Malaysia

Malaysia              

 

  Flag of Malaysia is 14 equal horizontal stripes of red (top) alternating with
  white (bottom); there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner    
  bearing a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-pointed star.                     
                                                                       
  PROFILE                                                                     
                                                                       
  OFFICIAL NAME:                                                              
  Malaysia                                                                    
                                                                       
  Geography                                                                   
  Area: 329,749 sq. km. (127,316 sq. mi.); slightly larger than New Mexico.   
  Cities: Capital--Kuala Lumpur. Other cities--Penang, Ipoh, Malacca, Johor   
  Baru, Shah Alam, Klang, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu                              
  Terrain: Coastal plains and interior, jungle-covered mountains. The South   
  China Sea separates peninsular Malaysia from East Malaysia on Borneo.       
  Climate: Tropical.                                                          
                                                                       
  People                                                                      
  Nationality: Noun and adjective--Malaysian(s).                              
  Population (2006): 26.9 million.                                            
  Annual growth rate: 1.8%.                                                   
  Ethnic groups: Malay 50.2%, Chinese 24.5%, indigenous 11.0%, Indian 7.2%,   
  non-Malaysian citizens 5.9%, others 1.2%.                                   
  Religions: Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%), Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism   
  (6.3%), Confucianism (2.6%), tribal/folk (0.8%), other (0.4%), none/unknown 
  (1.2%).                                                                     
  Languages: Bahasa Melayu (official), Chinese (various dialects), English,   
  Tamil, indigenous.                                                          
  Education: Years compulsory--6. Attendance--98.5% (primary), 82% (secondary).
  Literacy--93.5%.                                                            
  Health: Infant mortality rate (2005)--5.1 /1,000. Life expectancy (2005)    
  --female 76.2 yrs., male 71.8 yrs.                                          
  Work force (10.55 million, 2005): Services--51%; industry--36% (manufacturing
  --28.4%, mining and construction--7.6%); agriculture--13%.                  
                                                                       
  Government                                                                  
  Type: Federal parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch.        
  Independence: August 31, 1957. (Malaya, which is now peninsular Malaysia,   
  became independent in 1957. In 1963 Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore   
  formed Malaysia. Singapore became an independent country in 1965.)          
  Constitution: 1957.                                                         
  Subdivisions: 13 states and three federal territories (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan 
  Island, Putrajaya federal administrative territory). Each state has an      
  assembly and government headed by a chief minister. Nine of these states have
  hereditary rulers, generally titled "sultans," while the remaining four have
  appointed governors in counterpart positions.                               
  Branches: Executive--Yang di-Pertuan Agong (head of state and customarily   
  referred to as the king; has ceremonial duties), prime minister (head of    
  government), cabinet. Legislative--bicameral parliament, comprising 70-member
  Senate (26 elected by the 13 state assemblies, 44 appointed by the king on  
  the prime minister's recommendation) and 219-member House of Representatives
  (elected from single-member districts). Judicial--Federal Court, Court of   
  Appeals, high courts, session's courts, magistrate's courts, and juvenile   
  courts. Sharia courts hear cases on certain matters involving Muslims only. 
  Political parties: Barisan Nasional (National Front)--a coalition comprising
  the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and 13 other parties, most of
  which are ethnically based; Democratic Action Party (DAP); Parti Islam se   
  Malaysia (PAS); Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). There are more than 30         
  registered political parties, including the foregoing, not all of which are 
  represented in the federal parliament.                                      
  Suffrage: Universal adult (voting age 21).                                  
                                                                       
  Economy (2005)                                                              
  Nominal GDP: $130.8 billion.                                                
  Annual real GDP growth rate: 7.1% (2004); 5.2% (2005).                      
  Per capita (GDP) income: $5,042.                                            
  Natural resources: petroleum, liquefied natural gas (LNG), tin, minerals.   
  Agricultural products: palm oil, rubber, timber, cocoa, rice, tropical fruit,
  fish, coconut.                                                              
  Industry: Types--electronics, electrical products, chemicals, food and      
  beverages, metal and machine products, apparel.                             
  Trade: Merchandise exports--$145.0 billion: electronics, electrical products,
  palm oil, petroleum, liquid natural gas, apparel, timber and logs, plywood  
  and veneer, natural rubber. Major markets--U.S. 18.8%, Singapore 15.0%, Japan
  10.1%. Merchandise imports--$118.0 billion: machinery, chemicals,           
  manufactured goods, fuels, and lubricants. Major suppliers--Japan 16.1%, U.S.
  14.6%, Singapore 11.2%.                                                     
                                                                       
  PEOPLE                                                                      
  Malaysia's multi-racial society contains many ethnic groups. Malays comprise
  a majority of just over 50%. By constitutional definition, all Malays are   
  Muslim. About a quarter of the population is ethnic Chinese, a group which  
  historically played an important role in trade and business. Malaysians of  
  Indian descent comprise about 7% of the population and include Hindus,      
  Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians. Non-Malay indigenous groups combine to  
  make up approximately 11% of the population.                                
                                                                       
  Population density is highest in peninsular Malaysia, home to some 20 million
  of the country's 27 million inhabitants. The remaining 7 million live on the
  Malaysian portion of the island of Borneo in the large but less             
  densely-populated states of Sabah and Sarawak. More than half of Sarawak's  
  residents and about two-thirds of Sabah's are from indigenous groups.       
                                                                       
  HISTORY                                                                     
  The early Buddhist Malay kingdom of Srivijaya, based at what is now         
  Palembang, Sumatra, dominated much of the Malay peninsula from the 9th to the
  13th centuries AD. The powerful Hindu kingdom of Majapahit, based on Java,  
  gained control of the Malay peninsula in the 14th century. Conversion of the
  Malays to Islam, beginning in the early 14th century, accelerated with the  
  rise of the state of Malacca under the rule of a Muslim prince in the 15th  
  century. Malacca was a major regional commercial center, where Chinese, Arab,
  Malay, and Indian merchants traded precious goods.                          
                                                                       
  Drawn by this rich trade, a Portuguese fleet conquered Malacca in 1511,     
  marking the beginning of European expansion in Southeast Asia. The Dutch    
  ousted the Portuguese from Malacca in 1641. The British obtained the island 
  of Penang in 1786 and temporarily controlled Malacca with Dutch acquiescence
  from 1795 to 1818 to prevent it from falling to the French during the       
  Napoleonic war. The British gained lasting possession of Malacca from the   
  Dutch in 1824, through the Anglo-Dutch treaty, in exchange for territory on 
  the island of Sumatra in what is today Indonesia.                           
                                                                       
  In 1826, the British settlements of Malacca, Penang, and Singapore were     
  combined to form the Colony of the Straits Settlements. From these          
  strongholds, in the 19th and early 20th centuries the British established   
  protectorates over the Malay sultanates on the peninsula. During their rule 
  the British developed large-scale rubber and tin production and established a
  system of public administration. British control was interrupted by World War
  II and the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945.                           
                                                                       
  Popular sentiment for independence swelled during and after the war. The    
  territories of peninsular Malaysia joined together to form the Federation of
  Malaya in 1948 and eventually negotiated independence from the British in   
  1957. Tunku Abdul Rahman became the first prime minister. In 1963 the British
  colonies of Singapore, Sarawak, and Sabah joined the Federation, which was  
  renamed Malaysia. Singapore's membership was short-lived, however; it left in
  1965 and became an independent republic.                                    
                                                                       
  Neighboring Indonesia objected to the formation of Malaysia and began a     
  program of economic, political, diplomatic, and military "confrontation"    
  against the new country in 1963, which ended only after the fall of         
  Indonesia's President Sukarno in 1966. Internally, local communists, nearly 
  all Chinese, carried out a long, bitter insurgency both before and after    
  independence, prompting the imposition of a state of emergency from 1948 to 
  1960. Small bands of guerrillas remained in bases along the rugged border   
  with southern Thailand, occasionally entering northern Malaysia. These      
  guerrillas finally signed a peace accord with the Malaysian Government in   
  December 1989. A separate, small-scale communist insurgency that began in the
  mid-1960s in Sarawak also ended with the signing of a peace accord in October
  1990.                                                                       
                                                                       
  GOVERNMENT                                                                  
  Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, nominally headed by the Yang         
  di-Pertuan Agong, customarily referred to as the king. Kings are elected for
  5-year terms from among the nine sultans of the peninsular Malaysian states.
  The king also is the leader of the Islamic faith in Malaysia.               
                                                                       
  Executive power is vested in the cabinet led by the prime minister; the     
  Malaysian constitution stipulates that the prime minister must be a member of
  the lower house of parliament who, in the opinion of the Yang di-Pertuan    
  Agong, commands a majority in parliament. The cabinet is chosen from among  
  members of both houses of parliament and is responsible to that body.       
                                                                       
  The bicameral parliament consists of the Senate (Dewan Negara) and the House
  of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat). All 70 Senate members sit for 3-year     
  terms, which are normally extended for an additional 3 years; 26 are elected
  by the 13 state assemblies, and 44 are appointed by the king. Representatives
  of the House are elected from single-member districts by universal adult    
  suffrage. The 219 members of the House of Representatives are elected to    
  parliamentary terms lasting up to 5 years. Legislative power is divided     
  between federal and state legislatures.                                     
                                                                       
  The Malaysian legal system is based on English common law. The Federal Court
  reviews decisions referred from the Court of Appeal; it has original        
  jurisdiction in constitutional matters and in disputes between states or    
  between the federal government and a state. Peninsular Malaysia and the East
  Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak each have a high court.               
                                                                       
  The federal government has authority over external affairs, defense, internal
  security, justice (except civil law cases among Malays or other Muslims and 
  other indigenous peoples, adjudicated under Islamic and traditional law),   
  federal citizenship, finance, commerce, industry, communications,           
  transportation, and other matters.                                          
                                                                       
  Principal Government Officials                                              
  Prime Minister--Datuk Seri Utama Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi                  
  Foreign Minister--Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar                               
  Ambassador to the U.S.--Datin Paduka Rajmah Hussein                         
  Ambassador to the UN--Datuk Hamidon bin Ali                                 
                                                                       
  Malaysia maintains an embassy in the U.S. at 3516 International Court NW,   
  Washington, DC 20008, tel. (202) 572-9700; a Consulate General at 550 South 
  Hope Street, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90071, tel. (213) 892-1238; and a   
  Consulate General at 313 East 43rd Street, New York City, NY 10017, tel.    
  (212) 490-2722/23.                                                          
                                                                       
  POLITICAL CONDITIONS                                                        
  Malaysia's predominant political party, the United Malays National          
  Organization (UMNO), has held power in coalition with other parties since   
  independence in 1957. The UMNO coalition's share of the vote declined in    
  national elections held in May 1969, after which riots broke out in Kuala   
  Lumpur and elsewhere, mainly between Malays and ethnic Chinese. Several     
  hundred people were killed or injured. The government declared a state of   
  emergency and suspended all parliamentary activities.                       
                                                                       
  In the years that followed, Malaysia undertook several initiatives that     
  became integral parts of its socioeconomic model. The New Economic Policy   
  (NEP), launched in 1971, contained a series of affirmative action policies  
  designed to benefit Malays and certain indigenous groups (together known as 
  bumiputera or "sons of the soil"). The Constitution was amended to limit    
  dissent against the specially-protected and sensitive portions of the       
  Constitution pertaining to the social contract. The government identified   
  intercommunal harmony as one of its official goals. The previous alliance of
  communally based parties was replaced with a broader coalition--the Barisan 
  Nasional (BN) or National Front. The BN won large majorities in the 1974    
  federal and state elections.                                                
                                                                       
  Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister between 1981 and 2003, leading UMNO 
  and BN to successive election victories. Mahathir emphasized economic       
  development during his tenure, in particular the export sector, as well as  
  large scale infrastructure projects. Mahathir attributed the success of the 
  Asian tiger economies to the "Asian values" of its people, which he believed
  were superior to those of the West. Mahathir sharply criticized the         
  International Monetary Fund (IMF), international financiers such as George  
  Soros, and Western governments during the sharp economic and financial crisis
  that affected Asia in 1997-8, and denied that the downturn was due to the   
  failures of corruption and "crony capitalism."                              
                                                                       
  The end of Mahathir's tenure was marred by a falling out with his deputy and
  presumed successor, Anwar Ibrahim. In September 1998, Mahathir dismissed    
  Anwar and accused him of immoral and corrupt conduct. Although Anwar was    
  convicted on both charges in 1999 and 2000, the trials were viewed as       
  seriously flawed. Malaysia's Federal Court eventually freed Anwar after     
  overturning his immoral conduct conviction in September 2004.               
                                                                       
  Mahathir stepped down as prime minister in October 2003 after 22 years in   
  power, and his successor, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was  
  sworn into office. Abdullah called elections and won an overwhelming victory
  in March 2004, with Barisan Nasional taking 199 of 219 seats in the lower   
  house of parliament. UMNO itself won 110 seats. The Islamic opposition party
  (PAS), which had made electoral inroads in 1999, was reduced to six seats in
  parliament and lost control of the state of Terengganu. The left of center  
  Democratic Action Party (DAP), with predominately urban ethnic Chinese      
  support, won 12 seats in parliament, and party chairman Lim Kit Siang became
  Leader of the Opposition in parliament.                                     
                                                                       
  Since taking office, Abdullah, an Islamic scholar, has promoted the concept 
  of "Islam Hadhari" or "civilizational Islam," emphasizing the importance of 
  education, social harmony, and economic progress. His relationship with     
  Mahathir eventually soured, and the former prime minister now expresses     
  regret at supporting Abdullah to be his successor. Under the terms of the   
  constitution Abdullah must next call elections no later than March 2009.    
                                                                       
  ECONOMY                                                                     
  Since it became independent, Malaysia's economic record has been one of     
  Asia's best. Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an average of 6.5% per
  year from 1957 to 2005. Performance peaked in the early 1980s through the   
  mid-1990s, as the economy experienced sustained rapid growth averaging almost
  8% annually. High levels of foreign and domestic investment played a        
  significant role as the economy diversified and modernized. Once heavily    
  dependent on primary products such as rubber and tin, Malaysia today is a   
  middle-income country with a multi-sector economy based on services and     
  manufacturing. Malaysia is one of the world's largest exporters of          
  semiconductor devices, electrical goods, and information and communication  
  technology (ICT) products.                                                  
                                                                       
  The government has taken an active role in guiding the nation's economic    
  development. Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP), first established in 1971,
  sought to eradicate poverty and to enhance the economic standing of ethnic  
  Malays and other indigenous peoples (collectively known as "bumiputeras").  
  One NEP goal was to expand the share of corporate equity owned by ethnic    
  Malays. In June 1991, after the NEP expired, the government unveiled its    
  National Development Policy, which contained many of the NEP's goals. In    
  April 2001, the government released a new plan, the "National Vision Policy,"
  to guide development over the period 2001-2010. The National Vision Policy  
  targets education for budget increases and seeks to refocus the economy     
  toward higher-technology production. The stated goal is for Malaysia to be a
  fully developed economy by 2020.                                            
                                                                       
  The Malaysian economy went into sharp recession in 1997-1998 during the Asian
  financial crisis, which affected countries throughout the region, including 
  South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand. Malaysia's GDP contracted by more than
  7% in 1998. Malaysia narrowly avoided a return to recession in 2001 when its
  economy was negatively impacted by the bursting of the dot-com bubble (which
  hurt the ICT sector) and slow growth or recession in many of its important  
  export markets.                                                             
                                                                       
  In July 2005, the government removed the 7-year old peg linking the ringgit's
  value to the U.S. dollar at an exchange rate of RM 3.8/U.S.$1.0. The dollar 
  peg was replaced by a managed float against an undisclosed basket of        
  currencies. The new exchange rate policy was designed to keep the ringgit   
  more broadly stable and to avoid uncertain currency swings which could harm 
  exports.                                                                    
                                                                       
  FOREIGN RELATIONS                                                           
  Regional cooperation is a cornerstone of Malaysia's foreign policy. It was a
  founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and   
  served as the group's chair most recently in 2005-2006. It hosted the ASEAN 
  Summit and East Asia Summit in December 2005, as well as the ASEAN          
  Ministerial and the ASEAN Regional Forum in July 2006.                      
                                                                       
  Malaysia is an active member of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC),
  the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Non-Aligned Movement  
  (NAM), and the United Nations. It is the current chair of the OIC and has   
  also chaired the NAM. Malaysia hosted the APEC Leaders' Meeting in 1998.    
                                                                       
  Malaysia is a frequent contributor to UN and other peacekeeping missions,   
  including recent deployments to East Timor, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sierra     
  Leone, Kosovo, and Lebanon.                                                 
                                                                       
  U.S.-MALAYSIAN RELATIONS                                                    
  The United States and Malaysia share a diverse and expanding partnership.   
  Economic ties are robust. The United States is Malaysia's largest trading   
  partner and Malaysia is the tenth-largest trading partner of the U.S. Annual
  two-way trade amounts to $49 billion. The United States and Malaysia launched
  negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in June 2006.       
                                                                       
  The United States is the largest foreign investor in Malaysia. American     
  companies are particularly active in the energy, electronics, and           
  manufacturing sectors. The cumulative value of U.S. private investment in   
  Malaysia exceeds $10 billion.                                               
                                                                       
  The United States and Malaysia enjoy strong security cooperation. Malaysia  
  hosts the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counterterrorism (SEARCCT),    
  where over 1,100 officials from multiple countries have received training.  
  The United States is the largest foreign provider of training courses at the
  center. The U.S. and Malaysia share a strong military-to-military           
  relationship with numerous exchanges, training, joint exercises, and visits.
                                                                       
  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Kuala Lumpur in July 2006.      
                                                                       
  Principal U.S. Embassy Officials                                            
  Ambassador--Christopher J. LaFleur                                          
  Deputy Chief of Mission--David B. Shear                                     
  Political Counselor--Mark D. Clark                                          
  Economic Counselor--Colin S. Helmer                                         
  Commercial Counselor--Joseph B. Kaesshaefer                                 
  Public Affairs Officer--Phillip Hoffmann                                    
  Agricultural Counselor--Jonathan P. Gressel                                 
  Consul--Andrew T. Miller                                                    
                                                                       
  The U.S. Embassy in Malaysia is located at 376 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala 
  Lumpur (tel. 60-3-2168-5000, fax 60-3-2142-2207).                           
                                                                       
  TRAVEL AND BUSINESS INFORMATION                                             
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