Important
facts about
Malaysia
-At 1,483 feet, the twin
Petronas
Towers
in
Kuala Lumpur
is currently the world's tallest building
-
Malaysia
is home to one of the world's
most endangered animals, the orangutan. Found only in
Sumatra
and
Borneo,
it is the only great ape living naturally outside
Africa
-
Malaysia
has the world's oldest rain
forests
-
Malaysia
has the highest number of
ruling Sultans (9) in the world
-The longest mural in the world is over 860 feet long and 14 feet high and was
painted by a single inmate of Pudu Jail,
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
is a
federation of
thirteen states in
southeast Asia. The country consists of two geographical regions
divided by the
South China Sea:
Peninsular
Malaysia (or West Malaysia) on the
Malay Peninsula shares a land border on the north with
Thailand and is connected by the
Johor-Singapore Causeway and the
Malaysia-Singapore Second Link to the south with
Singapore. It consists of nine sultanates (Johor,
Kedah,
Kelantan,
Negeri Sembilan,
Pahang, Perak,
Perlis,
Selangor and
Terengganu), two states headed by governors (Malacca
and Penang),
and two federal territories (Putrajaya
and Kuala
Lumpur).
Malaysian
Borneo (or East Malaysia) occupies the northern part of the
island of
Borneo, bordering
Indonesia and surrounding the Sultanate of
Brunei. It consists of the states of
Sabah and Sarawak
and the federal
territoryof Labuan.
The name "
Malaysia" was
adopted in 1963 when the
Federation of Malaya (Malay: Persekutuan Tanah Melayu),
Singapore, Sabah
and Sarawak formed
a 14-state federation.
Singapore was
expelled from
Malaysia
in 1965 to become an independent country.
Although politically dominated by the
Malays, modern Malaysian society is heterogeneous, with substantial
Chinese and
Indian minorities. Malaysian politics have been noted for their
allegedly communal nature; the three major component parties of the Barisan
Nasional each restrict membership to those of one ethnic group. The only major
violence the country has seen since independence was the
May 13 racial riots in the wake of an election campaign based on racial
issues. Nonetheless,
Malaysia
is considered to be a model of racial
harmony.[citation needed]
History
Main article:
History of Malaysia
The
Malay Peninsula has long benefited from its central position in the
maritime trade routes between
China and the
Middle East.
Ptolemy showed it on his early map with a label that translates as "Golden
Chersonese", the Straits of Malacca as "Sinus Sabaricus".
The earliest recorded Malay kingdoms grew from coastal city-ports established
in the 10th century AD. These include
Langkasuka and
Lembah Bujang in
Kedah, as well as
Beruas and
Gangga Negara in
Perak and Pan
Pan in Kelantan.
It is thought that originally these were Hindu or Buddhist nations. The first
evidence of Islam
in the Malay peninsula dates from the 14th century in
Terengganu, but according to the
Kedah Annals, the 9th Maharaja Derbar Raja (1136-1179 AD) of
Sultanate of Kedah converted to Islam and changed his name to Sultan
Muzaffar Shah. Since then there have been 27 Sultans who ruled Kedah.
There were numerous Malay kingdoms in the 2nd and 3rd century A.D., as many as
30 according to Chinese sources. Kedah – known as Kedaram or Kataha, in ancient
Pallava or Sanskrit – was in the direct route of invasions of Indian
traders and kings. Rajendra Chola, who is now thought to have laid Kota
Gelanggi to waste, put Kedah to heel in 1025 but his successor, Vir Rajendra
Chola, had to put down a Kedah rebellion to overthrow the invaders.
The Buddhist
kingdom of Ligor took control of Kedah shortly after, and its King
Chandrabhanu used it as a base to attack
Sri Lanka
in the 11the century, an event noted in a stone
inscription in Nagapattinum in Tamil Nadu and in the Sri Lankan epic,
Mahavamsa. During the first millennium, the people of the
Malay peninsula adopted Hinduism and Buddhism
and the use of the Sanskrit language until they eventually converted to Islam,
but not before Hinduism, Buddhism and Sanskrit became embedded into the Malay
worldview. Traces of the influences in political ideas, social structure,
rituals, language, arts and cultural practices still can be seen to this day.
There are reports of other areas older than Kedah – the ancient
kingdom
of
Ganganegara
, around Bruas in Perak, for instance – that pushes Malaysian
history even further into antiquity. If that is not enough, a Tamil poem,
Pattinapillai, of the second century A.D., describes goods from Kadaram heaped
in the broad streets of the Chola capital; a seventh century Sanskrit drama,
Kaumudhimahotsva, refers to Kedah as Kataha-nagari. The Agnipurana also
mentions a territory known Anda-Kataha with one of its boundaries delineated by
a peak, which scholars believe is Gunong Jerai. Stories from the
Katasaritasagaram describe the life of elegance of life in Kataha.
In the early 15th century, the
Sultanate of Malacca (Malay: Kesultanan Melaka) was established
under a dynasty founded by
Parameswara, a prince from
Palembang, who fled from the island Temasek (now
Singapore
). Parameswara decided to establish his kingdom in
Malacca after witnessing an astonishing incident where a white mouse deer
kicked one of his hunting dogs. He took it as a sign of good luck and name his
kingdom "Melaka" after the tree where he was resting under. At its height, the
sultanate controlled the areas which are now
Peninsula Malaysia, southern
Thailand (Patani),
and the eastern coast of
Sumatra. It existed for more than a century, and within that time
period Islam spread
to most of the
Malay Archipelago.
Malacca was the foremost trading port at the time in
Southeast Asia.
In 1511, Malacca was conquered by
Portugal, which established a colony there. The sons of the last
sultan of Malacca established two sultanates elsewhere in the peninsula
- the Sultanate of Perak to the north, and the Sultanate of Johor (originally a
continuation of the old
Malacca sultanate) to the south. After the fall of
Malacca, three nations struggled for the control of
Malacca Strait: the Portuguese (in Malacca), the Sultanate of Johor,
and the Sultanate of Aceh.
This conflict went on till 1641, when the
Dutch (allied to the Sultanate of Johor) gained control of Malacca.
Britain
established its first colony in the Malay peninsula in 1786, with the lease of
the
island
of
Penang
to the
British East India Company by the Sultan of Kedah. In 1824, the
British took control of Malacca following the
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 which divided the Malaya archipelago between
Britain and the
Netherlands, with
Malaya in the British zone. In 1826,
Britain established the
crown colony of the
Straits Settlements, uniting its three possessions in Malaya: Penang,
Malacca and
Singapore
. The Straits Settlements were administered under the
East India Company in
Calcutta until 1867, when they were transferred to the
Colonial Office in
London
.
Sultan
Abdul Samad Building in
Kuala Lumpur
houses the
High Court of Malaya and the
Trade Court
.
Kuala Lumpur was the capital of the
Federated Malay States and is the current
Malaysian capital.
Kuala
Lumpur, the capital and largest city of
Malaysia
During the late 19th century, many Malay states decided to obtain British help
in settling their internal conflicts. The commercial importance of
tin mining in the Malay states to merchants in the Straits Settlements
led to British government intervention in the tin-producing states in the
Malay Peninsula. British
gunboat diplomacy was employed to bring about a peaceful resolution to
civil disturbances caused by Chinese gangsters, and the
Pangkor Treaty of 1874 paved the way for the expansion of British
influence in
Malaya. By the turn of the 20th century the
states of Pahang,
Selangor,
Perak, and
Negeri Sembilan, known together as the
Federated Malay States (not to be confused with the
Federation of Malaya), were under the de facto control of
British
Residents appointed to advise the Malay rulers. The British were
"advisers" by name but in reality they were the puppet masters behind the Malay
rulers.
The remaining five states in the peninsula, known as the
Unfederated Malay States, while not directly under rule from
London
, also accepted British advisors around the turn of the 20th
century. Of these, the four northern states of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and
Terengganu had previously been under
Siamese control.
On the
island of
Borneo, Sabah was governed as the crown colony of
British North Borneo, while Sarawak was acquired from
Brunei as the personal kingdom of the Brooke family, who ruled as white
rajahs.
Following the Japanese
occupation of
Malaya (1942-1945) during
World War II, popular support for independence grew. Post-war British
plans to unite the administration of Malaya under a single crown colony called
the Malayan
Union foundered on strong opposition from the
Malays, who opposed the emasculation of the Malay rulers and the
granting of citizenship to the
ethnic Chinese. The Malayan Union, established in 1946 and consisting
of all the British possessions in Malaya with the exception of
Singapore
, was dissolved in 1948 and replaced by the
Federation of Malaya, which restored the autonomy of the rulers of the
Malay states under British protection.
During this time, rebels under the leadership of the
Communist Party of Malaya launched guerrilla operations designed to
force the British out of
Malaya. The
Malayan Emergency, as it was known, lasted from 1948 to 1960, and
involved a long anti-insurgency campaign by
Commonwealth troops in
Malaya. Against this backdrop, independence for
the Federation within the Commonwealth was granted on
31 August 1957
(see also Hari
Merdeka).
In 1963 the Federation was renamed
Malaysia with the admission of the
then-British crown colonies of
Singapore, Sabah
(British North Borneo) and
Sarawak. The Sultanate of
Brunei, though initially expressing interest in joining the Federation,
withdrew from the planned merger due to opposition from certain segments of the
population as well as arguments over the payment of oil royalties and the
status of the Sultan in the planned merger.
The early years of independence were marred by
conflict with Indonesia (Konfrontasi) over the formation of
Malaysia,
Singapore
's eventual exit in 1965, and racial strife in the form
of racial
riots in 1969. The
Philippines also made an active claim on
Sabah in that period based upon the Sultanate of
Brunei's cession of its north-east territories to the
Sultanate of Sulu in 1704. The claim is still ongoing.
After the
May 13 racial riots of 1969, the controversial
New Economic Policy - intended to increase the share of the economic
pie owned by the
bumiputras ("indigenous people", which includes the majority Malays,
but not always the indigenous population) as opposed to other ethnic groups -
was launched by Prime Minister
Tun Abdul Razak.
Malaysia
has since maintained a delicate ethno-political
balance, with a system of government that has attempted to combine overall
economic development with political and economic policies that favour
Bumiputras.
Between the 1980s and the early 1990s,
Malaysia
experienced significant economic growth under the
premiership of
Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad. The period saw a shift from an
agriculture-based economy to one based on manufacturing and industry in areas
such as computers and consumer electronics. It was during this period, too,
that the physical landscape of
Malaysia
has changed with the emergence of numerous
mega-projects. The most notable of these projects are the
Petronas Twin Towers (at the time the tallest building in the world),
KL International Airport (KLIA), the Sepang F1 Circuit, the Multimedia Super
Corridor (MSC), the Bakun hydroelectric dam and Putrajaya, a new federal
administrative capital.
In the late 1990s,
Malaysia
was shaken by the
Asian financial crisis as well as political unrest caused by the
sacking of the deputy prime minister Dato' Seri
Anwar Ibrahim. In 2003, Dr Mahathir,
Malaysia
's longest serving prime minister, retired in favour of
his deputy,
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, commonly known as Pak Lah.
Politics
Main articles on politics and government of
Malaysia can be found at the
Politics and government of Malaysia series.
The
Parliament building
Malaysia
is a
federal
constitutional
elective monarchy. It is nominally headed by the Paramount Ruler or
Yang di-Pertuan Agong, commonly referred to as the King of
Malaysia. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is selected for a five-year term among the
nine hereditary
Sultans of the
Malay states; the other four states, which have titular Governors, do
not participate in the selection. This makes
Malaysia
an elective monarchy.
The system of government in
Malaysia is closely modeled on that of
Westminster
parliamentary system, a legacy of
British colonial rule. In practice however, more power is vested in the
executive branch of government than in the legislative, and the judiciary has
been weakened by sustained attacks by the government during the Mahathir era.
Since independence in 1957,
Malaysia has been governed by a
multi-racial coalition known as the
Barisan Nasional (formerly the
Alliance
).
The bicameral
parliament consists of the
lower house, the House of Representatives or
Dewan Rakyat (literally the "Chamber of the People") and the
upper house, the Senate or
Dewan Negara (literally the "Chamber of the Nation"). The
219-member House of Representatives are elected from single-member
constituencies that are drawn based on population for a maximum term of 5
years.
Legislative power is divided between federal and state legislatures.
All 70 Senators sit for 3-year terms; 26 are elected by the 13 state
assemblies, 2 representing the federal
territory of
Kuala Lumpur, 1 each from federal territories of
Labuan and
Putrajaya, and 40 are appointed by the king.
Parliamentary elections are held at least once every five years, with
the last general election being in March 2004. Registered voters of age 21 and
above may vote for the members of the House of Representatives and in most of
the states, the state legislative chamber as well. Voting is not compulsory.
Executive
power is vested in the
cabinet led by the
prime minister; the Malaysian
constitution stipulates that the prime minister must be a member of the
lower house of
parliament who, in the opinion of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, commands a
majority in parliament. The cabinet is chosen from among members of both houses
of Parliament and is responsible to that body.
The state governments are led by chief ministers (Menteri Besar in
Malay states or Ketua Menteri in states without hereditary rulers),
selected by the state assemblies (Dewan Undangan Negeri) advising their
respective sultans or governors.
Geography
Map of Peninsular and
East Malaysia
Main article:
Geography of Malaysia
The two distinct parts of Malaysia, separated from each other by the
South China Sea, share a largely similar landscape in that both
West and
East Malaysia feature coastal plains rising to often densely forested
hills and mountains, the highest of which is
Mount Kinabalu at 4,095.2 metres (13,435.7 ft)
on the island of Borneo.
The local climate
is equatorial
and characterised by the annual southwest (April to October) and northeast
(October to February)
monsoons.
Tanjung
Piai, located in the southern state of
Johor, is the southernmost tip of continental
Asia.
The
Strait of Malacca, lying between
Sumatra and
Peninsular Malaysia, is arguably the most important shipping lane in
the world.
Putrajaya
is the newly created administrative capital for the federal government of
Malaysia, aimed in part to ease growing
congestion within
Malaysia's capital city,
Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur
remains the seat of parliament, as well as the commercial and
financial capital of the country. Other major cities include
Georgetown, Ipoh,
Johor Bahru,
Kuching,
Kota Kinabalu,
Alor Star and
Malacca Town.
Economy
Main article:
Economy of Malaysia
Kuala
Lumpur's landmark, the
Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world
The Ministry of Finance building in
Putrajaya
The
Malay Peninsula and indeed
Southeast Asia has been a centre of trade for centuries. Various items
such as porcelain
and spice were
actively traded even before
Malacca and
Singapore
rose to prominence.
In the 17th century, large deposits of
tin were found in several
Malay states. Later, as the
British started to take over as administrators of
Malaya, rubber
and palm oil
trees were introduced for commercial purposes. Over time,
Malaya became the world's largest major producer
of tin, rubber, and palm oil. These three commodities, along with other raw
materials, firmly set
Malaysia
's economic tempo well into the mid-20th century.
Instead of relying on the local Malays as a source of labour, the British
brought in Chinese and Indians to work on the mines and plantations. Although
many of them returned to their respective home countries after their agreed
tenure ended, some remained in
Malaysia
and settled permanently.
As
Malaya moved towards independence, the
government began implementing economic
five-year plans, beginning with the
First Malayan Five Year Plan in 1955. Upon the establishment of
Malaysia
, the plans were re-titled and renumbered, beginning
with the
First Malaysia Plan in 1965.
In 1970s,
Malaysia
began to imitate the footsteps of the original four
Asian Tigers and committed itself to a transition from being reliant on
mining and agriculture to an economy that depends more on manufacturing. With
Japanese investment, heavy industries flourished and in a matter of
years, Malaysian exports
became the country's primary growth engine.
Malaysia
consistently achieved more than 7%
GDP growth along with low
inflation in the 1980s and the 1990s.
During the same period, the government tried to eradicate poverty with the
controversial
New Economic Policy (NEP), after the
May 13 Incident of racial rioting in 1969. Its main objective was the
elimination of the association of race with economic function, and the first
five-year plan to begin implementing the NEP was the
Second Malaysia Plan. The success or failure of the NEP is the subject
of much debate, although it was officially retired in 1990 and replaced by the
National Development Policy (NDP).
The rapid economic boom led to a variety of supply problems, however. Labour
shortages soon resulted in an influx of millions of foreign workers, many
illegal. Cash-rich PLCs
and consortiums of banks eager to benefit from increased and rapid development
began large infrastructure projects. This all ended when the
Asian Financial Crisis hit in the fall of 1997, delivering a massive
shock to
Malaysia
's economy.
As with other countries affected by the crisis, there was speculative
short-selling of the Malaysian currency, the
ringgit.
Foreign direct investment fell at an alarming rate and, as capital
flowed out of the country, the value of the ringgit dropped from MYR 2.50 per
USD to, at one point, MYR 4.80 per USD. The
Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's composite index plummeted from
approximately 1300 points to nearly merely 400 points in a matter of weeks.
After the controversial sacking of finance minister
Anwar Ibrahim, a National Economic Action Council was formed to deal
with the monetary crisis.
Bank Negara imposed
capital controls and
pegged the Malaysian ringgit at 3.80 to the US dollar.
Malaysia
refused economic aid packages from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, however,
surprising many analysts.
In March 2005, the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a
paper on the sources and pace of Malaysia's recovery, written by Jomo K.S. of
the applied economics department,
University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur. The paper concluded that the controls imposed by
Malaysia
's government neither hurt nor helped recovery. The
chief factor was an increase in electronics components exports, which was
caused by a large increase in the demand for components in the United States,
which was caused, in turn, by a fear of the effects of the arrival of the year
2000 (Y2K) upon
older computers and other digital devices.
However, the post Y2K slump of 2001 did not affect
Malaysia
as much as other countries. This may have been clearer
evidence that there are other causes and effects that can be more properly
attributable for recovery. One possibility is that the currency speculators had
run out of finance after failing in their attack on the
Hong Kong dollar in August 1998 and after the
Russian ruble collapsed. (See
George Soros)
Regardless of cause/effect claims, rejuvenation of the economy also coincided
with massive government spending and budget deficits in the years that followed
the crisis. Later,
Malaysia
enjoyed faster economic recovery compared to its
neighbours. In many ways, however, the country has yet to recover to the levels
of the pre-crisis era.
While the pace of development today is not as rapid, it is seen to be more
sustainable. Although the controls and economic housekeeping may not have been
the principal reason for recovery, there is no doubt that the banking sector
has become more resilient to external shocks. The current account has also
settled into a structural surplus, providing a cushion to capital flight. Asset
prices are now a fraction of their pre-crisis heights.
The
fixed exchange rate was abandoned in July 2005 in favour of a managed
floating system within an hour of
China's announcing of the same move. In the same week, the ringgit
strengthened a percent against various major currencies and was expected to
appreciate further. As of December 2005, however, expectations of further
appreciation were muted as
capital flight exceeded USD 10 billion.
[1]
In September 2005, Sir Howard J. Davies, director of the
London School of Economics, at a meeting
Kuala Lumpur, cautioned Malaysian officials that if they want a
flexible capital market, they will have to lift the ban on short-selling put
into effect during the crisis. On March 23 2006,
Malaysia
removed the ban on short selling.
[2]
Natural resources
Malaysia
is well-endowed with natural resources in areas such as
agriculture, forestry as well as minerals. In terms of agriculture, Malaysia is
the world's primary exporter of natural
rubber and palm oil, which together with saw logs and sawn timber,
cocoa,
pepper, pineapple
and tobacco dominate
the growth of the sector. Palm oil is also a major foreign exchange earner.
Regarding forestry resources, it is noted that logging only began to make a
substantial contribution to the economy during the nineteenth century. Today an
estimated 59% of
Malaysia
remains forested. The rapid expansion of the timber
industry, particularly after the 1960s, has brought about a serious erosion
problem in the country's forest resources. However, in line with the
Government's commitment to protect the environment and the ecological system,
forestry resources are being managed on a sustainable basis and accordingly the
rate of tree felling has been on the downtrend.
In addition, substantial areas are being silviculturally treated and
reforestation of degraded forest land is also being carried out. The Malaysian
government provide plans for the enrichment of some 312.30 square kilometres
(120.5 sq mi)
of land with rattan under natural forest conditions and in rubber plantations
as an intercrop. To further enrich forest resources, fast-growing timber
species such as meranti tembaga, merawan and sesenduk are
also being planted. At the same time, the cultivation of high-value trees like
teak and other trees for pulp and paper are also encouraged.
Rubber, once the mainstay of the Malaysian economy, has been largely
replaced by oil
palm as
Malaysia
's leading agricultural export.
Tin and petroleum are the two main mineral resources that are of major
significance in the Malaysian economy.
Malaysia
was once the world's largest producer of
tin until the collapse of the tin market in the early 1980s. In the
19th and 20th century, tin played a predominant role in the Malaysian economy.
It was only in 1972 that petroleum and natural gas took over from tin as the
mainstay of the mining sector. Meanwhile, the contribution by tin has declined.
Petroleum and natural gas which were discovered in oilfields offshore from
Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu have contributed much to the Malaysian economy
particularly in those three states. Other minerals of some importance or
significance include copper, gold, bauxite, iron-ore and coal together with
industrial minerals like clay, kaolin, silica, limestone, barite, phosphates
and dimension stones such as granite as well as marble blocks and slabs. Small
quantities of gold
are produced.
In 2004, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department,
Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, revealed that
Malaysia
's oil reserves stood at 4.84 billion barrels while
natural gas reserves increased to 89 trillion
cubic feet (2,500 km³). This was an increase of 7.2%.
The government estimates that at current production rates
Malaysia
will be able to produce oil for 18 years and gas for 35
years. In 2004
Malaysia
is ranked 24th in terms of world oil reserves and 13th
for gas. 56% of the oil reserves exist in the Peninsula while 19% exist in
East Malaysia. The government collects oil
royalties of which 5% are passed to the states and the rest retained by the
federal government.
Main articles:
Transportation in Malaysia and
Communications in Malaysia
The
Kuala Lumpur Tower enhances communication quality within
Kuala Lumpur and the
Klang Valley.
The Damansara Link section of
Klang
Valley
's
Sprint Expressway.
Malaysia has extensive roads that
connect all major cities and towns on the western coast of
Peninsular Malaysia. The total length of the
Malaysian expressway network is 1,192
kilometres (740 miles).
The network connects all major cities and conurbations such as
Klang Valley,
Johor Bahru and
Penang to each other. The major expressway, the
North-South Expressway spans from the northern and the southern tips of
Peninsular Malaysia at Bukit Kayu Hitam and Johor Baru respectively. It is a
part of the
Asian Highway Network, which also connects into
Thailand and
Singapore
.
Roads in the East Malaysia and the eastern coast of
Peninsular Malaysia are still relatively
undeveloped. Those are highly curved roads passing through mountainous regions
and many are still unsealed, gravel roads. This has resulted in the continued
use of rivers as the main mode of transportation for interior residents.
Train service in West Malaysia is operated by the
Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Malayan Railways) and has extensive railroads
that connect all major cities and towns on the peninsular, including
Singapore. There is also a short railway in
Sabah operated by North Borneo Railway that
mainly carries freight.
There are sea ports in
Tanjong Kidurong,
Kota Kinabalu,
Kuching,
Kuantan,
Pasir Gudang,
Tanjung Pelepas, Penang,
Port Klang,
Sandakan and Tawau.
There are also world class airports, such as
Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang,
Bayan Lepas International Airport in Penang,
Kuching International Airport and
Langkawi International Airport that provide international and domestic
destinations as well as small domestic airstrips in rural Sabah and Sarawak.
Malaysia
is the home of the first low-cost carrier in the
region, Air Asia.
It has
Kuala Lumpur as its hub and maintains flights
around Southeast Asia and
China
as well.
The intercity telecommunication service is provided on Peninsular Malaysia
mainly by microwave radio relay. International telecommunications are provided
through submarine cables and satellite. One of the largest and most significant
telecommunication companies in Malaysia is
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), providing products and services from
fixed line, mobile as well as dial-up and broadband Internet access service. It
has the near-monopoly of fixed line phone service in the country.
In December 2004, Energy, Water and Communications Minister
Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik reported that only 0.85% or 218,004 people
in
Malaysia
used broadband services. However these values are based
on subscriber number, whilst household percentage can reflect the situation
more accurately. This represented an increase from 0.45% in three quarters. He
also stated that the government targeted usage of 5% by 2006 and doubling to
10% by 2008. Lim Keng Yaik had urged local telecommunication companies and
service provider to open up the last mile and lower prices to benefit the
users.
Healthcare
Further information:
List of hospitals in Malaysia
Malaysian society places importance on the expansion and development of
healthcare, putting 5% of the government social sector development budget into
public healthcare — an increase of more than 47% over the previous figure. This
has meant an overall increase of more than RM 2 billion. With a rising and
aging population, the Government wishes to improve in many areas including the
refurbishment of existing hospitals, building and equipping new hospitals,
expansion of the number of polyclinics, and improvements in training and
expansion of telehealth. Over the last couple of years they have increased
their efforts to overhaul the systems and attract more foreign investment.
The Malaysian healthcare system requires doctors to perform a compulsory 3
years service with public hospitals to ensure the manpower of these hospitals
is maintained. Recently foreign doctors have also been encouraged to take up
employment here. There is still, however, a compound shortage of medical
workforce, especially that of highly trained specialists resulting in certain
medical care and treatment only available in large cities. Recent efforts to
bring many facilities to other towns have been hampered by lack of expertise to
run the available equipment made ready by investments.
There are currently 115 government hospitals and healthcare centres with a
total of 28,163 beds. There are also seven special medical institutions
(including psychiatric institutions) with a total of 6,292 beds. As for private
hospitals, there are 225 of them (including maternity and nursing homes) in
Malaysia, and they provide 9,498 beds. The majority are in urban
areas and, unlike many of the public hospitals, are equipped with the latest
diagnostic and imaging facilities. Private hospitals have not generally been
seen as an ideal investment - it has often taken up to 10 years before
companies have seen any profits. However, the situation has now changed and
companies are now looking into this area again, particularly in view of the
increasing interest by foreigners in coming to
Malaysia
for medical care.
Education
Main article:
Education in Malaysia
Malay
College Kuala Kangsar is one of the earliest boarding schools to be
established in
British Malaya.
University
of Nottingham of Malaysia.
Education in
Malaysia
is monitored by the federal government Ministry of
Education.
Most Malaysian children start schooling at the age of 3-6, in
kindergarten. Most kindergartens run privately, as well as some
government-operated kindergartens.
Children begin primary schooling at age of 7 for six years. There are two
major types of government-operated or government-assisted primary schools:
national schools (Sekolah Kebangsaan) which uses Malay as medium of
instruction, and national-type schools (Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan) which
uses either Chinese or Tamil as medium of instruction. Before progressing to
secondary level, students in Year 6 sit for the
Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), or Primary School
Assessment Examination. An exam called
Penilaian Tahap Satu (PTS),
First Level Assessment, was used to measure the ability of bright students, and
to allow them to move from Year 3 to 5, skipping Year 4. The exam was removed
in 2001.
Secondary education in government secondary schools lasts five years.
Government secondary schools uses Malay as medium of instruction apart from
language, Mathematics and Science subjects. At the end of the third year or
Form Three, students sit for the
Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR), Lower Secondary Assessment.
The combination of subjects available to Form 4 students vary from one school
to another. In the last year (Form 5), students sit for
Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), Malaysian Certificate of
Education, which is equivalent to the British Ordinary or 'O' Levels, now
referred to as GCSE.
Mathematics
and Science subjects
in government primary and secondary schools such as
Biology, Physics,
Chemistry
are taught in English. The reasoning was that students would no longer be
hindered by the language barrier during their tertiary education in fields such
as medicine
and engineering.
There are also 60
Chinese Independent High Schools in
Malaysia
, where most subjects are instructed in Chinese. Chinese
Independent High Schools are monitored and standardized by the United Chinese
School Committees' Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM, more commonly referred to
by its Chinese name, Dong Zong 董总), however, unlike government schools, every
independent school is free to make its own decisions. Studying in independent
schools takes 6 years to complete, divided into Junior Middle (3 years) and
Senior Middle (3 years). Students sit for a standardised test by Dong Zong
known as the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) in Junior Middle 3
(equivalent to PMR) and Senior Middle 3 (equivalent to AO level). A number of
independent schools conduct classes in Malay and English in addition to
Chinese, enabling the students to sit for the PMR and SPM as well.
Students wishing to enter public universities must complete 1 1/2 more years
of secondary schooling in Form Six and sit for the
Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM), Malaysia Higher
Certificate of Education; equivalent to the British Advanced or 'A' levels.
As for tertiary education, there are public universities such as
University of Malaya and
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In addition, 5 international reputable
universities have set up their branch campuses in
Malaysia
since 1998. A branch campus can be seen as an
‘off-shore’ of the foreign university, which offers the same courses and awards
as at the ‘headquarters’. Both local and international students can acquire
these identical foreign qualifications at a much lower education cost in
Malaysia
. The foreign university branch campuses in Malaysia
are:
Monash University (Sunway Campus),
Curtin University of Technology (Sarawak Campus),
Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus,
University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and FTMS-De Monfort University
Campus of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.
Students can also opt to go to private colleges after secondary studies. Most
colleges have educational links with overseas universities especially in the
United States, the
United Kingdom and
Australia
. Malaysian students abroad study mostly in the
UK,
United States,
Australia,
Singapore, Japan,
Canada and
New Zealand.
In addition to the National Curriculum,
Malaysia
has many international schools. International schools
offer students the opportunity to study the curriculum of another country.
These schools mainly cater to the growing expatriate population in the country.
International schools include -
Australian International School, Malaysia (Australian curriculum), The
Alice Smith School (British curriculum),
The Garden International School (British curriculum), The
International School of Kuala Lumpur (International Baccalaureate and
American curriculum), The Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur (Japanese
curriculum),The International School of Penang (International Baccalaureate and
British curruculum) Lycée Français de Kuala Lumpur (French curriculum) amongst
others.
Demographics
Main article:
Demographics of Malaysia
Malaysia
's population is comprised of many ethnic groups, with
the politically dominant
Malays making up the majority, about 60% of the population. By
constitutional definition, all Malays are
Muslim. About a quarter of the population are
Malaysians of Chinese descent, who have historically played an
important role in trade and business.
Malaysians of Indian descent comprise about 7% of the population. About
90% of the Indian community is
Tamil but various other groups are also present, including
Malayalis, Punjabis
and Gujaratis.
Non-Malay indigenous groups make up more than half of the state of
Sarawak's population, constitute about 66% of
Sabah's population, and also exist in much smaller numbers on the
Peninsula, where they are collectively called
Orang Asli. The non-Malay indigenous population is divided into dozens
of ethnic groups, but they share some general cultural similarities. Other
Malaysians also include those of, inter alia,
European,
Middle Eastern,
Cambodian, and
Vietnamese descent. Europeans and
Eurasians include British who colonized and settled in
Malaysia
and some
Portuguese, and most of the Middle Easterners are
Arabs. A small number of Kampucheans and Vietnamese settled in
Malaysia
as Vietnam War refugees. Population distribution is
uneven, with some 20 million residents concentrated on the
Malay Peninsula.
May 13,
1969 saw an incident of civil unrest which was then thought to be
largely due to the socio-economic imbalance of the country along racial lines,
though in retrospect it may have been more motivated by political firebrands in
both governing and opposition parties, as the violence involved only the areas
in and around the capital, with much of the country remaining at peace. This
incident led to the adoption of the
New Economic Policy as a two-pronged approach to address racial and
economic inequality and to eradicate poverty in the country.
Due to the rise in labour intensive industries,
Malaysia
has 10 to 20% foreign workers with the uncertainty due
in part to the large number of illegal workers, mostly
Indonesian; there are a million legal foreign workers and perhaps
another million unauthorized foreigners. The state of
Sabah alone has nearly 25% of its 3 million
population listed as illegal foreign workers in the last census. However, this
figure of 25% is thought to be less than half the figure speculated by NGOs.
Unauthorized foreigners are subject to RM10,000 fines and two-year prison
terms, while Malaysian employers face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to
RM50,000 for each illegal worker hired, with those hiring more than five also
liable to caning. Caning
is a standard punishment for more than 40 crimes in
Malaysia
, ranging from sexual abuse to drug use. Administered
with a thick rattan stick, it splits the skin and leaves scars.
Some 380,000 unauthorized foreigners left during an "amnesty" that began in
2004 and was extended several times. During amnesties, unauthorized foreigners
can leave without paying fines for staying illegally in the country. On March
1, 2005, some 300,000 policemen as well as the 560,000-strong Peoples Volunteer
Corp began searching for the remaining unauthorized foreigners under Operation
Tegas; the volunteers receive RM100 for each foreigner arrested.
[4]
Religion
Masjid
Jamek is one of the most recognizable mosques in