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Malaysia consists of the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, with Thailand to its north, plus Sarawak and Sabah in northern Borneo. Like Singapore, which lies at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, it has had an impressive record of economic growth in recent times.
In the fifteenth century a part of Malaysia was famous as the Kingdom of Malacca (now Melaka), a state that became powerful through its control of local sea routes and shipping. In 1414 the ruler of Malacca adopted Islam, which is the religion of Malaysia today. Seized by the Portuguese as a base for the spice trade in 1511, and held by the Dutch from 1641, Malacca was captured by the British in 1795. The British took control of Singapore in 1819 and in 1867 they established the Straits Settlements, which consisted of Penang Island (Pinang) in the northeast, Malacca, and Singapore, as a crown colony. During the Second World War Malaysia was occupied by the Japanese. In 1948 it received its independence from the British. A guerrilla war then broke out, led by communists who were sympathetic to the Chinese Revolution. Following the defeat of this insurgency, after a four-year military campaign, the country evolved into the modern state it is today. Ethnic tensions exist, principally between the Malays, who are the most numerous, and the Chinese, who are considerably more prosperous. There were riots between the Malays and Chinese in 1969 with heavy loss of life. The many "affirmative action" provisions that are now in place to help Malays at the expense of Chinese and Indians are strongly resented by the latter groups. There are also a number of unresolved territorial disputes with neighboring states-Sabah in Borneo, for example, being claimed by the Philippines.
Fold mountains aligned on a north-south axis dominate the Malay Peninsula. There are seven or eight distinct chains of mountains, often with exposed granite cores. Climbing to 2,189 m (7,181 ft) at Gunung Tahan, the main range divides the narrow eastern coastal belt from the fertile alluvial plains in the west. To the south lies poorly drained lowland, marked by isolated hills, some of which rise to over 1,060 m 0,500 ft). Several smaller rivers have also contributed to the margin of lowland around the peninsular coasts.
About 2,000 km 0,250 miles) east of the Malay Peninsula, northern Borneo has a mangrove fringed coastal plain about 65 km (40 miles) wide, rising behind to hill country averaging 300 m 0,000 ft) in height. This ascends through various secondary ranges to the mountainous main interior range. The granite peak of Gunung Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, rises from the northern end of this range in Sabah, towering above Kinabalu National Park. Dense rainforest in Sarawak and Sabah support a great diversity of plants and animals.
With a mixture of private enterprise and public management, the Malaysian economy averaged 9 percent annual growth from 1988 to 1995. Poverty is being substantially reduced and real wages are rising. New light industries including electronics are playing an important role in this development: Malaysia is the world's biggest producer of disk drives. Heavy industry has also grown: Malaysia's "national car", the Proton, is now being exported. The traditional mainstays of the economy, however, remain rice, rubber, palm oil, and tin-Malaysia being the world's biggest producer of palm oil and tin. Rice is a problem. Subsistence farming has regularly failed to ensure self-sufficiency in food, and rice production does not meet demand. The main industries on the peninsula are rubber and palm oil processing and manufacturing, light industry, electronics, tin mining, smelting, logging, and timber processing. The main activities on Sabah and Sarawak are logging, petroleum production, and the processing of agricultural products. Malaysia exports more tropical timber than any other country, and the tribal people of Sarawak have been campaigning against the scale of logging on their land. The Asian economic downturn in 1998 saw a depreciation of the Malaysian currency and a marked slowing of the economy.
Fact File OFFICIAL NAME Malaysia FORM OF GOVERNMENT Federal constitutional monarchy with two legislative bodies (Senate and House of Representatives) CAPITAL Kuala Lumpur AREA 329,7S0 sq km (127,316 sq miles) TIME ZONE GMT + 8 hours POPULATION 21,376,066 PROJECTED POPULATION 2005 24,086,817 POPULATION DENSITY 64.8 per sq km (167.8 per sq mile) LIFE EXPECTANCY 70.7 INFANT MORTALITY (PER 1,000) 21.7 OFFICIAL LANGUAGE Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) OTHER LANGUAGES English, Chinese languages, Tamil LITERACY RATE 83% RELIGIONS Muslim 53%, Buddhist 17.5%, Confucian and Taoist 11.5%, Christian 8.5%, Hindu 7%, other 2.5% ETHNIC GROUPS Malay 59%, Chinese 32%, Indian 9% CURRENCY Ringgit (Malaysian dollar) ECONOMY Agriculture 42%, services 39%, industry 19% GNP PER CAPITA US$3,890 CLIMATE Tropical, with northeast monsoon October to February and southwest monsoon May to September
HIGHEST POINT Gunung Kinabalu 4,101 m (13,453 ft)
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