After World War II, the independence of the world's nationalities surged up. In 1957, the various states of Malaya seceded from the British colonies and were unified into the Federation of Malaya. It was agreed that the monarchs of the nine states of the Malay Peninsula, the Sultan, would take turns as head of state for a period of five years. In 1963, the Federation of Malaya joined forces with Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia. In August 1965, Singapore withdrew from Malaysia.
Open the map to see the geographical location of Malaysia, Malaysia (Malaysia) occupies the throat connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean - the Strait of Malacca, is also the shortest shipping route between China and India, the Middle East, Europe, and because of the west side of the Strait of Malacca (the Indonesian side of Sumatra Island) many reefs and shallow seas, the east side (malay Peninsula side) multi-deep water port, so the Malay Peninsula with its natural geographical advantages, from ancient times to the present is a trade center, merchants from all over the world are endless.
Malaysian Chinese
In the 2nd century BC, Chinese merchants engaged in commerce along the Malay Peninsula. Since the Tang Dynasty, more Chinese have emigrated to Nanyang. Many of the stragglers became pirates who roamed the area. During Zheng He's voyage to the West, after getting rid of the treacherous and treacherous pirate Chen Zuyi who refused to accept Zhao'an, he took advantage of the situation to strengthen his influence on Nanyang and set up the Old Port Propaganda and Consolation Department, which covered all of present-day Malaysia and Singapore, most of Indonesia, Thailand and part of the Philippines.
Zheng He stopped in Mandala (Malacca) many times, and built a base camp for the supply of ships to and from, and placed several Muslim officials and stewards as local leaders, and Islam spread in Nanyang. Southeast Asia's humid, rainy and hot tropical climate is suitable for growing spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and other spices, while european countries with an unsuitable climate for spice production are highly sought after, giving rise to a lucrative spice trade.
The Malay Peninsula changed hands several times between Portugal, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in the 15th and 20th centuries, and the mass production of spices greatly reduced profits from the 17th century onwards, but the Malay Peninsula's strategic location for navigation remained the focus of imperial contention. After the British seized the Malay Peninsula from the Dutch in the 19th century, they first listed the three port cities of Penang, Malacca and Singapore as "Straits Settlements", which became important transit points for India and Hong Kong in its colonial territory.
In the second half of the 19th century, the British also found that the Malay Peninsula was rich in rubber cultivation and tin mineral resources and profitable, so they began to develop the Malay Peninsula more deeply. Since both industries were labour-intensive, the British imported a large number of Chinese and Indian labour to make up for the manpower shortage.
Malaysia is now a multi-ethnic country, but the number of true aborigines is very small. The indigenous people who call themselves Malays mostly immigrate from Sumatra and Java, Indonesia, and are listed as the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia alongside the Chinese and Indians. In the Malay Peninsula, the British bound the vast number of indigenous farmers to the farmland and let the Chinese and Indians participate in the emerging mining, rubber and commerce, resulting in the Malays being dissatisfied with the economic dominance occupied by the Chinese.
The Chinese in Malaysia are also bitter, and in the early days they barely made a living by cutting rubber, mining, and running docks, and they opened restaurants or did small businesses with better conditions, and supported each other among their neighbors. In this way, they not only survived, but also established a large Chinese community and preserved the cultural traditions of the Chinese. Because of the family heritage, proficiency in four languages is almost the most basic "standard" for Malaysian Chinese: Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese, English, malay.
In Malaysia, the vast majority of Chinese people send their children to Chinese primary schools where Chinese are taught. It is hard to imagine that in the Malay Peninsula, which is not a large country, there are more than a thousand Chinese primary schools scattered around. Chinese children receive strict Chinese teaching here, generally only speaking Chinese, and if they are found to speak dialects (Cantonese, Hakka, etc.), they will be punished. Chinese education, Chinese media and Chinese community are known as the three spiritual pillars of Malaysian Chinese. Unfortunately, however, the Chinese community is only a loose organization that strives for and safeguards the rights and interests of the Chinese people in stability, and does not have the nature of a political party.
Before the outbreak of World War II, the Chinese basically did not ask questions and participate in the politics of Malaysia, and they always recognized the Chinese nation in their national consciousness, and only recognized China as their only motherland. During the Japanese invasion of China, the Malay Chinese and China shared the same hatred and hatred, in addition to directly returning to the Chinese mainland to participate in the struggle, they were also the group that overseas Chinese donated and donated the most to support the War of Resistance, accounting for more than 2/3 of the donations of overseas Chinese, which caused the Malays to question the loyalty of the local Chinese, and the contradictions between the two ethnic groups deepened. When the country began its independence after World War II, the Malays insisted on a new order dominated by indigenous Peoples who believed in Islam. In 1957, when the Federation of Malaya was established, there were about 2 million Chinese, accounting for about 37.2%, and about 3 million Malays, accounting for about 50%. Due to political confrontation, the Malaysian government restricted Chinese access to Chinese mainland and family visits, demanding that boundaries be drawn with Chinese mainland.
In 1961, the then Prime Minister of British Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, wanted to unite Malaya, Singapore, Brunei and others to form Malaysia. Lee Kuan Yew's support for Singapore's integration into Malaysia was selfish, and he believed that he could rely on Malaysia's electricity, water sources and huge market for development. Geopolitically, although Singapore was quite important, it had no financial resources, no resources, and even fresh water supply, and Malaysia did not really want this burden.
The Malaysian Malay National Unity Agency (UMNO) feared that the accession of Singapore, which had a Chinese majority, would affect its regime, and in order to ensure a balanced proportion, it brought in two poor countries, Sarawak and Barsha. In 1963, the Federation of Malaya merged with Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah to form the Federation of Malaysia. Singapore had 1.88 million people in 1965, more than 70% were Chinese, about 1.3 million, the proportion of Chinese rose to 45% (more than 2 million + 1.3 million), while the proportion of Wu people fell relatively to 42% (more than 3 million + about 200,000 Wu in Singapore, as well as the Wu people in Sarawak and Sabah). The Chinese jumped up and became the largest ethnic group in Malaysia.
For Malaysia, a "democratic" country that speaks on the ballot, kicking Chinese-majority Singapore out of Malaysia is the best option for UMNO to continue to control the Malaysian Parliament with a Wla-majority population. UMNO has long enforced discriminatory laws in Malaysia, declaring Malaysia to be the "Malaysia of the Malays". In 1964, malaysia held a federal election, and Lee Kuan Yew, who shouted "Malaysia of Malaysians", went north to run for the election, and Singapore's relations with the central government in Kuala Lumpur quickly deteriorated.
On 21 July 1964, the worst ethnic riot in singapore broke out. At the Malaysian Federal National Parliament in May 1965, Mahathir, the largest party in parliament, UMNO, took the lead in attacking the entire Chinese community. At 9:30 a.m. on 9 August 1965, the Malaysian Parliament passed the Constitutional Amendment by a 126:0 vote, immediately expelling Singapore from the Federation. At the same time, Lee Kuan Yew announced on Singapore Television that Singapore would officially secede from the Federation of Malaysia from now on. It is said that Lee Kuan Yew has only cried twice in his life, once when his mother died, and once when he was in tears when he signed the Singapore Separation Bill. "I have always believed that Singapore and Malaysia should be merged, that our economy and geography are in the same vein, and that the blood of the people is thicker than water," he said. ”
After Singapore was kicked out, the Malays completely controlled the ruling power, resulting in the exclusion of the Chinese in many ways, to put it cruelly, the Chinese gained some economic advantages through their own efforts, but in politics, in all aspects of life, they were treated as "second-class citizens".
For example, if a Chinese person opens a company, he must recruit a certain percentage of Malays; the Chinese must receive Chinese education and can only attend private schools, but the government does not recognize academic qualifications. Without a diploma from a public university, Malaysian Chinese cannot be admitted to public office. Not only can you not be a civil servant, but you cannot take the exam for public office in government agencies such as national hospitals and schools. Even if it is only to take a driver's license, it is the Malay aborigines who give priority. The Chinese are blatantly discriminated against by the Constitution, and the same house real estate chamber of commerce has two prices, one for the Chinese and one for the Malays, and the price is much cheaper.
Most Chinese would not choose to intermarry with the Malays. The Malays believe in Islam, and if the Chinese intermarry with them, they must convert to Islam, use Islamic names, and are not allowed to abdicate according to Malaysian religious regulations. Most Chinese families do not approve of children marrying people who believe in Islam. However, due to the high degree of commercialization and modernization of the Chinese community, the Fertility Rate of Chinese people has decreased year by year, and the proportion of Chinese in Malaysia has dropped to 23%, and continues to decline.
Economy of Malaysia
As the world's largest exporter of rubber and the world's second largest exporter of oil palms, Malaysia's economy is heavily dependent on exports and foreign investment. In the 1970s, thanks to the various preferential policies introduced by the government and the relatively stable social environment, relatively perfect infrastructure and cheap labor attracted investment from foreign companies such as Intel, Bosch and Panasonic.
Although Malaysia is not as rich as Singapore, it can produce smartphones and digital cameras, Samsung and Canon have factories in Malaysia; Malaysia also has its own car brands, such as Proton, myvi and the like, which are not well-known in the world, but the good guys are also the national automobile industry; and the oil and gas industry. Before the Asian financial crisis, Malaysia had almost one foot across the middle-income countries, but was hit back by the financial crisis.
There are three kinds of people in the Malay elite, one is a powerful oligarch like the Najib family, the other is a Mahathir-style Malay nationalist intellectual, and the last is a religious person. Religious people have a general reputation, and the first two kinds of people are still dominant in Malaysian politics.
Mahathir's decisive and pragmatic style of governance, which served as Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, has seen significant economic development and a significant reduction in poverty. Mahathir often exhorted the Malay civilians to fight for their anger and cooperate with the country in building a Malay Malaysia. Then I found that the Malays really did not fight, hated iron and steel, and could only stomp their feet and write a book "The Plight of the Malays". On 10 May 2018, Pakatan Harapan, led by Mahathir, 93, won 112 seats in the Assembly of Simple Majority Countries, once again becoming Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Mahathir once said, "The Chinese in Malaysia should not say Chinese, they should learn from the Malays to eat with their hands, otherwise they will not be able to fully integrate into Malaysia." As soon as these words came out, the whole world was in an uproar. The Malaysian authorities emphasized the unity of Malay identity and the Islamic faith, promoted the status of Islam, and established Islamic universities, banks, etc., which made the Malaysian Chinese, who do not believe in the religion, feel excluded. Through finding jobs, Malaysian Chinese immigrated to Singapore, where the social system is more sound, the salaries are higher, and the treatment of citizens is more equal. If they can't go, they run to Australia and New Zealand, so that the two governments have added many restrictions to Malaysian visas due to fear of the influx of illegal immigrants, such as work travel visas are generally one-year, only half a year for Malaysia, and separately added a rule that you cannot work for the same employer for more than three months.
After the storm in the South China Sea, China defended its sovereign dignity with strength. One carrier formation is enough to deter, two carriers are enough to change the tide of naval warfare, and southeast Asian countries are beginning to change their foreign policies toward China. The Philippine government has adopted a pro-China foreign policy and hopes to maintain good relations with China; China has deployed missile systems in the Spratly Islands, taken off and landed bombers in the Spratlys, and held a memorial ceremony for the construction of islands and reefs in Fiery Cross Reef; Vietnam is not as violent as before; Malaysia has also begun to talk about China's Belt and Road Construction: Big brother, build a deep-water port or build a high-speed rail, can it?
Walking in Malaysia's airports and large shopping malls, everywhere you can see VIVO, OPPO advertisements, as well as Alipay signs, Malaysian Chinese in addition to happy, do not forget to seek "back to Beiyang" development. Many Chinese children, after graduating from high school, applied to study in China, or simply stayed in China to work and live, but more Malaysian Chinese still stand at the crossroads and wait, looking forward to the arrival of a "Malaysian Malaysia".