Malaysia History

             Malaysia’s history dates back thousand years ago when Buddhist and Hindu empires from Indonesia and Thailand were dominating the peninsular. Then, the arrival of Muslim merchants transformed Melaka into the hub of an Islamic empire ruled by Malay sultanates.

            In 1511, the Portuguese arrived on the shore of Melaka with guns and cannons. So, they easily took over Melaka from the Malay sultanate and went on to control its major trading seaport, which was laden with tea, china, cargoes of pepper, cinnamon, cloves and other precious goods.

           Then, in 1641, the Dutch came into power for the same interests followed by the British in 1795. For over a hundred years, British colonial rule spread its power to other states in the peninsular.

         During the British-era, Chinese and the Indians were brought in to hack the forests and turn it into townships and rubber plantations. The Chinese also worked in the tin mines.

        Same thing happened in Borneo, James Brooke or better known as the `white rajah’ took over Sarawak in 1841 while the North Borneo Company led by William Hood Treacher took over Sabah.

After independence from the British on August 31, 1957, the self-governing independent Malaya was threatened by the Communist guerrilla activities and confrontation from Indonesia. In 1963, Malaysia was born with a confederation of 13 states, following by the withdrawal of Singapore in 1966.

On Oct 31, 2003, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s forth prime minister for 20 years, passing the long-held baton to his successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Malaysia under Dr Mahathir’s leadership has emerged as one of the most progressive and wealthiest countries in the region.

       The government will continue to gradually reduce Malay’s racial advantages by adopting the policy of meritocracy for university intakes. It seems that the wind of chance has blown towards the right direction again when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched a campaign against corruption and made personal spot checks on government offices notorious for mismanagement and graft