Content

Content …………………………………………………………………….( 1 )
Introduction ………………………………………………………………( 2-3 )
Problem within certain country Problem that acrose in the process of forming malaysia…………
…………………………………………………………..( 4-8)
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...( 9 )
References………………………………………………………………….( 10 )

Introduction
Situated in the heart of Southeast Asia at one of the world's major crossroads, Malaysia has
always been pivotal to trade routes from Europe, the Orient, India and China. Its warm tropical
climate and abundant natural blessings made it a congenial destination for immigrants as early as
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5,000 years ago when the ancestors of the Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of Peninsular
Malaysia, settle here, probably the pioneers of a general movement from China and Tibet. They
were followed by the Malays, who brought with them skills in farming and the use of metals.
Around the first century BC, strong trading links were established with China and India, and
these had a major impact on the culture, language and social customs of the country. Evidence of
a Hindu-Buddhist period in the history of Malaysia can today be found in the temple sites of the
Bujang Valley and Merbok Estuary in Kedah in the north west of
Peninsular Malaysia, near the Thai border. The spread of Islam,
introduced by Arab and Indian traders, brought the Hindu-Buddhist
era to an end by the 13th century. With the conversion of the Malay-
Hindu rulers of the Melaka Sultanate (the Malay kingdom which
ruled both side of the Straits of Malaka for over a hundred years),,
Islam was established as the religion of the Malays, and had
profound effect on Malay society.
The arrival of Europeans in Malaysia brought a dramatic change to
the country. In 1511, the Portuguese captured Malaka and the rulers
of the Melaka Sultanate fled south to Johor where they tried to
establish a new kingdom. They were resisted not only by the
Europeans but by the Acehnese, Minangkabau and the Bugis,
resulting in the sovereign units of the present-day states of
Peninsular Malaysia. The Portuguese were in turn defeated in 1641
by the Dutch, who colonized Melaka until the advent of the British in the Dutch exerted any
profound influence on Malay society. The British acquired Melaka from the Dutch in 1824 in
exchange for Bencoolen in Sumatra. From their new bases in Malaka, Penang and Singapore,
collectively known as the Straits settlements, the British, through their influence and power,
began the process of political intergration of the Malay states of Peninsular Malaysia. After
World War II and the Japanese occupation from 1941-45, the British created the Malayan Union
1946.This was abandoned in 1948 and the Federation of Malaya emerged in its place. The
Federation gained its independence from Britain on 31 August 1957.In September 1963, Malaya,
Sarawak, Sabah, and initially Singapore united to form Malaysia, a country whose potpourri of
society and customs derives from its rich heritage from four of the world's major cultures -
Chinese, Indian, Islamic and Western.

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Problem within certain countries and problem that acrose in the process of forming malaysia.
Following the Japanese occupation of Malaysia during World War II, a growing nationalist
movement prompted the British to establish the semiautonomous Federation of Malaya in 1948.
But Communist guerrillas took to the jungles to begin a war of national liberation against the
British, who declared a state of emergency to quell the insurgency, which lasted until 1960.
The independent state of Malaysia came into existence on Sept. 16, 1963, as a federation of
Malaya, Singapore, Sabah (North Borneo), and Sarawak. In 1965, Singapore withdrew from the
federation to become a separate nation. Since 1966, the 11 states of former Malaya have been
known as West Malaysia, and Sabah and Sarawak as East Malaysia.
By the late 1960s Malaysia was torn by communal rioting directed against Chinese and Indians,
who controlled a disproportionate share of the country's wealth. Beginning in 1968, the
government moved to achieve greater economic balance through a national economic policy.

The Depression of the 1930s, followed by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, had the effect
of ending Chinese emigration to Malaya. This stabilised the demographic situation and ended the
prospect of the Malays becoming a minority in their own country. At the time of independence in
1957, the Malays were 55% of the population, the Chinese 35% and the Indians 10%. Since the
Malays have until recently had a higher birth rate, the proportion of Malays has increased since
independence – by 2000 it was over 60%.

This equation was upset by the inclusion of Singapore, which increased the Chinese proportion
to close to 40%. Both UMNO and the MCA were nervous about the possible appeal of Lee's
People's Action Party (then seen as a radical socialist party) to voters in Malaya, and tried to
organise a party in Singapore to challenge Lee's position there. Lee in turn threatened to run PAP
candidates in Malaya at the 1964 federal elections, despite an earlier agreement that he would not

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do so (see PAP-UMNO Relations). This provoked Tunku Abdul Rahman to demand that
Singapore withdraw from Malaysia, which it did in August 1965.

The most vexed issues of independent Malaysia were education and the disparity of economic
power among the ethnic communities. Since there was no effective opposition party, these issues
were contested mainly within the coalition government, which won all but one seat in the first
post-independence Malayan Parliament. The two issues were related, since the Chinese
advantage in education played a large part in maintaining their control of the economy, which the
UMNO leaders were determined to end. The MCA leaders were torn between the need to defend
their own community’s interests and the need to maintain good relations with UMNO. This
produced a crisis in the MCA in 1959, in which a more assertive leadership under Lim Chong Eu
defied UMNO over the education issue, only to be forced to back down when Tunku Abdul
Rahman threatened to break up the coalition.

The Education Act of 1961 put UMNO’s victory on the education issue into legislative form.
Henceforward Malay and English would be the only teaching languages in secondary schools,
and state primary schools would teach in Malay only. Although the Chinese and Indian
communities could maintain their own Mandarin and Tamil-language primary schools, all their
students were required to learn Malay, and to study an agreed “Malayan curriculum.” Most
importantly, the entry exam to the University of Malaya (which moved from Singapore to Kuala
Lumpur in 1963) would be conducted in Malay, even though most teaching at the university was
in English until the 1970s. This had the effect of excluding many Chinese students. At the same
time Malay schools were heavily subsidised, and Malays were given preferential treatment. This
obvious defeat for the MCA greatly weakened its support in the Chinese community.

At the time of independence Malaya had great economic advantages. It was among the world’s
leading producers of three valuable commodities, rubber, tin and palm oil, and also a significant
iron ore producer. These export industries gave the Malayan government a healthy surplus to
invest in industrial development and infrastructure projects. Like other developing nations in the
1950s and '60s, Malaya (and later Malaysia) placed great stress on state planning, although
UMNO was never a socialist party. The First and Second Malayan Plans (1956-60 and 1961-65
respectively) stimulated economic growth through state investment in industry and repairing
infrastructure such as roads and ports, which had been damaged and neglected during the war
and the Emergency. The government was keen to reduce Malaya’s dependence on commodity
exports, which put the country at the mercy of fluctuating prices. The government was also
aware that demand for natural rubber was bound to fall as the production and use of synthetic
rubber expanded. Since a third of the Malay workforce worked in the rubber industry it was
important to develop alternative sources of employment. Competition for Malaya’s rubber
markets meant that the profitability of the rubber industry increasingly depended on keeping
wages low, which perpetuated rural Malay poverty.

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As in education, the UMNO government’s unspoken agenda in the field of economic
development was to shift economic power away from the Chinese and towards the Malays. The
two Malayan Plans, and the First Malaysian Plan (1966-70), directed resources heavily into
developments which would benefit the rural Malay community, such as village schools, rural
roads, clinics and irrigation projects. Several agencies were set up to enable Malay smallholders
to upgrade their production and increase their incomes. The Federal Land Development
Authority (FELDA) helped many Malays buy farms or upgrade ones they already owned. The
state also provided a range of incentives and low-interest loans to help Malays start businesses,
and government tendering systematically favoured Malay companies, leading many Chinese-
owned businesses to “Malayanise” their management. All this certainly tended to reduce to gap
between Chinese and Malay standards of living, although some argued that this would have
happened anyway as Malaysia’s trade and general prosperity increased.

The termination of the Malayan Union in 1948 had made the British to commit themselves
to prepare the way from the Federations independence. Under the twin pressure of the
Emergency and the development of a strong Malay nationalist movement, that is UMNO,
the British introduced elections in 1951 at the local level. The problem of obtaining
political coopertaion among the main ethnic groups in the country to fight for independence
was resolved by the successful establishment of an alliance between UMNO and the
Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), the two principal communal parties and later joined
by the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC). When the first federal elections were held in 1955,
the UMNO-MCA-MIC Alliance, which was headed by Tunku Abdul Rahman, won an
overwhelming vistory, that is 51 out of the 52 seats contested. Tunku Abdul Rahman was
appointed the Federation of Malayas first Chief Minister. The Alliance was successful in
pressuring the British to relinquisht heir sovereignty and the Federation of Malaya achieved
its independence on the 31st August 1957.

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Conclusion
Singapore decided to withdraw from malaysia on 9th August 1965 to for her own republic due to
some disagreements, particuraly about special rights of the natives,hence,malaysia today
comprises penisular malysia,sabah and sarawak.
Malaysia has now been enjoying independence for 46 yeats and is known to the world as a
sovereign country.they are able to achive economic,politicaland social stabiltity and move
rapidly towards a developed country.
Although malaysia is a plural society that consits of various races,they are able to live,co-operate
and co-exist in harmony to build a strong and developed country.the understanding among the
races,which creates unity in the country,plays a very important role in moulding malaysia to be a
politically stable country.

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 References
( 1)

http://www.malaysia.sawadee.com/history.htm
(2)

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107751.html
(3) http://sejarahmalaysia.pnm.my/
(4)

http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=history+of+
malaysia&meta=
(5)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Malaysia#Proble
ms_of_independence