Malaysia - A Brief History

History

In the early Christian era, Malaya was known as far away as Europe. Ptolemy showed it on his early map with the label ‘Golden Chersonese’. It spelt gold not only to the Romans but to others as well. It wasn’t long before Indian and Chinese traders arrived in search of that most valuable metals, and Hindu mini states sprang up along the great Malay rivers.

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Little is known about prehistoric Malaysia, but around 10,000 years ago the aboriginal Malays – the Orang Asli began to move down from a probable starting point in South Western China. The Malay people were ethnically similar to the people of Sumatra, Java, and even the Philippines, and from time to time various South East Asian empires exerted control over all parts of the Malay Peninsula.

In 1405 the Chinese admiral Cheng Ho arrived in Melaka with greetings from the Son of Heaven (Emperor) and more importantly, the promise of protection from the encroaching Siamese from the north. With this support from China, the power of Melaka extended to include most of the Malay Peninsula. At about the same time, Islam arrived in Melaka and soon spread through Malaya.

Melaka’s wealth and prosperity soon attracted European interest, which came in search of spices. It was the Portuguese who first took over in 1511, followed by the Dutch in 1641 and the British in 1795.

For years the British were only interested in Malaya for its seaports and to protect their trade routes, but the discovery of tin prompted them to move inland and eventually govern the entire Peninsula. Meanwhile, James Brooke, the ‘white raja’, and the North Borneo Company made British inroads into Sarawak and Sabah respectively. The British brought in the Chinese to work in the tin mines and the Indians to work in the rubber plantations and to build the railways.

Malaya achieved Merdeka (Independence) in 1957, but there followed a period of instability due to an internal communist uprising and the external ‘Confrontation’ with Indonesia. In 1963 the north Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak together with Singapore, joined Malaya to create Malaysia.

Relations with Singapore soured almost immediately and, only two years later, Singapore was forced to withdraw from the Malaysian confederation. The demise of Indonesia’s leader Sokarno ended the disputes with Indonesia and the communist threat has, as elsewhere, withered away.

In1969 violent intra-communal riots broke out particularly in Kuala Lumpur and hundreds of people were killed. The government moved to dissipate the tensions, which existed mainly between the Malays and the Chinese. Moves to give Malays a larger share of the economic pie have led to some resentment among the other racial groups but, overall, present day Malaysian society is relatively peaceful and cooperative.

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