Malaysia Info Guide
for Locals & Visitors

1910-1918: The nine sultanates of the Malay Peninsula together with Port Singapore form the British colony of Malaya. Rubber plantations lead the shift from subsistence to export agriculture. The British encourage the immigration of Tamils from South India. Indian workers comprise the core plantation labor force.

1919-1929: Growth attracts Chinese immigrants, who settle in the urban areas of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The British policy of indirect rule maintains the status of traditional rulers and Malay class structure. The provinces of Sabah and Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, are governed by the North Borneo Company and the Brooke family. Port Singapore is Asia's main British naval base.

1957-1963: Palm oil and rubber raw material exports form the basis of Malayan economy. At the time of independence, there is no significant manufacturing industry. The desire to link the commercial power of Singapore with the raw material base of Malaya provides an economic impetus for the creation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

1964-1969: Singapore's defection from the Federation in 1965 robs Malaysia of its busiest port. The first in a series of five-year plans calls for industrialization and diversification. It targets education, foreign investment, and infrastructure as keys to development, and sets out liberal trade policies. Bumiputras (ethnic Malays) are still bit players in a Chinese-dominated economy.

1957-1975: Malaysia is one of the most bio-diverse regions on earth, with extensive tropical forests. Agriculture and infrastructure development cause massive deforestation in the 1960s. Discharge from industrial and mining operations pollutes water resources. The government passes the Environment Quality Act (EQA) in 1974 and establishes the Department of Environment to enforce it.

1976-1990: As Malaysia rapidly industrializes, urban smog during the dry season becomes a climate trait. Water toxicity and river silting are side effects of rapid and intense industrialization. Malaysia's population doubles between 1960 to 1990, straining sewage and waste management infrastructure.

1991-1997: Malaysia plays a prominent role at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Mahathir leads calls for sustainable development. In 1997 Malaysia declares a state of emergency as forest fires on Sarawak blanket dense smog over the region; Mahathir appears in public wearing a smog mask. Environmental concerns force suspension of the Bakun hydroelectric dam project in Sarawak.

1998-2003: Malaysia commits to reaching International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) sustainable forest management goals. In June 1999 the government declares air pollution figures a national secret. Work begins anew on the Bakun Dam in 2000. Logging is barred in Malaysia except in the tropical rainforest areas in Sabah and Sarawak. The 2001-05 plan makes cleaning up air pollution a national priority.

1957-1963: The Malay-dominated United Malay National Organization (UMNO) forms the core of the National Front coalition government. The 12-year communist insurgency ends with insurgent leader Chin Peng's surrender. Chinese-dominated Singapore joins the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. Military confrontation with Indonesia in 1963 rallies the new republic against a common threat.

1964-1968: The incorporation of mainly Chinese Singapore threatens Malay control of the Federation of Malaysia. Singapore leaves the Federation in 1965 after ethnic friction proves insoluble. The "Confrontation" with Indonesia ends in 1966 with the fall of Sukarno. The UMNO Supreme Council includes Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, an ardent advocate for Bumiputras, or ethnic Malays.

1957-1962: At independence, with Malaya roughly 53 percent Malay, 36 percent Chinese, and 11 percent Indian, Malay is chosen as the official language. Forty-one percent of the Chinese population is denied citizenship under constitutional rules favoring ethnic Malays. This bias, combined with Chinese economic preeminence, stokes Malay-Chinese tensions.

1963-1968: Singapore and North Borneo join Malaya to create the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. With more than 75 percent of Singapore's population Chinese, the Federation's racial balance is upset. The confrontation with Indonesia in 1963 deflects racial tension and helps build national unity, until power struggles and ethnic conflict force Singapore out of the Federation.

1969: Malays are the majority community but enjoy only 2 percent of corporate ownership. Chinese domination of the economy is a source of simmering anger among Malays, sparking the massive 1969 riots. The United Malay National Organization (UMNO) expels Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad for his criticism of Abdul Rahman's handling of the crisis. Mahathir's pro-Malay tract, "The Malay Dilemma," is banned.