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Malaysia
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Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government, with a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia, located in the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth, with large numbers of endemic species. Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, the first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946, Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, which plays a role in politics. About half the population is ethnically Malay, with minorities of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while allowing freedom of religion for non-Muslims, the government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on common law. The head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and he is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the prime minister, since its independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with its GDP growing at an average of 6. 5% per annum for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce. Today, Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, ranked third largest in Southeast Asia, the name Malaysia is a combination of the word Malay and the Latin-Greek suffix -sia/-σία. The word melayu in Malay may derive from the Tamil words malai and ur meaning mountain and city, land, malayadvipa was the word used by ancient Indian traders when referring to the Malay Peninsula. Whether or not it originated from these roots, the word melayu or mlayu may have used in early Malay/Javanese to mean to steadily accelerate or run. This term was applied to describe the current of the river Melayu in Sumatra. The name was adopted by the Melayu Kingdom that existed in the seventh century on Sumatra
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Culture of Malaysia
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The culture of Malaysia draws on the varied cultures of the different people of Malaysia. The first people to live in the area were tribes that still remain, they were followed by the Malays. Chinese and Indian cultural influences made their mark when trade began with those countries, other cultures that heavily influenced that of Malaysia include Persian, Arabic, and British. The many different ethnicities that currently exist in Malaysia have their own unique and distinctive cultural identities, arts and music have a long tradition in Malaysia, with Malay art dating back to the Malay sultanates. Traditional art was centred on such as carving, silversmithing. Islamic taboos restricted artwork depicting humans until the mid-20th century, performing arts and shadow puppet shows are popular, and often show Indian influences. Various influences can be seen in architecture, from individual cultures in Malaysia, large modern structures have been built, including the tallest twin buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers. Malaysian music has a variety of origins, and is based around percussion instruments. Much early Malaysian literature was based on Indian epics, which remained unchanged even as Malays converted to Islam, English literature remained restricted to the higher class until the arrival of the printing press. Locally created Chinese and Indian literature appeared in the 19th century, cuisine is often divided along ethnic lines, but some dishes exist which have mixed foods from different ethnicities. Each major religious group has its major holy days declared as official holidays, official holidays differ by state, the most widespread one is Merdeka day which celebrates the independence of Malaya. Although festivals often stem from an ethnic background, they are celebrated by all people in Malaysia. Traditional sports are popular in Malaysia, while it has become a powerhouse in international sports such as badminton, Malaysia hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1998, the first Commonwealth Games where the torch passed through more countries than England and the host. This especially affected language, only Malay texts are considered official cultural texts, government control over the media is strong, and most media outlets are related to the government in some way. Malaysia consists of two geographical regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. Malaysia was formed when the Federation of Malaya merged with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore in 1963, UMNO has dominated the coalition from its inception. Although Islam is the state religion, the Constitution of Malaysia guarantees freedom of religion. Malaysia is a multi–ethnic, multicultural, and multilingual society, the society of Malaysia has been described as Asia in miniature
3.
Malaysian cuisine
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Malaysian cuisine consists of cooking traditions and practices found in Malaysia, and reflects the multiethnic makeup of its population. The vast majority of Malaysias population can roughly be divided among three ethnic groups, Malays, Chinese and Indians. This resulted in a symphony of flavours, making Malaysian cuisine highly complex, Chilli peppers are indispensable to Malaysian kitchens, and both fresh and dried chilies are used. Chillies come in sizes, shapes and even colours. Green chillies are more peppery in taste while red chillies, green chillies which have left to ripen, have a slightly sweeter heat. If a milder flavour is preferred, the seeds and membranes would be removed from the pods before it is cut, or the chillies would be left whole. Some common uses include but are not limited to grinding the chillies into a paste or sambal, chopping fresh chillies as a condiment or garnish, Belacan is essential to Malaysian cooking. It is a type of paste which is pressed into a block. In its raw form it has a pungent, and some would say awful. Once cooked however, the shrimp pastes aroma and flavour mellows out, to prepare belacan for use, a typical method involves wrapping a small amount of the shrimp paste block in foil, which is then roasted over a flame or placed into a pre-heated oven. Belacan is most commonly pounded or blended with local chilli peppers, shallots and lime juice to make the most popular and ubiquitous relish in Malaysia, sambal belacan. Belacan is also crumbled into a spice paste called rempah, which will usually include garlic, ginger, onions or shallots. The coconut is another feature of Malaysian cuisine, and virtually all parts of the plant are used for culinary purposes. The white fleshy part of the endosperm is grated, shredded and used as it is, dried to make desiccated coconut, or toasted until dark brown. Grated coconut flesh is also squeezed to obtain milk, which is used extensively in savoury dishes. Coconut oil is used for cooking and cosmetic purposes, and may be obtained either from processing copra or extracted from fresh coconuts as virgin coconut oil. Coconut water, the liquid found inside the cavity of each coconut, is a popular cooler in Malaysias hot. Gula melaka is unrefined palm sugar produced from the sap of the coconut flower and it is the most traditional sweetener in Malaysian cooking and imbues a rich caramel-like flavour with a hint of coconut
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Malaysian Chinese
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The Malaysian Chinese or Chinese Malaysians consist of people of full or partial Chinese—particularly Han Chinese ancestry who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia. Most of these people are the descendants of those who arrived between the early 19th century and the mid-20th century, Malaysian Chinese form the second largest community of Overseas Chinese in the world, after Thailand. Within Malaysia, they represent the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia after the ethnic Malay majority and they are usually simply referred to as Chinese in Malaysia, Orang Cina in Malay, and Huaren or Huaqiao by Chinese themselves. The Chinese population in Malaysia has been consistently declining percentage-wise since Malayan independence, the reason for the decline may be due to a lower birthrate, as well as a high level of emigration in recent decades. The large number of emigrants, many of whom are young, the first wave of Han Chinese settlers came during the Malacca Empire in the early 15th century. The friendly diplomatic relations between China and Malacca culminated during the reign of Sultan Mansur Syah, who married the Chinese princess Hang Li Po, a senior minister of state and five hundred youths and maids of noble birth accompanied the princess to Malacca. Admiral Zheng He had also brought along 100 bachelors to Malacca, the descendants of this wave, many of whom are of Hokkien ancestry, adapted to the customs of local Malays while retaining parts of their ancestral culture. They are called Peranakan, or Baba for their menfolk and Nyonya for the females, Chinese immigration to British Malaya and Straits Settlements was encouraged by the British and the Malay sultans to work in the mines and plantations. This group was responsible for establishing the many Chinese-medium schools in Malaya and are mostly Chinese-educated, Some such as Koh Lay Huan escaped from China due to rebellious activities against the Qing dynasty. A much smaller wave came after the 1990s and they were mostly Mandarin speaking Chinese from northern China and these were mostly foreign spouses married to Malaysian Chinese. Some national sports coaches such as badminton coach Han Jiang could only obtain permanent residency after repeated rejections of their citizenship applications, however, diving coach Huang Qiang managed to obtain his Malaysian citizenship. China is the largest participant in Malaysias foreign residency scheme called Malaysia My Second Home, according to department of statistics Malaysia July 2003, the composition of each dialect are as follows. The largest dialect group are the Min people with a total of about 2.947 million, the Min dialect group consists of the following subgroups. The southern Hokkien from Quanzhou, Amoy, and Zhangzhou is the largest Chinese language group in Malaysia, the first wave of Hokkien settled primarily in Malacca where they constitute a mere 3 percent of Malaccas Chinese population and are called Peranakan. The Quanzhou Hokkien also migrated to towns in Sarawak. Teochew immigrants from the Chaoshan region began to settle in Malaya in large numbers from the 18th century onwards, mainly in Province Wellesley and these immigrants were chiefly responsible for setting up gambier and pepper plantations in Malaya. More Teochew immigrated to Johor at the encouragement of Temenggong Ibrahim in the 19th century, many of them are the descendants of plantation workers who came to set up gambier and pepper plantations, following the administrative pattern of their countrymen in Johor. Chinese immigrants from Hainan began to migrate to Malaya and North Borneo from the 19th century onwards, smaller communities of Hainanese are also found in Sarawak and Sabah, where they work as coffee shop owners and are mainly found in large towns and cities
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Demographics of Malaysia
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The demographics of Malaysia are represented by the multiple ethnic groups that exist in this country. Malaysias population, according to the 2010 census, is 28,334,000 including non-citizens, of these,5.72 million live in East Malaysia and 22.5 million live in Peninsular Malaysia. The Malaysian population continues to grow at a rate of 2. 4% per annum, Malay fertility rates are 40% higher than Malaysian Indians and 56% higher than Malaysian Chinese. In 2010, the Malays and Bumiputeras were 60. 3%, Chinese 24. 6%, the Chinese population has shrunk to half of its peak share from 1957 when it was 45% of Malaya, although in absolute numbers they have multiplied more than threefold. The population distribution is uneven, with some 79% of its citizens concentrated in Peninsular Malaysia, censuses were taken in Malaysia in 1970,1980,1991, and 2000, with the one in 2000 taking place between 5 and 20 July. The total population is around 28.3 million according to the 2010 census, the population distribution is highly uneven, with some 20 million residents concentrated in Peninsula Malaysia. 74. 7% of the population is urban, due to the rise in labour-intensive industries, Malaysia is estimated to have over 3 million migrant workers, which is about 10% of the Malaysian population. The exact numbers are unknown, there are a million foreign workers. The state of Sabah alone had nearly 25% of its 2.7 million population listed as foreign workers in the last census. Sabah based NGOs estimate that out of the 3 million population,2 million are illegal immigrants, of this population, approximately 70,500 refugees and asylum seekers are from the Philippines,69,700 from Burma, and 21,800 from Indonesia. The USCRI named Malaysia as one of the ten worst places for refugees on account of the discriminatory practices toward them. Malaysian officials are reported to have turned deportees directly over to human smugglers in 2007, and Malaysia employs RELA, in 2000 Source, National Census 2000, Department of Statistics Malaysia. Population estimates are rounded to the nearest hundred, in 2010 Source, National Census 2010, Department of Statistics Malaysia Data from July 2010. The corresponding figures in Singapore was 2.16,1.48 and 1.95, Data for obtained from Department of Statistics releases. All key rates sampled per 1000 of population, total fertility rate by state as of 2011, Malaysias population comprises many ethnic groups. People of Austronesian origin make up the majority of the population, large Chinese and Indian minorities also exist. Malays, as Bumiputra, see Malaysia as their land, however, since then racial stability has prevailed, if not full harmony. Mixed marriages are on the rise, Bumiputra status is also accorded to certain non-Malay indigenous peoples, including ethnic Thais, Khmers, Chams and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak
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Economy of Malaysia
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Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, which is relatively open and state-oriented. The economy of Malaysia is the fourth largest in Southeast Asia, after the more populous Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Malaysia is also the third richest in Southeast Asia by GDP per capita values, after the city-states of Singapore, Malaysias economy is one of the most competitive in the world, ranking 14th in the Ease of Doing Business Index for 2015. Malaysian economy is highly robust and diversified with export value of products in 2014 stood at 63.3 billion USD. Malaysia exports the second largest volume and value of oil products globally after Indonesia. Due to a reliance on oil exports for central government revenue. However government had step up measures to increase revenue by introducing the widely unpopular Government Service Tax at 6% rate to reduce deficits, as one of three countries that control the Strait of Malacca, international trade plays a very significant role in Malaysias economy. At one time, it was the largest producer of tin, rubber, manufacturing has a large influence in the countrys economy, accounting for over 40% of the GDP. Malaysia is also the worlds largest Islamic banking and financial centre, in the 1970s, the predominantly mining and agricultural based Malaysian economy began a transition towards a more multi-sector economy. Since the 1980s the industrial sector has led Malaysias growth, high levels of investment played a significant role in this. With Japanese investment, heavy industries flourished and in a matter of years, Malaysia consistently achieved more than 7% GDP growth along with low inflation in the 1980s and the 1990s. In 1991, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad outlined his ideal, tan Sri Nor Mohamed, a government minister, said Malaysia could attain developed country status in 2018 if the countrys growth remains constant or increases. Malaysia experienced a boom and underwent rapid development during the late 20th century and has GDP per capita of US$11,062.043 in 2014. In 2009, the PPP GDP was US$383.6 billion, about half the 2014 amount, in 2014, the Household Income Survey undertaken by the government indicated that there were 7 million households in Malaysia, with an average of 4.3 members in each household. The average household income of Malaysia increased by 18% to RM5,900 a month, compared to RM5,000 in 2012. According to a HSBC report in 2012, Malaysia will become the worlds 21st largest economy by 2050, with a GDP of $1.2 trillion and a GDP per capita of $29,247. The report also says The electronic equipment, petroleum, and liquefied natural gas producer will see an increase in income per capita. Malaysian life expectancy, relatively high level of schooling, and above average fertility rate will help in its rapid expansion, viktor Shvets, the managing director in Credit Suisse, has said Malaysia has all the right ingredients to become a developed nation
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Education in Malaysia
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Education in Malaysia is overseen by the Ministry of Education. Although education is the responsibility of the Federal Government, each state, the main legislation governing education is the Education Act 1996. The education system is divided into preschool education, primary education, secondary education, post-secondary education, Education may be obtained from the multilingual public school system, which provides free education for all Malaysians, or private schools, or through homeschooling. By law, primary education is compulsory, as in many Asia-Pacific countries such as the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Japan, standardised tests are a common feature. Currently, there are 37 private universities,20 private university colleges, Sekolah Pondok, Madrasah and other Islamic schools were the earliest forms of schooling available in Malaysia. Early works of Malay literature such as Hikayat Abdullah mention these schools indicating they pre-date the current secular model of education, secular schools in Malaysia were largely an innovation of the British colonial government. Many of the earliest schools in Malaysia were founded in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, many English-language schools are considered quite prestigious. British historian Richard O. Winstedt worked to improve the education of the Malays and was instrumental in establishing Sultan Idris Training College with the purpose of producing Malay teachers, Richard James Wilkinson helped established the Malay College Kuala Kangsar in 1905 which aimed to educate the Malay elite. Many Malays failed to pursue additional education due to this issue and he remarked, In the fewest possible words, the Malay boy is told You have been trained to remain at the bottom, and there you must always remain. Why, I ask, waste so much money to attain this end when without any school, and without any special effort. To remedy this problem, the British established the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, most of these were single-sex schools. During the British colonial period, large numbers of immigrants from China, the Chinese and Indian communities eventually established their vernacular schools with school curricula and teachers from China and India respectively. In the 1950s, there were four initial proposals for developing the national system, the Barnes Report, Ordinance Report, the Fenn-Wu Report. The Barnes proposal was implemented through the 1952 Education Ordinance amidst Chinese protests, in 1956, the Razak Report was adopted by the Malayan government as the education framework for independent Malaya. Malay-medium schools would be known as national, while other schools would be known as national-type. Chinese secondary schools were given the options of accepting government funding and change into English national-type schools or remain Chinese, most of the schools accepted the change, although a few rejected the offer and came to be known as Chinese Independent High Schools. Shortly after the change, some of the national-type schools reestablished their Chinese independent high school branches, in the 1970s, in accordance to the national language policy, the government began to change English-medium primary and secondary national-type schools into Malay-medium national schools. The language change was made starting from the first year in primary school, then the second year in the following year
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Cinema of Malaysia
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The cinema of Malaysia consists of feature films produced in Malaysia, shot in the languages of Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Malaysia produces about 20 feature films annually, and between 300–400 television dramas and serials a year apart from the productions by the individual television stations. Malaysia also holds its own annual National Film Festival, there are about 250 cinemas and cineplexes in Malaysia, showing not only local films but also foreign films. Malaysian cinema began in 1933 with Leila Majnun, based on a classical Persian story of two ill-fated lovers, directed by B. S. Rajhans and produced by the Singapore-based Motilal Chemical Company of Bombay, the cast was derived from a local opera group. However, they managed to produce five or six movies prior to the Japanese invasion in 1941. Ironically, the Japanese would exploit Malaysia for exactly the same purposes even obtaining the help of the Shaws to break into their extensive Southeast Asian film exhibition network, the Japanese film studios shot a number of films in Shonan depicting the area as a sort of Japanese frontier. Films such as Southern Winds II, Tiger of Malay or Singapore All-Out Attack presented the area as a land rich in resources, occupied by simple but honest people, and highly exotic. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Shaw Brothers resumed production in 1947 with a Rajhans-directed film called Singapura Di Waktu Malam starring Siput Sarawak, backed by their chain of theatres, which they either owned or rented, the film enjoyed a good response. The Shaw Brothers proceeded to produce films and introduced new faces. Her first film, Cempaka, revolved around the life of an island girl. In 1948, P. Ramlee - who later became the legend of the Malay film world. P. Ramlee’s talents in composing and singing brought him prominence. He was very versatile as a actor, a comic, dramatic artiste, scripwriter. Most of the films carried plenty of singing and dancing scenes. After Rajhans, Shaw Brothers imported many other Indian film directors, among them S. Ramanathan, seetharama Sastry, Phani Majumdar and D. Ghoss. There were also some local film directors such as L. Krishnan and K. M. Bashker who learned the trade and techniques through experience, by the 1960s, many of the expatriates were replaced by local directors. The success enjoyed by the Shaw Brother’s film studio, known as the Malay Film Productions, there was a Nusantara film company started. In 1951, Hsu Chiu Meng started the Nusantara film company, however, he depended heavily on independent theatres, and after producing about a dozen films Nusantara closed down in 1954
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Health in Malaysia
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In 2010 half the population was under 25. Life expectancy at birth was 74 at birth and 19 at age 60, according to the World Health Organisation health status in Malaysia is relatively good, and the country is on target to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The proportion of people is rising rapidly, and with it the numbers of people with chronic conditions. Between 2002 and 2012 the numbers of people with hypertension rose by 43%, from 1996 to 2011 the proportion of the population who are obese increased from 5% to 15%
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Public holidays in Malaysia
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There are two types of public holidays in Malaysia, those at national and state levels. National holidays are observed by most governmental and private organisations. State holidays are observed by certain states in Malaysia or when it is relevant to the state itself. In addition, government agencies are closed every Saturday and Sunday in most of Malaysia, while in Kedah, Kelantan, Johor and Terengganu they are closed every Friday and Saturday. Malaysia has one of the highest numbers of public holidays in the world, ranking number seven in the top ten countries after Thailand, Indonesia, India, some holidays are federally gazetted public holidays and some are public holidays observed by individual states. Other festivals are observed by ethnic or religion groups, but are not public holidays. The main holy days of each religion are public holidays. The most widespread holiday is the Hari Kebangsaan, otherwise known as Hari Merdeka on 31 August commemorating the independence of the Federation of Malaya and this, as well as Labour Day, the Kings birthday and some other festivals are major national public holidays. Federal Territory day is celebrated in the three Federal territories, Malaysia Day, held on 16 September to commemorate the formation of Malaysia, became a nationwide holiday in 2010. Before that it was celebrated only in Sabah, New Years Day is also observed as a public holiday in all Malaysian states, except for Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Terengganu. Muslim holidays are prominent in Malaysia. The most important of these is Hari Raya Puasa which is the Malay translation of Eid al-Fitr and it is generally a festival honoured by the Muslims worldwide marking the end of Ramadan will the fasting month. In addition to Hari Raya Puasa, they also celebrate Hari Raya Aidiladha, Awal Muharram, Malaysian Chinese typically hold the same festivals observed by Chinese around the world. Chinese New Year is the most prominent, lasting for 15-days, other festivals celebrated by Chinese are the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Malaysian Indians of the Hindu faith celebrate Deepavali, the festival of light, the most important Sikh festival is the Sikh new year or Vaisakhi festival. Other important days are Lodi and Gurpurab, other Indian and Indochinese communities observe their new year celebrations at around the same time, such as Pohela Boishakh of the Bengalis and Songkran of the Thais. People in the states do celebrate the Thai festival of Loy Kratong. Wesak, the Buddhist festival commemorating Buddhas birth, is a public holiday, malaysias Christian community observes most of the holidays observed by Christians elsewhere, most notably Christmas and Easter
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