysia, the Federal Court (formerly called the Supreme Court),which is headed by a chief justice. A separate Special Court handles cases involving charges against theparamount ruler or the heads of states.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building, home ofthe Federal Court, Kuala Lumpur, Malay.Bernard Pierre Wolff/Photo Researchers

Each High Court consists of a chief judge and a number of otherjustices. The High Court has criminal and civil jurisdiction andmay pass any sentence allowed by law. Below each High Courtare three subordinate courts: the Sessions Court, the Magistrates’Court, and the Court for Children. These lower courts have criminal and civil jurisdiction—criminalcases come before one or the other court depending on the seriousness of the offense and civil casesdepending on the sum involved. In addition, there are religious courts in those Malay states that areestablished under Islamic law (syariah, or Sharīʿah). These Islamic courts are governed by state—notfederal—legislation.

Political process

Malaysia has a multiparty political system; the country has held free elections and generally haschanged prime ministers peacefully. All citizens who are at least 21 years old are permitted to vote.Although their numbers in political positions have been increasing since the late 20th century, womenhave remained underrepresented in the political process. Most ministerial appointments are held byMalays, but a few posts are filled by indigenous and nonindigenous minorities.

Party affiliation generally is based on ethnicity, although this tendency has diminished somewhat sincethe mid-20th century. Malaysian political life and government were dominated from the early 1970s tothe late 2010s by the National Front (Barisan Nasional; BN), a broad coalition of ethnically orientedparties. Among the oldest and strongest of these parties are the United Malays National Organization(UMNO; long the driving force of the National Front), the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), theMalaysian Indian Congress (MIC), and several parties from Sarawak and Sabah, including SarawakUnited Peoples’ Party (SUPP) and the Sabah United Party (Parti Bersatu Sabah; PBS). The mainopposition parties are the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which consists primarily of ethnic Chinese;the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam SeMalaysia; Pas); and, since the early 21st century, thePeople’s Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat; PKR). There are also a number of smaller parties basedmainly in Sarawak and Sabah. In May 2018 a coalition of opposition parties under the banner of theAlliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan) ended decades of BN rule.

Security

The Malaysian armed forces have increased in strength and capability since the formation of Malaysiain 1963. After the withdrawal of British military forces from Malaysia and Singapore at the end of1971, a five-country agreement between Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and the UnitedKingdom was concluded to ensure defense against external aggression. Additional regional security isprovided by ASEAN.Malaysia

Malaysian special forces officers securing anarea in the eastern state of Sabah during astandoff with gunmen in February 2013.Bazuki Muhammad—Reuters/Landov

The armed forces consist of an army, a navy, and an air force. Thearmy is the most experienced and the largest of the three units,constituting roughly three-fourths of all military personnel. TheRoyal Malaysian Navy concentrates mainly on defending the longindented coastlines and narrow waters of the country. The RoyalMalaysian Air Force has combat aircraft as well as many transport aircraft and helicopters. Militaryservice is voluntary, with a minimum age requirement of 18 years.

The states of Malaysia inherited from their common colonial past an internal security system based onthe British model. The police force is well trained and combats not only crime but also armedinsurrections. As a paramilitary unit, the police are separate from the armed forces.

Health and welfare

The general level of health improved considerably in the second half of the 20th century. This improvement not only contributed significantly to a decline in death and infant mortality rates but also, by the 21st century, largely freed Malaysia from many of the diseases that plague tropical countries.

Such diseases as malaria remain a problem in some rural areas, however. Health conditions and healthfacilities vary among the states, but facilities are generally better equipped and staffed in PeninsularMalaysia than in Sabah and Sarawak. Health services generally are more extensive in the towns andcities than in the rural areas. Segments of the rural population often rely to some extent on traditionaltreatments rather than on doctors and medicines that are the product of formal research and academictraining. Most health services are provided by the government. Welfare services, however, are providedby both government and private agencies and include relief programs for senior citizens, for theeconomically disadvantaged, and for people with disabilities.

Housing

The multicultural character of the population of Malaysia is visibly reflected in the wide variety ofhouses, which range from the traditional longhouses and stilt houses of the rural peoples to examples ofmodern high-rise architecture in the cities. Housing shortages are rare in rural areas, but squattersettlements are common in the larger towns and cities. A governmental housing authority has hadsuccess in establishing low-cost housing in urban areas.

Education

The federal government allocates a significant portion of its budget to education, and it provides freepublic schooling at the primary and secondary levels. Although only six years of primary education(from age six) are compulsory, most children receive at least some secondary education. Secondaryschool consists of one three-year segment followed by a four-year segment; students may enroll in atechnical or vocational school (in lieu of pursuing a strictly academic curriculum) for their secondsegment of secondary study.

The number of students advancing to the postsecondary level rose rapidly in the late 20th and early 21stcenturies. The country offers dozens of tertiary institutions, including universities, teacher-trainingcolleges, and other public and private institutions with assorted specializations. Among the mostprominent institutions of higher learning are the University of Malaya (1962) in Kuala Lumpur, theUniversity of Science, Malaysia (1969) in Penang, the National University of Malaysia (1970) in Bangi,and the International Islamic University (1983) in Kuala Lumpur. Major state universities wereestablished in Sarawak and Sabah in the mid-1990s.

Cultural life

Cultural milieu

Malaysia is a point of convergence of several major cultural traditions that stem from archipelagicSoutheast Asia as well as from China, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West. Malay culture, theOrang Asli cultures of Peninsular Malaysia, and many of the cultures of East Malaysia are indigenous tothe area. In the first one and a half millennia CE, indigenous Malay culture in the Malay Peninsula andin other parts of Southeast Asia was strongly marked by pre-Islamic Indian and early Islamic influences.Indian contact with the Malay Peninsula, which extended from about the 2nd or 3rd century to the late14th century, exerted a profound influence on religion (through Hinduism and Buddhism), art, andliterature. Islam, introduced to Malacca (now Melaka) in the 15th century, soon became the dominantreligion of the Malays. Western cultural influences, especially since the 19th century, also have affectedmany aspects of Malay life, particularly in the realms of technology, law, social organization, andeconomics. Contemporary Malay culture is thus multifaceted, consisting of many strands—indigenous,early Hindu, early and modern Islamic, and, especially in the cities, Western—interwoven to yield apattern that is distinct from other cultures yet recognizably Malay.

The early Chinese traders who settled in Malacca and on the island of Penang were partially assimilated(at least to the extent of adopting the Malay language). By contrast, the Chinese who emigrated in largenumbers to the Malay Peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were both a moreheterogeneous group and a largely transient population that tended to establish self-containedcommunities. Chinese cultural influence in this region, then, has been less pronounced.

Most of the Indians and Pakistanis originally came as labourers to work in the coffee and rubberplantations from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries. Like the Chinese, they also were mainlytransients (until World War II), living in closed communities and remaining relatively unassimilated.

The communities of Malaysia have been affected profoundly by British colonial rule and Westerncultural influences, especially in education and institutional forms. The rural areas—particularly ineastern Peninsular Malaysia and in the interior of East Malaysia—have been least affected, while thecities have been the focus of the most-rapid cultural changes. However, extraordinary economic growthand development since the mid-20th century increasingly has allowed a cosmopolitan outlook, carriedlargely from the urban centres by an expanding middle class, to penetrate smaller towns and even newerrural settlements.

Daily life and social customs

Malaysia has a rich cultural life, much of which revolves around the traditional festivities of its diversepopulation. The major Muslim holidays are Hari Raya Puasa (“Holiday of Fasting”), or Aidilfitri (ʿĪd al-Fiṭr), to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, and Hari Raya Haji (“Holiday of the

Pilgrimage”), or Aidiladha (ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā), to celebrate the culmination of the season of pilgrimage toMecca. Buddhists honour the life of the Buddha on Hari Wesak (“Wesak Day”), and ChineseMalaysians celebrate Chinese New Year. Deepavali (Diwali), a Hindu festival of lights spanning severaldays, is observed by many Indian Malaysians, while Christmas is the principal holiday of the Christiancommunity. On most of these holidays, it is customary to host an “open house,” where guests are treatedto Malaysian delicacies and hospitality. A holiday that spans all ethnic groups and religions is HariKebangsaan (National Day), a celebration of Malaysia’s independence on August 31.

Iban girls in a Gawai Dayak parade, Kuching,Sarawak, Malaysia.© Gini Gorlinski

The states have their own holidays. Sarawak, for instance,celebrates Gawai Dayak (“Dayak Festival”). Rooted in the harvestrituals and festivities (gawai) of the Iban and Bidayuh peoples,this holiday broadly honours the state’s non-Malay indigenousheritage.

Men carrying banners in Gawai Dayakparade, Kuching, Sarawak, Malay.© Gini Gorlinski

Beyond the official holidays and other religious festivities,important life events such as birth, circumcision (for youngMuslim men), and marriage are usually celebrated by a feast,known in Malay as kenduri. The wedding ceremony is generallythe most important and elaborate of such events among both Malay and non-Malay peoples. In ruralareas the kenduri is normally held at the house of the host family, while in urban areas the feast oftentakes place in a large hall or hotel.

Malaysian cuisines reflect the mixture of ethnic groups in the country’s population. The three mostprominent cuisines are Chinese, Indian, and Malay. Popular Chinese foods include sweet-and-sourCantonese dishes and a milder favourite, Hainanese chicken rice. Indian cuisine ranges from the hotvegetarian dishes of southern Indian cooking to the more subtly spiced Muslim Indian food to theyogurt-marinated meats of tandoori cookery from northern India. All these foods, while recognizablyChinese or Indian, have developed a distinctly Malaysian character.

Traditional Malay cuisine consists of white rice served with various curries and fried dishes. Sate, smallskewers of chicken or beef dipped in a spicy peanut sauce, nasi goreng (“fried rice”), and nasi lemak(“fatty rice”), which is coconut rice served with fried anchovies, peanuts, and a curry dish, are amongthe most common Malay foods. Noodles, cooked and served in various styles, are also local favourites.

Non-Muslim indigenous peoples of Peninsular and East Malaysia typically eat a staple food such asrice, tapioca, or sago served with locally grown or gathered vegetables (e.g., ferns and tapioca leaves)and fish, wild boar, venison, or other game. The food is generally not spicy or only mildly so.

Cultural institutions

The history and cultural life of Malaysia are exhibited primarily in various museums in Kuala Lumpurand several state capitals throughout the country. Built in a Malay architectural style in 1963, theNational Museum in Kuala Lumpur houses a diverse archaeological and ethnographic collection thatdocuments Malaysia’s social, cultural, artistic, and economic history. The Perak Museum in Taiping isthe oldest museum in Peninsular Malaysia and contains collections of the natural history and materialculture of the region. The Penang Museum and Art Gallery highlights Penang Island’s immigrant andcolonial history. In East Malaysia, the Sabah Museum in Kota Kinabalu and the Sarawak Museum inKuching, both established in the late 19th century, chronicle the unique prehistory and history of thesestates and their peoples.

In addition to the broadly ethnographic or historical museums, there also are numerous institutionsdedicated to the documentation of particular Malaysian phenomena. The Islamic Arts Museum in KualaLumpur, for instance, traces the advent and growth of the art and culture of Islam in Malaysia from the7th century to contemporary times. Other such topical museums include a numismatic museum, amuseum of telecommunications, and an armed forces museum, all located in the capital city.

Malaysia is home to many art galleries and theatres for the performing arts as well. The National ArtGallery has permanent exhibitions of modern paintings by Malaysian artists and rotating exhibitions ofart from around the world. Plays, dances, and musical productions by Malaysian and internationalperformers are staged regularly at the grand national theatre, called the Istana Budaya (“Palace ofCultures and Arts”), in Kuala Lumpur.

Sports and recreation

Sports in Malaysia are a mixture of traditional and Western games. From the mid-19th century, Britishexpatriates introduced football (soccer), cricket, track and field events, and rugby to the peninsula; theyformed a number of clubs and organized competitions. The Malaysia Cup (formerly the H.M.S. MalayaCup), first contested in 1921, is the country’s premier football competition.

Traditional sports also enjoy local popularity. Top-spinning (main gasing) competitions are seriouslycontested, with winning tops often spinning for well over an hour. In some areas, top spinning is notmerely a random pastime but is associated with the agricultural cycle. Kite flying also is a favouriteactivity, as are bird-singing contests, which may feature hundreds of birds, all with unique songs. Sepaktakraw (“kick ball”) is a uniquely Southeast Asian game (now played in other regions) that is similar tovolleyball but is played with a woven rattan ball and without using the hands. The sport isinternationally competitive, and Malaysia has fronted winning teams.cricket

Malaysian men playing cricket.© Ahmad Faizal/Fotolia

Malaysia made its debut at the Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne in1956. At the 1992 and 1996 Summer Games the country took medals inmen’s badminton. Malaysia was one of the founders of the biennialSoutheast Asian Games and has hosted the event several times since itsinception in 1957.

Media and publishing

The press is the principal source of information in urban areas of Malaysia. The newspapers are allprivately owned (many by political parties) and vary greatly in circulation, quality of reporting, andnews coverage. Dozens of daily papers circulate in all the major languages of the country, includingMalay, English, Chinese, and Tamil. In Sabah several dailies also are issued in the Kadazan language.

Although many public and private radio stations cater to urban listeners, radio is the primaryinformation channel in remote rural areas. Both on the peninsula and in East Malaysia, the government-operated Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) broadcasts in Malay, English, and assorted Chineselanguages, as well as in various indigenous languages, such as Iban in Sarawak. RTM also broadcastsinternationally in Arabic, English, Chinese, and the national languages of several of Malaysia’sSoutheast Asian neighbours.

Television is a popular medium across geographical and linguistic boundaries. The government had amonopoly on television broadcasting until the mid-1990s, when it opened the industry to privateoperators. Since that time several commercial stations have been established, and the emergence ofprivate cable and satellite companies has allowed television broadcasting to reach the most remote ruralregions of the country.Ooi Jin Bee Thomas R. Leinbach Zakaria Bin Ahmad

History

Extending well into the western zone of the Southeast Asian archipelago, the Malay Peninsula has long constituted a critical link between the mainland and the islands of Southeast Asia. Because Malaysiaitself is divided between the two regions, the history of the country can be understood only within abroad geographic context. The Strait of Malacca, narrowly separating the peninsula from thearchipelago, has been a crossroads for peoples, cultures, and trade passing through or taking root in bothareas. Influences from China, India, the Middle East, and, later, Europe followed the maritime trade.Peninsular Malaysia and the two states of East Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah, have shared manyhistorical patterns, but each region also has developed in unique ways.

Prehistory and the rise of Indianized states

Malaysia’s prehistory remains insufficiently studied, but bone and artifact discoveries at the Niah Cavesite in northern Sarawak confirm that the area was already inhabited by Homo sapiens about 40,000years ago. The vast cave complex contains remains that not only indicate a nearly unbroken successionof human visits and occupations but also chronicle the evolution of stone tools until some 1,300 yearsago. Peninsular Malaysia has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years, archaeologists having unearthedevidence of Stone Age and early Bronze Age civilizations; Neolithic culture was apparently wellestablished by 2500 to 1500 BCE. Early historical studies postulated that successive waves of peoples—ancestors of the contemporary Malays—migrated into the region from China and Tibet during the 1stmillennium BCE, pushing earlier inhabitants into the western Pacific or remote mountain enclaves. Morerecently it has been suggested that the southward migration consisted of small groups who imposedtheir culture and language and created new ethnic fusions.

Small Malay kingdoms appeared in the 2nd or 3rd century CE, a time when Indian traders and priestsbegan traveling the maritime routes, bringing with them Indian concepts of religion, government, andthe arts. Over many centuries the peoples of the region, especially those within the royal courts,synthesized Indian and indigenous ideas, making selective use of Indian models—including Hinduismand Mahayana Buddhism—in shaping their political and cultural patterns. The most significant complexof Indianized temple ruins has been found around Kedah Peak in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.

Because the peninsula and northern Borneo both lacked broad, fertile plains, they were unable tosupport the high population densities that were the foundation of other, more powerful Southeast Asiancivilizations, such as those that flourished on the island of Java and on the mainland in what is nowCambodia. However, scant documentation, chiefly from Chinese written sources, suggests that perhaps30 small Indianized states rose and fell in Malaya—the Malay region of the peninsula—during the 1stmillennium CE. The most important of these states, Langkasuka, controlled much of the northern part ofthe region.

Malaya developed an international reputation, both as a source of gold and tin and as the home ofrenowned seafarers; as its reputation grew, however, Malaya increasingly was exposed (or subjected) tocultural influences from surrounding powers. Between the 7th and 13th centuries many of the region’ssmall, often prosperous maritime trading states likely came under the loose control of Srivijaya, thegreat Indianized empire based in Sumatra. At various times, other Indianized powers of Southeast Asia—including the Khmer (Cambodian) empire based at Angkor, the Tai kingdom of Ayutthaya, and theMajapahit empire centred in eastern Java—also claimed suzerainty in the region. These early culturalforces in Malaya left a living legacy, traces of which are still evident in the political ideas, socialstructures, rituals, language, arts, and other traditions of Malay Muslims.

Although development was slower in more remote, less fertile northern Borneo, the area that is nowSarawak had entered the Iron Age by CE 600. Archaeological excavations in the Sarawak River deltahave revealed much evidence not only of early ironworking but also of extensive trade with China andthe Southeast Asian mainland. The local peoples offered edible bird’s nests, rhinoceros horns, hornbill“ivory” (from the casque atop the bird’s beak), camphor, spices, wood, and other goods in exchange forChinese ceramics, metal, and probably clothing. Meanwhile, Neolithic boatbuilders along the east coastof present-day Sabah were involved in extensive interregional trade; the maritime peoples of the areacalled the territory the “land below the wind” because it lay south of the tropical cyclone (typhoon) belt.

The advent of Islam

From the 13th through the 17th century, Sunni Islam, carried chiefly by Arab and Indian merchants,spread widely through peninsular and insular Southeast Asia. The new religion offered equal-opportunity social advancement through spiritual devotion, which ultimately challenged (but did notentirely eliminate) the power of the traditional elites; Islam also embodied a complex theology that heldmuch appeal for farmers and merchants in the coastal regions. The dissemination of Islam wasintimately linked to the florescence of the great Indian Ocean trading routes that connected Chinathrough the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East, and eastern Africa.

The arrival of Islam coincided with the rise of the great port of Malacca (now Melaka), establishedalong the strait on Malaya’s southwest coast by Sumatran exiles about 1400. The Indianized king—whosuccessfully sought a tributary relationship with powerful China—converted to Islam, becoming asultan and hence attracting Muslim merchants. Soon Malacca became Southeast Asia’s principal tradingentrepôt, while at the same time it gained suzerainty over much of coastal Malaya and eastern Sumatra.Malacca also served as the regional centre for the propagation of Islam and as the eastern terminus ofthe Indian Ocean trading network. Indonesian spices, Malayan gold, and Chinese silks and tea all passedthrough Malacca on their way to South Asia, the Middle East, and, ultimately, Europe. At its height inthe late 15th century, Malacca hosted some 15,000 merchants of many nationalities, including Chinese,Arabs, Persians, and Indians; attracted by a stable government and a policy of free trade, the ships in theharbour purportedly outnumbered those in any other port in the known world. The Chinese admiralZheng He called at the port several times in the first decades of the 15th century as part of the greatnaval expeditions of the Ming dynasty to the western Indian Ocean. Malacca’s political and religiousinfluence reached its height under Tun Perak, who served as chief minister (1456–98) after defeating theexpanding Siamese (Thai) in a fierce naval battle; during his tenure Islam became well entrenched insuch districts (and subsidiary sultanates) as Johor (Johore), Kedah, Perak, Pahang, and Terengganu.

Malacca empire in 1500.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The mostly Islamicized people of 15th-century Malacca began callingthemselves “Malays” (“Melayu”), likely a reference to their Sumatranorigins. Thereafter the term Malay was applied to those who practiced Islam and spoke a version of theMalay language. Religious and linguistic behaviour, rather than descent, then, became the criteria forbeing Malay; this enabled previously Hindu-Buddhist peoples and former adherents of local religions toidentify themselves (and even merge) with the Malays—regardless of their ancestry. Over time thisloose cultural designation became a coherent ethnic group populating what is commonly called the“Malay world,” a region encompassing Malaya, northern and western Borneo, eastern Sumatra, and thesmaller islands in between. Islam, however, came to overlay the earlier beliefs so that, before the rise ofreligious reform movements in the 19th century, few Malays were orthodox Muslims. Hindu-influencedritual remained important for those of noble heritage, and local spirits were richly incorporated intoIslamic practices.

Early European intrusions and emerging sultanates

The fame of Malacca as the crossroads of Asian commerce had reached Europe by the beginning of the16th century. The Portuguese, who for a century had been seeking a sea route to eastern Asia, finallyarrived at Malacca in 1509, inaugurating a new era of European activity in Southeast Asia. Althoughmuch of Southeast Asia, including northern Borneo, experienced little Western impact before the 19thcentury, Malaya was one of the first regions to be disrupted. In 1511 a Portuguese fleet led by Afonso deAlbuquerque captured Malacca.

Because few merchants of Malacca chose to endure the conquerors’ high taxes and intolerance of Islam,the city ultimately languished under Portuguese control. The sultanate of Aceh (Acheh) in northernSumatra subsequently leaped into the political vacuum created by Malacca’s decline, and during the16th and early 17th centuries the Acehnese were deeply involved in peninsular affairs, warring againstvarious sultanates and at times controlling some or most of them. Indeed, the understaffed Portugueseauthority in Malacca was barely able to repulse repeated assaults by the sultanate of Aceh. Meanwhile,the Dutch, having established the Dutch East India Company in 1602, arose as the dominant Europeanpower in Southeast Asia. In 1641 the Dutch seized Malacca, and although they tried to revive its trade,the city never recovered its earlier glory.

Throughout the rise and fall of Malacca, new sultanates were emerging elsewhere in the Malay world.They usually were situated at the mouth of a major river and sought to control trade to and from theinterior, which often was populated by seminomadic peoples such as the aboriginal Orang Asli(“Original People”) of Malaya and the various indigenous peoples of Borneo. Younger sultanates—suchas Riau-Johor and Kedah, both on the peninsula, and Brunei, on Borneo’s northern coast—took over

some of the trading functions of Malacca and flourished for several centuries. Islam reached other areasof northern Borneo in the 15th and 16th centuries; many coastal peoples converted, but most of theinhabitants of the interior continued to practice local religions well into the 20th century. Malay politicalcontrol spread, with the Brunei sultans laying claim to much of what are today Sarawak and Sabah—although their actual power seldom reached much beyond the coastal zone. Attempts by Brunei tocontrol the interior often failed, especially after the aggressive Iban (Sea Dayak) people commencedtheir migrations into present-day Sarawak from western Borneo (16th through 18th centuries). TheSiamese came to control some of the northern Malay sultanates, and the southernmost part of present-day Thailand still has a predominantly Malay Muslim population. The Malay sultanates included many,often feuding chiefdoms. Consequently, wars within and between the sultanates erupted from time totime. From the Europeans’ perspective, the sultanate system—with its hierarchical but fluctuatingspheres of influence over mobile populations—was politically unstable.

During the 17th century many Minangkabau people migrated from western Sumatra into southwesternMalaya, bringing with them a matrilineal sociocultural system by which property and authoritydescended through the female side. They elected their chiefs from among eligible aristocraticcandidates, a model that has been incorporated into contemporary Malaysia’s selection of a king. Laterthe Minangkabau formed a confederation of nine small states (Negeri Sembilan). The political pluralismof Malaya in the 18th century also facilitated large-scale penetration of the peninsula by Buginesepeople from southwestern Celebes (Sulawesi), a large island to the southeast of Borneo that is now partof Indonesia. With a well-earned reputation as maritime traders, Buginese immigrants established thesultanate of Selangor on the west coast of Malaya in the mid-1700s. To the southeast, they gainedprominence in the sultanate of Johor, which, at the tip of the peninsula, was a prosperous tradingentrepôt that attracted Asian and European merchants. Despite continuous movement of peoples fromthe archipelago into the area, Malaya and northern Borneo remained sparsely populated into the early19th century. Many present-day Malays are descendants of immigrants from elsewhere in archipelagicSoutheast Asia who arrived after 1800. Indeed, immigrants from Java, Celebes, and Sumatrademonstrated a tendency to assimilate to the existing Malay community over time, a process thatsteadily accelerated with the rise of Malay nationalism and vernacular education in the 1930s. Some ofthe traditions brought by Minangkabau, Javanese, and other immigrants are still practiced in districtswhere they settled, contributing to the many regional variations of Malay culture and language.

Malaya and northern Borneo under British control

Malaya

Except for Malacca, Western influence was negligible in Malaya and northern Borneo until the late 18thcentury, when Britain became interested in the area. The British sought a source for goods to be sold inChina, and in 1786 the British East India Company acquired the island of Penang (Pulau Pinang), offMalaya’s northwest coast, from the sultan of Kedah. The island soon became a major trading entrepôtwith a chiefly Chinese population. British representative Sir Stamford Raffles occupied the island ofSingapore off the southern tip of the peninsula in 1819 and acquired trading rights in 1824; a strategiclocation at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca and a fine harbour made Singapore the centre forBritain’s economic and political thrust in the peninsula. The British attracted Chinese immigrants to thesparsely populated island, and soon the mainly Chinese port became the region’s dominant city and amajor base for Chinese economic activity in Southeast Asia. By then the predominant industrialcapitalist power in Europe, Britain next obtained Malacca from the Dutch in 1824 and thereaftergoverned the three major ports of the Strait of Malacca—Penang, Malacca, and Singapore—whichcollectively were called the Straits Settlements. The British Colonial Office took direct control in 1867.

With the opening in 1869 of the Suez Canal, which provided a dramatically shorter maritime routebetween Europe and Southeast Asia, the full effect of European technological development swept overthe region. The feuding Malay states were little prepared for the political ramifications of increasedEuropean commercial activity, with the exception of Johor, which was led by the strong, shrewd, andprogressive sultan Abu Bakar. The other state administrations generally were weak and failed to copewith their mounting problems, including the steady immigration of Chinese. By the early 19th centurythe Chinese—who were being driven to emigrate by increasing poverty and instability in their homeland—began settling in large numbers in the sultanates along the peninsula’s west coast, where theycooperated with local Malay rulers to mine tin. The Chinese organized themselves into tightly knitcommunities and formed alliances with competing Malay chiefs, and Chinese factions fought wars witheach other for control of minerals. Chinese settlers also established towns such as Kuala Lumpur andIpoh, which later grew into major cities. The Chinese and Malays increasingly became entrenched in aninadequately integrated sociopolitical structure that continually generated friction between the twocommunities.

British investors were soon attracted to Malaya’s potential mineral wealth, but they were concernedabout the political unrest. As a result, by the 1870s local British officials began to intervene in theinternal affairs of various Malayan sultanates—establishing political influence (sometimes by force orthe threat of force) through a system of British residents (advisers). Initial intervention was crude andincompetent; the first British resident to Perak was murdered by Malays outraged by his assertiveactions. Gradually, the British refined their techniques and appointed more-able representatives; notableamong these was Sir Frank Swettenham, who in 1896 became the first resident-general of a Malay

federation of Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang, with Kuala Lumpur as the capital. By1909 the British had pressured Siam (now Thailand) into transferring sovereignty over the northernMalay states of Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, and Perlis; Johor was compelled to accept a Britishresident in 1914. These five sultanates remained outside the Malay federation, however. Britain hadnow achieved formal or informal colonial control over nine sultanates, but it pledged not to interfere inmatters of religion, customs, or the symbolic political role of the sultans. The various states kept theirseparate identities but were increasingly integrated to form British Malaya.

Sarawak

Sarawak also entered a new historical era when the English adventurer James (later Sir James) Brookehelped the sultan of Brunei suppress a local revolt by several Iban groups that (theoretically) were underthe sultanate’s control. In gratitude, the sultan of Brunei appointed Brooke raja (governor) of theSarawak River basin in 1841. Brooke inaugurated not only a new form of imperial endeavour but also acentury of rule by successive generations of a remarkable English family—a dynasty known as theBrooke Raj. As traditional Bornean rulers, generally benevolent autocrats, and cautious modernizers,the Brookes viewed themselves as protectors of Sarawak’s people. James Brooke spent the years beforehis death in 1868 consolidating his control of surrounding districts and defending his governmentagainst various challenges. Sarawak acquired the status of an independent state under British protectionduring the reign of its second raja, Charles Brooke (nephew of James Brooke). Relations with Britain,however, were often strained, chiefly because of a consistent Brooke policy of incorporating territory atthe expense of the declining Brunei sultanate, which also became a British protectorate in the late 19thcentury. The present boundaries of Sarawak were achieved by 1906.

North Borneo

Northeastern Borneo, the territory that is now Sabah, was the last area to be brought under Britishcontrol. In the early 1700s Brunei transferred its claims over much of the region to the sultan of Sulu,who ruled from the Sulu Archipelago (now part of the Philippines) to the east. Except in the farnortheast, actual Sulu power remained limited. Occasional local resistance to Brunei or Sulu influence,as well as extensive coastal raiding and confusion of suzerainty, invited Western interest beginning inthe 18th century. Despite short-lived American activity in the 1860s, British power proved mostdecisive. By 1846 the British had already acquired the offshore island of Labuan from Brunei. Theygained a toehold in northeastern Borneo proper in 1872, when British merchant William Cowie foundedan east-coast settlement at Sandakan, on lease from Sulu. Having obtained rights to much of theterritory by 1881, the British launched the British North Borneo Company, which, based in Sandakan,ruled the British protectorate—as North Borneo—until 1941. The company operated the state in the

interest of its shareholders but was only moderately prosperous, owing to high overhead and poor management; its 60 years of rule, however, established the economic, administrative, and political framework of contemporary Sabah.

The impact of British rule

The British presence in the region reflected several patterns: direct colonial rule in the Straits Settlements, relatively indirect control in some of the peninsula’s east-coast sultanates, and family orcorporate control in Borneo. Regardless of the political form, however, British rule brought profoundchanges, transforming the various states socially and economically.

The Brookes and the North Borneo Company faced prolonged resistance before they consolidated theircontrol, while occasional local revolts punctuated British rule in Malaya as well. In Sarawak in 1857,for example, interior Chinese gold-mining communities nearly succeeded in toppling the intrusiveJames Brooke before being crushed, while Muslim chief Mat Salleh fought expanding British power inNorth Borneo from 1895 to 1900. The Brookes mounted bloody military campaigns to suppressheadhunting (practiced at the time by many indigenous peoples of the interior) and to incorporateespecially the Iban into their domain; similar operations were carried out in North Borneo. Those whoresisted British annexation or policies were portrayed by the British authorities as treacherous,reactionary rebels; many of the same figures, however, were later hailed in Malaysia as nationalistheroes.

The British administration eventually achieved peace and security. In Malaya the Malay sultans retainedtheir symbolic status at the apex of an aristocratic social system, although they lost some of theirpolitical authority and independence. British officials believed that the rural Malay farmers needed to beprotected from economic and cultural change and that traditional class divisions should be maintained.Hence, most economic development was left to Chinese and Indian immigrants, as long as it servedlong-term colonial interests. The Malay elite enjoyed a place in the new colonial order as civil servants.Many Malayan and Bornean villagers, however, were affected by colonial taxes and consequently wereforced to shift from subsistence to cash-crop farming; their economic well-being became subject tofluctuations in world commodity prices. Much economic growth occurred; British policies promoted theplanting of pepper, gambier (a plant producing a resin used for tanning and dyeing), tobacco, oil palm,and especially rubber, which along with tin became the region’s major exports. Malaya and BritishNorth Borneo developed extractive, plantation-based economies oriented toward the resource andmarket needs of the industrializing West.

British authorities in Malaya devoted much effort to constructing a transportation infrastructure inwhich railways and road networks linked the tin fields to the coast; port facilities also were improved tofacilitate resource exports. These developments stimulated growth in the tin and rubber industries tomeet world demand. The tin industry remained chiefly in immigrant Chinese hands through the 19thcentury, but more highly capitalized, technologically sophisticated British firms took over much of thetin production and export by World War II. The rubber tree was first introduced from Brazil in the1870s, but rubber did not supersede the earlier coffee and gambier plantings until near the end of thecentury. By the early 20th century thousands of acres of forest had been cleared for rubber growing,much of it on plantations but some on smallholdings. Malaya became the world’s greatest exporter ofnatural rubber, with rubber and tin providing the bulk of colonial tax revenues.

The British also improved public health facilities, which reduced the incidence of various tropicaldiseases, and they facilitated the establishment of government Malay schools and Christian mission(mostly English-language) schools; the Chinese generally had to develop their own schools. Theseseparate school systems helped perpetuate the pluralistic society. Some Chinese, Malays, and Indiansbenefited from British economic policies; others enjoyed no improvement or experienced a drop in theirstandard of living. Government-sanctioned opium and alcohol use provided a major source of revenuein some areas.

Between 1800 and 1941 several million Chinese entered Malaya (especially the west-coast states),Sarawak, and British North Borneo to work as labourers, miners, planters, and merchants. The Chineseeventually became part of a prosperous, urban middle class that controlled retail trade. South IndianTamils were imported as the workforce on Malayan rubber estates. At the turn of the 19th centuryMalays accounted for the vast majority of Malaya’s residents, but the influx of immigrants over thesubsequent decades significantly eroded that majority. A compartmentalized society developed on thepeninsula, and colonial authorities skillfully utilized “divide and rule” tactics to maintain their control.With most Malays in villages, Chinese in towns, and Indians on plantations, the various ethnic groupsbasically lived in their own neighbourhoods, followed different occupations, practiced their ownreligions, spoke their own languages, operated their own schools, and, later, formed their own politicalorganizations. By the 1930s ethnically oriented nationalist currents began to stir in Malaya, Singapore,and Sarawak. Malay groups either pursued Islamic revitalization and reform or debated the future of theMalays in a plural society, while Chinese organizations framed their activities around political trends inChina.

The Borneo states experienced many of the same changes. Sir Charles Brooke, second raja of Sarawak,passed the state on to his son, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, in 1917. Vyner Brooke reigned until

1946, furthering the pattern of personal rule established by his father and by his great-uncle, Sir JamesBrooke. Economic incentives attracted Chinese immigrants, and by 1939 the Chinese accounted forabout one-fourth of the state’s population. Similar to Malaya, Sarawak became ethnically,occupationally, and socially segmented, with most Malays in government or fishing, most Chinese intrade, labour, or cash-crop farming, and most Iban in the police force or shifting cultivation. Gambierand pepper were planted, with Sarawak emerging as the major world supplier of the latter crop. Later,rubber became dominant, and a petroleum industry developed. Most cash-crop agriculture remained insmallholdings rather than in the plantations that were characteristic elsewhere. Christian missionaryactivity and church, Chinese, and Malay schools also generated sociocultural change. In the 1930sethnic consciousness rose among both the Chinese and the Malay communities as Vyner Brooke’spersonal rule began to erode.

The North Borneo Company operated differently from the Brookes in that it concentrated on developingan extractive economy for the benefit of its shareholders, based mostly on Western-owned tobacco andrubber estates and forest exploitation. Like the Brookes, however, the company created a single state outof many local societies and tolerated little open political activity. Christian missions facilitated changeamong non-Muslims. Significantly, immigrant Chinese and Indonesians also diversified the populationthrough their employment as plantation workers.

Political transformation

The occupation of Malaya and Borneo by Japan (1942–45) during World War II generated tremendouschanges in those territories. Their economies were disrupted, and communal tensions were exacerbatedbecause Malays and Chinese reacted differently to Japanese control. The Japanese desperately neededaccess to the natural resources of Southeast Asia; they invaded Malaya in December 1941, havingneutralized American military power in Hawaii through the Pearl Harbor attack and in the Philippinesthrough attacks on Manila. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese controlled the peninsula, Singapore, andBorneo. Pro-communist, predominantly Chinese guerrillas waged resistance in Malaya, and a briefChinese-led revolt also erupted in North Borneo. In many places increasing politicization and conflictwithin and among ethnic groups developed as a result of economic hardship and selective repression; innorthern Borneo the rule of the Brookes and of the North Borneo Company was permanentlyundermined, while in Malaya the Chinese and Malays also realized that British domination was noteverlasting. Nonetheless, most people welcomed the Japanese defeat in 1945.

After the end of the war, Sarawak and North Borneo, both of which had been British protectorates untilthe Japanese occupation, became British crown colonies. Sarawak, however, faced a turbulent politicalsituation. Many Malays opposed the termination of Brooke rule and Sarawak’s cession to Britain, and

the resulting sociopolitical divisions persisted for years. With the establishment of the British NorthBorneo colony, the capital was moved from Sandakan to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu). Some localself-government was introduced in Malaya. The major catalyst of political organization, however, was aBritish proposal to form a single Malayan Union, incorporating all the Malayan territories exceptSingapore, that would diminish state autonomy and accord equal political and citizenship rights to non-Malays. A tremendous upsurge of Malay political feeling against this plan, led by Dato’ Onn bin Jaafar,resulted in the creation in 1946 of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) as a vehicle forMalay nationalism and political assertiveness. Strikes, demonstrations, and boycotts doomed theproposed Malayan Union, and the British began to negotiate with UMNO about the Malayan future.

The negotiations resulted in the creation in 1948 of the Federation of Malaya, which unified theterritories but provided special guarantees of Malay rights, including the position of the sultans. Thesedevelopments alarmed the more radical and impoverished sectors of the Chinese community. In 1948the Communist Party of Malaya—a mostly Chinese movement formed in 1930 that had provided thebackbone of the anti-Japanese resistance—went into the jungles and began a guerrilla insurgency todefeat the colonial government, sparking a 12-year period of unrest known as the Malayan Emergency.The communists waged a violent and ultimately futile struggle supported by only a small segment of theChinese community. The British took measures to suppress the insurgency by military means, whichincluded a strategy that forcibly moved many rural Chinese into tightly controlled New Villages locatednear or along the roadsides. Although this policy isolated villagers from guerrillas, it also increased thegovernment’s unpopularity. The British finally achieved success when, under the leadership of Britishhigh commissioner Sir Gerald Templer, they actively began to address political and economicgrievances as well as the insurgency, which further isolated the rebels.

Promising independence, British officials commenced negotiations with the various ethnic leaders,including those of UMNO and the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), formed in 1949 by wealthyChinese businessmen. A coalition consisting of UMNO (led by the aristocratic moderate Tunku AbdulRahman), MCA, and the Malayan Indian Congress contested the national legislative elections held in1955 and won all but one seat. This established a permanent political pattern of a ruling coalition—known first as the Alliance Party and later as the National Front (Barisan Nasional; BN)—that unitedethnically based, mostly elite-led parties of moderate to conservative political leanings, with UMNO asthe major force.

On Aug. 31, 1957, the Federation of Malaya achieved independence under an Alliance governmentheaded by Tunku Abdul Rahman as prime minister. Singapore, with its predominantly Chinesepopulation, remained outside the federation as a British crown colony. The arrangement tended to

favour the Malays politically, with UMNO leaders holding most federal and state offices and thekingship rotating among the various Malay sultans, but the Chinese were granted liberal citizenshiprights and maintained strong economic power. Kuala Lumpur became the federal capital.

New currents also were emerging in Borneo. Colonial rule succeeded in rebuilding and expanding theeconomies of the two colonies, with rubber and timber providing the basis for postwar economicgrowth. Health and education facilities slowly reached beyond the towns. Political consciousness beganto spread as elections were held for local councils. During the 1950s the Kadazan community,stimulated particularly by the development of radio broadcasting and newspapers, became involved inNorth Borneo politics, while Chinese and Malay leaders formed Sarawak’s first political parties—someespousing multiethnic identities—in expectation of independence. Political activity accelerated with themooting in 1961 of the proposal by Malayan and British officials for a federated state that wouldinclude Malaya, Sarawak, North Borneo, Brunei, and Singapore. New parties formed in North Borneorepresenting the Kadazan, Chinese, and various Muslim communities. Elections were held in NorthBorneo and in Sarawak, with most of the parties in both colonies accepting independence throughmerging with the new federation, called Malaysia; the inclination to join Malaysia increased after thePhilippines claimed North Borneo, based on former Sulu suzerainty.

British leaders proposed a Malaysian federation as a way of terminating their now burdensome colonialrule over Singapore, Sarawak, and North Borneo, even though those states were historically andethnically distinct from Malaya and from each other. It was in many ways to be a marriage ofconvenience. Malaya was closely linked economically with bustling Singapore, and the Malays felt akinship to the various Muslim groups in Borneo. Tunku Abdul Rahman believed the federation coulddefuse potential leftist Chinese activity while balancing the Chinese majority in Singapore with the non-Chinese majorities of the Borneo states. Malaya already contained a Chinese minority of nearly 40percent, with Malays barely in the majority there. Hence, on Sept. 16, 1963, the Federation of Malaysiawas formed, with North Borneo—renamed Sabah—and Sarawak constituting East Malaysia. Brunei,which had been invited to join, chose to remain a British protectorate and later became independent as asmall, oil-rich Malay sultanate.Craig A. Lockard

Malaysia from independence to c. 2000

The new, hurriedly formed country faced many political problems, including a period of Indonesianmilitary opposition that ended in 1966, sporadic communist insurgency in Sarawak, periodicdisenchantment in East Malaysia over federal policies and the domination of Peninsular Malaysia, andthe secession of Singapore from the federation (at Malaysia’s urging) in 1965. The latter event resulted

from increasing friction between the mostly Malay federal leaders and the mostly Chinese state leaders,especially Singapore’s independent-minded chief minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who disagreed on nationalgoals. Under Lee’s autocratic direction and unconventional economic policies, Singapore became ahighly prosperous but tightly controlled country, and relations with Malaysia gradually improved. Bothcountries became founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967.

The secession of Singapore allowed UMNO to exercise more influence over federal policies, even if itdid not end political uncertainties. Communal tensions on the peninsula following a heated electiongenerated riots and a countrywide state of emergency in 1969–70. Many non-Malays resented thegovernment’s attempts to build national unity and identity through such measures as increasing the useof the Malay language in education and public life. The Chinese were particularly worried bygovernment policies aimed at distributing more wealth to Malays. For instance, the New EconomicPolicy, launched in 1971 and renewed as the New Development Policy in 1991, was designed toincrease significantly the wealth and economic potential of the bumiputra (Malays and other indigenouspeoples)—especially the Malays. It included affirmative-action policies for bumiputra citizens ineducation and in employment in the civil service. A growing Islamic movement also fueled tensions inthe country and wrought divisions within the Malay community itself. Beginning in the late 1970s, thisIslamic fundamentalist revival, or dakwah movement, increasingly attracted the support of youngMalays who felt alienated by what they perceived as the growth of a Westernized, materialistic society.Finally, although rural development policies reduced poverty rates, large pockets of urban andespecially rural poverty persisted, with many regional and ethnic inequities in the distribution of wealth.Radical critics of the government (including communists, socialists, Islamic militants, and progressiveintellectuals) were politically marginalized and sometimes detained.

For Sarawak and Sabah, politics within Malaysia proved to be a turbulent experience. The decision tojoin the federation was made in haste, and many people continued to resent the loss of their autonomy,especially their loss of control over growing petroleum revenues. Political crises occurred periodicallyin Sarawak, although it was governed after 1970 by a Malay-dominated, profederal but multiethniccoalition that represented a triumph of peninsular alliance-style politics. By the mid-1980s, however,some Iban leaders had challenged the coalition for being too accommodating to wealthy Malay andChinese interests. The government encouraged the assimilation of Sarawak society to that of thepeninsula and dramatically increased the exploitation of timber resources, often at the expense ofinterior peoples. Sabah politics also were contentious, with ongoing tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim groups. Between 1967 and 1975 Chief Minister Tun Mustapha ruled the state rigidly, absorbingor repressing opponents, promoting Islam, and challenging federal policies. The multiethnic coalitionthat replaced Mustapha continued to preside over rapid economic growth spurred by the exploitation of

Sabah’s bountiful natural resources. Tensions resurfaced in the mid-1980s, however, when a ChristianKadazan-led party swept into power and followed policies opposed by federal leaders. Althoughpeninsular sociopolitical patterns increasingly influenced Sabah and Sarawak, the states remainedunique within the Malaysian system.

Despite these difficulties, the country as a whole maintained its quasi-democratic parliamentary politicalsystem, including regular elections and moderate political diversity but also some restrictions on civilliberties, such as a ban on public discussion of issues deemed “sensitive.” Tunku Abdul Rahman wassucceeded as prime minister by Tun Haji Abdul Razak bin Hussein in 1970. Upon Abdul Razak’s deathin 1976, another UMNO leader, Datuk (later Tun) Hussein Onn, replaced him. In 1981 Tun HusseinOnn, owing to ill health, relinquished his positions as president of UMNO and as Malaysian primeminister, allowing Mahathir bin Mohamad to become the fourth prime minister and the firstnonaristocrat to hold that office.

Mahathir’s 22-year tenure as prime minister was marked by an authoritarian style and economicsuccess. His assertive manner and controversial policies generated a major split within UMNO: in 1986Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam resigned, citing irreconcilable differences, and the following yearMahathir only narrowly survived a challenge to his role as UMNO president (and thus as primeminister). A subsequent challenge to Mahathir’s victory led the courts to declare UMNO illegal becauseit had failed to register properly. Mahathir was able to outmaneuver his opponents, however, bydissolving UMNO and forming a new Malay party, UMNO Baru (New UMNO; Baru was subsequentlydropped in 1997 and the original name restored). Mahathir’s opponents countered by forming Semangat’46 (Spirit of ’46), which claimed to embody the ideals of the original UMNO (established in 1946) andattempted to unite the disparate opposition groups against the ruling BN coalition headed by UMNO.

During the 1980s Anwar Ibrahim rose rapidly within the ruling party, and many believed he was beinggroomed to be Mahathir’s successor. In 1993 Anwar was elected deputy president of UMNO and deputyprime minister, and within a few years he was considered a potential contestant for the offices ofUMNO president and prime minister of Malaysia. In 1997 the country faced a severe economicdownturn, and Mahathir and Anwar (who also served as the country’s finance minister) differed overthe economic prescriptions necessary to rescue the economy. In September 1998 Mahathir removedAnwar from office, and Anwar subsequently was expelled from UMNO and charged with (and,eventually, convicted of) corruption and sexual misconduct. Demonstrations, under the banner ofreformasi (“reform”), ensued in support of Anwar, whose backers claimed that the charges were a bid tohumiliate him and to eliminate him as a potential rival of Mahathir.

Malaysia in the 21st century

The dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar caused intense divisions within Malaysia, but Mahathir,benefiting from an economic recovery, was able to retain his grip on political power. In 2003 Mahathirstepped down as prime minister and was replaced by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (his handpickedsuccessor), who won a landslide victory the following year. With Mahathir out of office, Anwar’sconviction was overturned in 2004, and he was released.

In March 2008 Anwar led a coalition of opposition parties—called the People’s Alliance (PakatanRakyat; PR)—that gained more than one-third of the seats in Malaysia’s lower house of parliament,even though he still could not run for office. Anwar officially returned to politics later that year, and inOctober he won a solid victory in a parliamentary by-election, even though, shortly before the election,he was again charged with sexual misconduct. Meanwhile, Abdullah faced growing criticism, largelyfor his failure to curtail corruption, and in October 2008 he announced his intention to resign thefollowing March. Abdullah was succeeded in office by his deputy prime minister, Najib Razak (son ofAbdul Razak), in April 2009.

In January 2012 the 2008 charges against Anwar were dismissed after a two-year trial, but an appealscourt subsequently overturned this acquittal, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. The PR hadhigh hopes of improving on its 2008 electoral showing in upcoming polls for the lower house. Althoughthe opposition gained some seats in the voting held in early May 2013, the BN was able to hold on to itsmajority, and Najib Razak retained his office as prime minister.Malaysia Airlines flight 370

A collection of messages on an impromptushrine dedicated to Malaysia Airlines flight370.© HitManSnr/Shutterstock

A pair of air disasters soon cast a shadow over Najib Razak’ssecond term, however. On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The 239passengers and crew on board were presumed dead. Just fourmonths later, 298 people were killed when Malaysia Airlinesflight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying over territory controlled by Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine.

In April 2015 Najib Razak passed a controversial 6 percent tax on goods and services. Later that yearhis administration was engulfed in scandal when Najib Razak and other officials were implicated in amultibillion-dollar embezzlement and money-laundering scheme involving 1Malaysia DevelopmentBerhad (1MDB), a state-owned investment fund. Mahathir emerged from retirement to chastise hisonetime protégé, and the former prime minister broke with the BN and aligned with the opposition. Theweight of the 1MDB allegations combined with overwhelming dissatisfaction over the goods andservices tax to bring an end to the BN’s six-decade hold on power in Malaysia. The opposition Allianceof Hope (Pakatan Harapan) claimed 122 of 222 seats in the May 2018 parliamentary election, and the

92-year-old Mahathir was returned to the prime minister’s office. Mahathir stated that his administrationwould pursue a royal pardon for Anwar, a move that would allow Anwar to once again hold politicaloffice.

With relative political stability over the last decades of the 20th century, government and businessleaders managed to carry Malaysia into the 21st century with a prosperous, diversified economy.Commodity exports remained important, however, and certain parts of the country struggled with severeenvironmental problems, largely as a result of the exploitation of natural resources. Althoughdevelopment policies were criticized as lacking ethnic and regional balance, Malaysia nonetheless hadachieved considerable success in creating national unity and sociopolitical stability out of deep regionaland ethnic divisions.Craig A. Lockard Zakaria Bin Ahmad The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Citation Information

Article Title: Malaysia

Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Date Published: 07 January 2021

URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Malaysia

Access Date: January 11, 2021