Expectations

I went to university with several Malaysian students and had I been asked to write what I knew about Malaysia before going there, these would have been on my list:

• Malaysia is the principal world producer of natural rubber.  Rubber was originally introduced by British planters from South America.  During world war two the Japanese effectively stopped access to Malaysian Rubber.  As a result, United States invested heavily in Guayule a desert growing rubber plant; and in the rapid development of synthetic rubbers.  To protect of the Malaysian Rubber industry after the war United States voluntarily burnt or ploughed-in all the Guayule they had planted.  I once wrote a report on Guayule as a potential crop for arid Australia. 
• Malaysia's population consists of about half Malays, together with the remnant indigenous population, and half other races, predominantly Chinese, Indian and mixed.
• Malaysia has long played a role in Australia's defence policy and is a strong ally, Australia having maintained an RAAF base there for many years and having committed troops to the Malayan emergency, against communist insurgency; and again against Indonesia, during the period of Confrontation.
• When the previous British Straits Colonies came to together to form Malaysia in 1963 Singapore was a part of the confederation.  But Lee Kuan Yu pulled Singapore out when it became evident that the confederation intended to give the economic preference to Malays ahead of Chinese citizens.  I remember him crying on television.
• Malaysia is a successful multi-cultural religiously tolerant country in which English is the official common language.

Today few Malaysians would agree with all, or perhaps any, of the points on my list.

Despite our trip to the Highlands we had seen far more rubber trees in Vietnam then we saw in Malaya.  Almost the entire coastal strip is a mono culture plantation of oil palms.  New areas are being cleared for oil palm even up into the Highlands.  But there is a lot we didn't see and rubber must still be important somewhere.  The Encyclopaedia of Nations tells me: ' In 1999, Malaysia produced 10.55 million metric tons of palm oil, one of the world's largest producers.  Almost 85 percent or 8.8 million metric tons of this was exported to international market.  Malaysia remains one of the world's leading suppliers of rubber, producing 767,000 metric tons of rubber in 1999.  However, in the 1990s, large plantation companies began to turn to the more profitable palm oil production.  Malaysia also is the world's fourth-largest producer of cocoa, producing 84,000 metric tons in 1999.'

Malays now out-number Chinese and other races.  Chinese people we spoke to said this is because they are discriminated against in Malaysia.  They regard the policy of economic preference in favour of Malays to be discrimination against them.  As a result many have left the country and as a matter of course they send their children overseas to be educated; never to return.  We were told that sixth or seventh generation Chinese feel they are now treated like guest workers and one of the children was reportedly told by a schoolteacher to 'go back to China'.

I visited a number of museums and there is virtually no acknowledgement of Australia's commitment to the development of Malaysia and its independence.  Several of the references appear to be antagonistic.  In Malacca and Penang the British and Chinese role in the early development of Malaya is acknowledged but in the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur this is put in the context of perceived aggression against the Muslim princes.  Today the ancestors of these princes take turns at being the King in the Malaysian constitutional monarchy.  They are all Muslim and are charged with being the defender of the faith. 

It is interesting to look at the photographs of the prime minister's who followed independence and to note that they wished to reinforce the secular nature of the government.  As in Turkey their wives did not wear scarves, even on formal and religious occasions.

Islam took on additional stridency with the advent of Mahathir Mohamad as PM, who Australian PM Paul Keating exasperatedly called 'recalcitrant', resulting in several years of diplomatic chill, and who subsequently had his deputy PM and political rival jailed for alleged buggery.  But this stridency seems to vary across the country and to fluctuate with time. 

It's a pity that Singapore did not stay in the federation.  Although Malaysia has done very well economically the predominantly Chinese Singapore has done significantly better.  The United Nations Human Development Index now places Singapore one step below the United Kingdom in the highly developed group.  Hong Kong has done even better and is now several places above the United Kingdom. 

At the top of the list is Norway followed by Australia and New Zealand; then the United States.  I have speculated elsewhere on this website about the factors important in Australia's success.

English is no longer a common language.  But while many non-Chinese or non-Indian people could not speak English, almost everyone was polite and as helpful as they could be.  Unlike many developing countries, it seems most people can at least read a map.