Malayasia History Infoplease - Malaysia History

he ancestors of the people that now inhabit the Malaysian peninsula first migrated to the area between 2500 and 1500 B.C. Those living in the coastal regions had early contact with Chinese and Indians; seafaring traders from India brought with them Hinduism, which was blended with the local animist beliefs. As Muslims conquered India, they spread the religion of Islam to Malaysia. In the 15th century A.D., Islam acquired a firm hold on the region when the Hindu ruler of the powerful city-state of Malacca, Parameswara Dewa Shah, converted to Islam.

British and Dutch interest in the region grew in the 1800s, with the British East India Company establishment of a trading settlement on the island of Singapore. Trade soared, with Singapore's population growing from only 5,000 in 1820 to nearly 100,000 in just 50 years. In the 1880s, Britain formally established protectorates in Malaysia. At about the same time, rubber trees were introduced from Brazil. With the mass production of automobiles, rubber became a valuable export, and laborers were brought in from India to work the rubber plantations.

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.

In the 1980s, Dr. Mohamad Mahathir succeeded Datuk Hussein as prime minister. Mahathir instituted economic reforms that would transform Malaysia into one of the so-called Asian Tigers. Throughout the 1990s, Mahathir embarked on a massive project to build a new capital from scratch in an attempt to bypass congested Kuala Lumpur.

Beginning in 1997 and continuing through the next year, Malaysia suffered from the Asian currency crisis. Instead of following the economic prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the prime minister opted for fixed exchange rates and capital controls. In late 1999, Malaysia was on the road to economic recovery, and it appeared Mahathir's measures were working.

Mahathir sacked his heir apparent, Anwar Ibrahim, from his posts as deputy prime minister and finance minister in Sept. 1998, after a disagreement over how to deal with the country's economic problems. In defiance, Anwar launched a reform movement attacking the government. The prime minister then jailed Anwar, who was beaten and convicted on trumped-up charges of corruption and sodomy. In 2004, a year after Mahathir left office, Malaysia's high court overturned Anwar's conviction, releasing the former deputy prime minister, who had served six years in prison.

In Oct. 2003, Mahathir retired after 22 years in office. His rule led to his country's enormous economic growth but was also characterized by repression and human rights abuses. Malaysia's new prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, has a more statesmanlike reputation, and in his first year in office he made headway on reducing corruption and instituting reforms. In March 2004, the ruling National Front coalition won an astonishing 90% of parliamentary seats, and Abdullah was reelected on his own merits.

The governing coalition under Prime Minister Badawi suffered a stunning defeat in March 2008's parliamentary elections. Opposition parties quadrupled their representation in Parliament, and Badawi's coalition, although it won 136 of 222 seats in Parliament, lost its two-thirds majority, which is necessary to amend the Constitution, and control of five state assemblies. It was the worst showing for the National Front coalition in four decades.