Abstract
In order to understand the complexity of the development process in Malaysia, we need to take into account Malaysian history and its legacies; the ethnic composition of society, political institutions, public policy and the nature of the political bargaining process; economic growth; and the views of scholars and observers on the future of its political society. The chapter is divided into the following sections: i. background and legacies; ii. the ethnic mosaic and the matrix of the development process; iii. the tangled incorporation process; iv. economic and political disparities; and v. a troubled political society. We shall now examine each of these in some detail.
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Notes and References
See in this connection, Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Andaya, A History of Malaysia (London: Macmillan, 1982), p. 252.
Ibid., p. 252.
Ibid., p. 207.
Ibid., 226.
Judith Nagata in her Malaysian Mosaic: Perspectives from a Poly-ethnic Society (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1979), has effectively used this expression in order to indicate the cultural deposits of Hindhism, as a substratum, and then Islamic and other values in Malaysian ethnic groups and society in general. I have, however, used the term ‘mosaic’ to indicate the matrix within which its development process is cast.
Ibid., p. 8.
H. M. Dahlan, ‘Local Values in Inter-cultural Management’ (Kota Kinabalu: Workshop on Malaysian Managerial Values, 1990), p. 2.
See also S. Takdir, Values as Integrating Forces in Personality, Society and Culture (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1974).
See in this connection, Sharon Siddique, ‘Some Malay Ideas on Modernization, Islam and Adat’ (Singapore: University of Singapore, Master of Malay Studies; unpublished M.A. thesis, 1972), p. 179.
M. B. Hooker, ADAT Laws in Modern Malaya: Land Tenure, Traditonal Government, and Religion (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 1.
‘What is a Malay? Situational Selection of Ethnic Identity in a Plural Society’, in American Ethnologist, 1:2. Quoted by Mohd Aris Hj Othman, in The Dynamics of Malay Identity (Bangi: University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1983).
Ibid., p. 3.
Passim, pp. 5-19.
Ibid., front page.
Ibid., p. 1. See also Heng Pek Koon, Chinese Politics in Malaysia: A History of the Malaysian Chinese Association (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Rajakrishnan Ramasamy, Sojourners to Citizens: Sri Lankan Tamils in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 1988), p. ii.
See also Rajeshwari Ampalavanar, The Indian Minority and Political Change in Malaya: 1945–1957 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1981).
See in this connection K. J. Ratnam, Communalism and Political Process in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1965).
‘Kota Kinabalu Urban Development Study’ by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Government of Malaysia, State of Sabah, Interim Report Vol. I, February 1978.
Mohd Yaakub Hj, Johari and Baldev Sidhu (eds), Urbanization and Development: Prospects and Policy for Sabah and Beyond (Sabah: Institute for Development Studies and Konrad Adenauer Foundation, 1989).
H. M. Dahlan (ed.), Sabah: Traces of Change (Bangi: University Kebangsaan Malaysia-Yaysan Sabah, 1983), p. 3.
Ibid., p. 7.
Far Eastern Economic Review, 26 November 1992.
R. S. Milne, ‘Political Parties in Sarawak and Sabah’, Journal of Southeast Asian History, vol. 6, 1965, p. 104.
M. Clark Roff, The Politics of Belonging: Political Change in Sabah and Sarawak (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 3.
John A. Lent (ed.), Cultural Pluralism in Malaysia: Polity, Military, Mass Media, Education, Religion and Social Class (Northern Illinois University, Special Report Number, 14, 1977), p. vii.
Far Eastern Economic Review, 26 February 1991, p. 72.
‘Report on Malaysia’, in The Globe and Mail, 7 July 1992.
Alasdair Bowie, Crossing the Industrial Divide: State, Society, and the Politics of Economic Transformation in Malaysia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 97.
David Sanger, ‘Japan and a Malaysian Dream’, International Herald Tribune, 21 March 1991.
R. S. Milne, ‘Malaysia – Beyond the New Economic Policy’, Asian Survey, vol. XXVI, no. 12, December 1986, p. 1373.
Ibid., p. 1382.
Fifth Malaysia Plan: 1986–1990 (Kuala Lumpur: National Printing Department, 1986), p. iii.
Ibid., p. 29.
Sixth Malayasia Plan: 1991–1995 (Kuala Lumpur: National Printing Department), pp. v, vi.
Seminar on Problems and Prospects of Rural Malaysia, ‘Determinants of Rural Poverty and Underdevelopment: The Case of Malaysia’ (Penang: Consumers Association of Penang, 1985), p. 2.
See also in this connection, ‘The Nature of Poverty in Peninsular Malaysia: A Study of Baling District in the State of Kedah’ (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, unpublished Ph.D thesis, 1983).
A. B. Shamsul, From British to Bumiputera Rule: Local Politics and Rural Development in Peninsular Malaysia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1990), p. 242.
Ibid., p. 8.
K. S. Jomo, Growth and Structural Change in the Malay Economy (London: Macmillan, 1990), p. 9.
Ibid., p. 203.
Ibid., p. 240.
James V. Jesudason, Ethnicity and the Economy: The State, Chinese Business, and Multinationals in Malaysia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. vii.
Ibid., p. vii.
Ibid., p. 200.
Passim, pp. 161–3.
Alasdair Bowie, Crossing the Industrial Divide: State, Society, and the Politics of Economic Transformation in Malaysia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 154.
R. S. Milne and Diane K. Mauzy, Politics and Government in Malaysia (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1978), p. 4.
See also Harold Crouch, Lee Kam Hing and Michael Long (eds), Malaysian Politics and 1978 Election (Kuala Lumput: Oxford University Press, 1980);
R. K. Vasil, Ethnic Politics in Malaysia (New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1980).
K. J. Ratnam, Communalism and the Political Process in Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1965), p. 2.
Passim, pp. 111–12.
Dr Shaharuddin Maaruf, Malay Ideas on Development: From Feudal Lord to Capitalist (Singapore: Times Book International, 1988), p. 62.
Ibid., p. 121.
Ibid., p. 124.
Ibid., p. 143.
Mahathir Bin Mohamad, The Malay Dilemma (Kuala Lumpur: Times Book International, 1989 edn), p. 21.
Ibid., p. 3.
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© 1995 A. H. Somjee and Geeta Somjee
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Somjee, A.H., Somjee, G. (1995). Malaysia: Ethnic Disparities and the Search for a Normative—Pragmatic Balance. In: Development Success in Asia Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371675_3
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