The Prime Minister of Malaysia
History of Malaysia
malaysia...my country, my home...malaysia...my country, my home...malaysia...my country, my home...
1511 After Portuguese forces captured Malacca, the sultanate moved to Johor.
1641 The Dutch ousted the Portuguese and assumed control of Malacca. Local Malay states traded and occasionally fought with the Dutch, but remained independent.
1786 Francis Light, representing the British East India Company, established British control of Pinang (now George Town) and opened the port to trade.
1824 The Anglo-Dutch Treaty ended the Dutch presence on the Malay Peninsula.
1826 The British East India Company united Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore as the colony of the Straits Settlements.
1900 Many Chinese and Indians migrated to North Borneo, Sarawak, and the Malay Peninsula to work in the booming rubber and tin industries.
1941 Japan invaded Malaya in December, conquering the entire Malay Peninsula in barely three months. Sarawak and North Borneo also fell to the Japanese in early 1942.
1957 The Federation of Malaya on Peninsular Malaysia gained independence from Great Britain.
1963 Sarawak, North Borneo (later Sabah), and Singapore joined Malaya to form Malaysia. Singapore withdrew from the union two years later.
1969 Riots erupted in Kuala Lumpur between ethnic Malays and Chinese. The government exercised emergency powers to restore order.
1993-1994 Constitutional amendments reduced the power of the nine herditary rulers. They were stripped of legal immunity, and the head of state, always one of the nine rulers, was prohibited from delaying legislation.
Humans lived in the area of present-day Malaysia as long as 40,000 years ago. The ancient history of the area is obscure because there are few local documents and almost no archaeological remains, especially any with inscriptions. According to Chinese sources, however, early contacts were made with China. Traders also spread Hindu influences from India, which affected people's customs and the rituals of local rulers. Peninsular Malaysia was not unified politically but was split into small kingdoms and subdivided into chiefdoms defined by river valleys. Political rule of Borneo was even more fragmented. Some of the mainland kingdoms may have been subject to a degree of control by larger empires centered in Cambodia or Java, such as Majapahit.
ANCIENT MALAYSIA: 35,000BC - 100BC
The spectacular Niah Caves in Sarawak are the site of the oldest known human remains in Malaysia.
Ancient Malaysia: 35,000 BC - 100 BC
Historians often speak of Malaysia's ancient past as something "shrouded in mystery," a kind of black hole in Asian history. The truth is that there is not much archeological evidence or written records from ancient Malaysia; but it is likely that this situation will change. Many suspect that there are more prehistoric archeological sites along the coasts and in the jungles and hills, but given Malaysia's riotous vegetation it will take time to find them.
We do know that homo sapiens have been in Malaysia for a long time. The oldest known evidence of human habitation is a skull from the Niah Caves in Sarawak dating from 35,000 years before Christ. On the peninsula, stone age tools and implements from about 10,000 BC have been found, and some archeologists suggest that they were left there by the predecessors of the Negrito aborigines - one of the earliest groups to inhabit the peninsula.
We also know that about 2,500 years before Christ a much more technologically advanced group migrated to the peninsula from China. Called the Proto-Malays, they were seafarers and farmers, and their advances into the peninsula forced the Negritos into the hills and jungles. History's periodic waves of cultural evolution, however, soon created another group, the Deutero-Malays. They were a combination of many peoples - Indians, Chinese, Siamese, Arabs, and Proto-Malays - and they had risen by mastering the use of iron. Combined with the peoples of Indonesia, the Deutero-Malays formed the racial basis for the group which today we simply call the Malay.
Stone Age tools such as this hand axe have been found on the peninsula. Archeologists believe they were left by the predecessors of the Negrito aborigines.
HINDU KINGDOM 100BC - 1400AD
In the Bujang Valley in Kedah is Malaysia's most extensive archeological site -- the sprawling ruins of an ancient Hindu kingdom dating back to 300 AD. Over 50 tomb temples dot the site, and hundreds of relics are on display in the nearby Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum The Malay Wedding Ceremony: a lasting legacy of early Indian influence.
Hindu Kingdoms 100 BC - 1400 AD
Early writings from India speak of a place called Savarnadvipa -- the Land of Gold. This mystical, fantastically wealthly kingdom was said to lie in a far away and unknown land, and legend holds that it was on an odyessy in search of Savarnadvipa that the first Indians were lured to the Malay Peninsula. Blown across the Bay of Bengal by the reliable winds of the southwest monsoon, they arrived in Kedah sometime around 100 BC. Whether or not the civilization they encountered there was the one from the ancient chronicles will probably never be known, but it is certain that the sailors considered the trip lucrative. From that point on, and ever-growing stream of Indian traders arrived in search of gold, aromatic wood, and spices.
Goods were not the only items exchanged in the peninsula's ports: the Indians also brought a pervasive culture. Hinduism and Buddhism swept through the land, bringing temples and Indian cultural traditions. Local kings, who sent emissaries to the subcontinent, were impressed by the efficiency of the Hindu courts, and soon began to refer to themselves as "rajahs." They integrated what they considered the best Indian governmental traditions with the existing structure, and historians typically refer to these kingdoms as "Indianised kingdoms." Today, the most visible example of the early Indian influence is in the Malay wedding ceremony, which is very similar that of the subcontinent.
About AD 1400 Parameswara, a Sumatran prince, founded the kingdom of Malacca on the site of present-day Melaka. He was converted to Islam, which traders from India had already brought to the area, and Malacca became a center for the further spread of the Muslim faith. Malacca prospered and expanded its influence into most of the Malay Archipelago, but in 1511 it was conquered by the Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque. The Portuguese in Malacca survived constant fighting with neighboring Johor, Aceh in Sumatra, and other states. In 1641, however, Malacca fell to the Dutch, who replaced the Portuguese as the leading European trading power in the region. Like their predecessors, the Dutch were frequently at war with neighboring kingdoms and succeeded in extending their influence to parts of Johor. In this period the northern Malay kingdoms-Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu-were frequently under the influence of Siam (present-day Thailand).
ISLAM AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF MALACCA 1400AD - 1511AD
A Trader's Dream:
Tome Pries, a Portuguese apothecary who visited Malacca in the early 16th century, said that the city was "of such importance and profit that it seems to me it has no equal in the world." Part of this success came from Malice's highly organized municipal government. The port was administered by four syahbandars, or harbor master, each of whom was assigned to a group of nations. Captains of arriving ships would report to their particular syahbandar, whose staff would then provide the him with elephants to carry his cargo to a nearby warehouse specifically allotted to him. Traders paid customs based on the value of the merchandise and their port of origin, and gifts were presented to the ruler, the bendahara (chief minister), the temenggung (customs official), and the syahbandar. Large ships paid a 6 percent flat-rate based on the value of their cargo.
Once duties were paid, Malay merchants would buy the goods, then sell them in the marketplace or ship them off to other nearby ports. The entire process was fair and fast, and traders were almost always guaranteed to be finished in time to catch the monsoon winds home.
Islam and the Golden Age of Malacca 1400 AD - 1511 AD
Until the 15th century, the Hindu kingdoms of peninsular Malaysia were largely overshadowed by neighboring kingdoms in Cambodia and Indonesia. The strongest of these kingdoms was called Srivijaya, and the records of Chinese, Indian, and Arab traders laud it as the best trading port in the region. It was the first great maritime kingdom in the Malay archipelago, and other ports quickly emulated its success. At some time around the 13th century, as other entrepots emerged, Srivijaya's influence declined. The lack of a strong central power, coupled with the ever-present nuisance of pirates, amplified the need for secure, well-equipped port in the region. Fate would make this port the city of Malacca.
According to the Malay Annals, Malacca was founded in 1400 by a fleeing Palembang prince named Parameswara. Its rise from a village of royal refugees to a wealthy kingdom was swift. Perfectly located for trade, within 50 years it was the most influential port in Southeast Asia. At any one time, ships from a dozen kingdoms great and small could be seen in the harbor. With these traders came Islam, and Malacca's rulers now referred to themselves as "sultans." The sultans were the heads of a highly organized municipal government, whose main purpose was to facilitate trade. Every incoming ship was met by a multilingual harbor capitan, whose staff would see to all the vessel's needs. There were also gaurded storehouses where goods from the interior and abroad could be stored until traders arrived. Most importantly, Malacca was able to control what had always been the bane of trade in the Straits area - pirates. By building alliances with outlying tribes and ports, Malacca established a kind of regional "navy" that policed the local waters and escorted friendly vessels.
With the success and power it enjoyed, Malacca came to control the entire west coast of the Malay peninsula, the kingdom of Pahang, and much of Sumatra. At the height of its power, however, fate would ruin the city as quickly as it built it up. In 1511, the Portugeuse arrived, beginning a colonial legacy that would last well into the 20th century.
The Imposition of British Rule
The British became active in the area in the 18th century, partly because they sought trade, but also to check French power in the Indian Ocean. The sultan of Kedah, looking for help against the Siamese, leased the island of Pinang to the English East India Company in 1786, and Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, a company administrator, founded Singapore in 1819. Under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, Great Britain secured Malacca from the Dutch and in return relinquished its claims to Sumatra and nearby smaller islands. Singapore, Pinang, and Malacca (which collectively became the Straits Settlements in 1826) were then administered by Britain.
From about 1850 tin-mining activity greatly expanded in the Malay Peninsula, and Malay rulers and the immigrant Chinese they employed became involved in territorial disputes. Fearful that these disputes might disrupt trade, the British took control of the peninsular states, working indirectly through the Malay rulers. Using diplomacy and taking advantage of dynastic quarrels, the British persuaded the rulers to accept British "residents" or "advisers," who dictated policy. Before World War II (1939-1945) the native states were classified as either federated or unfederated, with British control somewhat looser in the unfederated states. The federated states were Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang. The unfederated states were Johor and the four northern states, which were acquired from Thailand in 1909. At the top of the British system of rule was a high commissioner, who was also governor of the Straits Settlements.
The present Malaysian territories in Borneo were largely under the domination of the powerful Muslim state of Brunei until the 19th century. Before then, Europeans traded on the island but made no permanent settlements. In 1841, however, the sultan of Brunei rewarded Sir James Brooke, an English adventurer who helped to suppress rebels, with a gift of land and the title raja of Sarawak. Brooke and his successors expanded the territory. To the east, the sultans of Brunei and Sulu also granted land to Europeans. In 1882 the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company purchased the European-held territory. British North Borneo and Sarawak became British protectorates in 1888.
British colonial impacts on Malaysia, especially West Malaysia, while not always positive were profound. For example, Britain was directly or indirectly responsible for the establishment of the plantation system and the commercialization of agriculture; the framework for the present-day transportation system; multiracialism (through the importation of Chinese and Indian labor); the introduction of English and an educational system; and modern political institutions.
COLONIAL MALAYSIA 1511AD - 1957AD
TEXT OF THE PANGKOR TREATY HELD ON 20 JANUARY 1874
1) Raja Abdullah was acknowledged as the legitimate Sultan to replace Sultan Ismail who would be given a title and a penchant of $1000 a month.
2) The Sultan will receive a British Resident whose advice had to be sought and adhered to in all matters except those pertaining to the religion and customs of the Malays.
3) All collections and control of taxes as well as the administration of the state had to be done under the name of the Sultan but arranged according to the Resident's advice.
4)The Minister of Larut would continue to be in control, but would no longer be recognized as a liberated leader. Instead, a British Officer, who would have a vast authority in administrating the district, would be appointed in Larut.
5) The Sultan and not the British government would pay the Resident's salary.
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Colonial Malaysia 1511 AD - 1957 AD
At the beginning of the 16th century, the eastern spice trade was routed through Egypt, and no non-Muslim vessel was permitted to dock in Arabian ports. The competing European powers, painfully aware of the need for an open trade route to India and the Far East, sought to establish their own trading ports at the source. In 1511, a Portuguese fleet led by Alfonso de Albuquerque sailed into Malacca's harbor, opened fire with cannon, and captured the city. Malacca's golden age had come to an end.
The Portuguese constructed a massive fort in Malacca - A Famosa - which the Dutch captured in turn in 1641. This would give the Dutch an almost exclusive lock on the spice trade until 1785, when the British East India Company convinced the Sultan of Kedah to allow them to build a fort on the island of Penang. The British were mainly interested in having a safe port for ships on their way to China, but when France captured the Netherlands in 1795, England's role in the region would amplify. Rather than hand Malacca over to the French, the Dutch government in exile agreed to let England temporarily oversee the port. The British returned the city to the Dutch in 1808, but it was soon handed back to the British once again in a trade for Bencoleen, Sumatra. The Dutch still largely controlled the region, however, and in 1819 Britain sent Sir William Raffles to establish a trading post in Singapore. These three British colonies - Penang, Malacca, and Singapore - came to be known as the Straits Settlements.
While the European powers played their regional chess game, the local Malay sultanates continued on their own affairs. After Malacca was captured, the new Muslim trading center became Johor, then later on Perak. Both the Minangkabau Immigrants from Sumatra and the Bugi people from Celebes immigrated to the peninsula in large numbers, leavingn lasting cultural contributions. In the late 1860's, a number of Malay kingdoms began fighting each other for control of the throne of Perak, causing enough of a disturbance in the region to inspire Britain to intervene and essentially force the Malay rulers to sign a peace treaty known as the Pangkor Agreement in 1874. The treaty, unsurprisingly, gave Britain a much greater role in the region - a role it would need in order to maintain its monopoly on the vast amount of tin being mined in the peninsula.
Coupled with the power of the White Rajas in Borneo, Britain ruled over what was then called Malaya until the Japanese invaded and ousted them in 1942. During this time, large numbers of Chinese fled to the jungle and established an armed resistance which, after war's end, would become the basis for an infamous communist insurgency. In 1945, when W.W.II ended, Britain resumed control again, but Malaya's independence movement had matured and organized itself in an alliance under Tunku Abdul Rahman. When the British flag was finally lowered in Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka Square in 1957, Tunku became the first prime minister of Malaya.
The Coming of Independence
Malaya, Sarawak, and North Borneo were seized by the Japanese in 1941 and 1942 and remained under Japanese occupation until World War II ended in 1945. Ethnic rivalries complicated the movement for independence that emerged after the war. The British had encouraged Chinese and Indian immigration to supply labor needed by the tin, rubber, and other industries. In the 1940s the population of the Malay states was approximately 50 percent Malay, 37 percent Chinese, and 12 percent Indian. Deep divisions separated these groups, coinciding substantially with religious and linguistic differences. With independence approaching, Malays expressed concern that immigrants would acquire political power. In 1946 they protested successfully against a scheme, known as the Malayan Union, that would have given most immigrants citizenship and voting rights while reducing the power of the Malay rulers. In 1948 the peninsular states formed the Federation of Malaya, which retained the power of the sultans.
The Alliance, the dominant political party that emerged in the 1950s, was multiethnic in its leadership but also ensured separate representation of ethnic groups through three component parties: the United Malays National Organization, the Malayan Chinese Association, and the Malayan Indian Congress. The Alliance won an overwhelming victory in the first nationwide elections in 1955. The British and the Alliance worked out the constitution, providing for a federal state; a bicameral parliament consisting of one elected and one appointed body; citizenship for most non-Malays; and special provisions for the Malays, who were regarded as less economically developed and were given preference for civil service jobs, scholarships, and licenses. In 1957 the Federation of Malaya (which occupied what is now West Malaysia) gained independence from Great Britain. It joined the United Nations that same year.
Meanwhile, the government had been fighting a Communist-led rebellion, known as the Malayan Emergency, since 1948. Most Communists were poor ethnic Chinese who were opposed to British colonial rule. When the Federation of Malaya became independent in 1957, they continued to fight for Communist rule. By the time the conflict finally ended in 1960, about 11,000 people had died. Not until 1989, however, did the Communists formally agree to lay down their arms. An Independent Mayalsia.
In 1961 Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaya's first prime minister, proposed a Malaysian federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo (later called Sabah), and Brunei. All but Brunei joined the federation in 1963. Economic and political disputes based on racial differences led to Singapore's exit in 1965.
Since independence, ethnic disputes have dominated Malaysian politics. In the 1960s these disputes centered the preeminence of Malays in politics and the supremacy of Chinese and Indians in the economic arena. In the 1969 general elections, the Alliance faced opposition from both Malay and non-Malay parties. Immediately afterward serious rioting broke out in Kuala Lumpur and at least 200 people were killed. The government invoked emergency powers and imposed restrictions on raising ethnically sensitive issues; parliament did not meet again until 1971. The new prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak, announced a new program called the New Economic Policy (NEP) to alleviate poverty in general, but also to improve specifically the economic condition of the Malays. Among the goals of the NEP was to increase the employment of Malays in occupations dominated by non-Malays. He also broadened the Alliance (already extended to Sarawak and Sabah) into an organization called the National Front, which included some opposition parties. The National Front won the 1974 elections decisively and also, under Prime Minister Datuk Hussein Onn, the 1978 elections. Ethnicity, however, still dominated the political scene, and two major opposition parties opposed the National Front: the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party and the Democratic Action Party. When Hussein Onn retired in 1981, he was succeeded by his deputy, Mahathir bin Muhammad.
A constitutional conflict in 1983 between the Mahathir government and the hereditary sultans led to a compromise restricting the power of Malaysia's head of state to veto certain legislation. In 1987 the Mahathir government responded to the alleged threat of rising tensions between Malays and Chinese by arresting opposition leaders and suspending four newspapers. Constitutional amendments passed in 1993 and 1994 further restricted the powers of the head of state. The amendments prohibited the nine hereditary rulers from pardoning themselves or their families from criminal charges and removed the head of state's power to delay legislation. The National Front, having won three consecutive victories in 1982, 1986, and 1990 with Mahathir as prime minister, gained an even greater majority in the elections of 1995. Mahathir again retained his position as prime minister. Since the early 1990s the centerpiece of the Mahathir era has been "Vision 2020," his program to propel Malaysia into the ranks of developed industrial nations by 2020.
