Malaysia travel

Malaysia is a country in South-East Asia, located partly on a peninsula of the Asian mainland and partly on the northern third of the island of Borneo. West Malaysia shares a border with Thailand, is connected by a causeway and a bridge to the island state of Singapore, and has coastlines on the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca. East Malaysia shares borders with Brunei and Indonesia.

Malaysia is a mix of the modern world and a developing nation. With its investment in the high technology industries and moderate oil wealth, it has become a rich nation in South-East Asia. Malaysia, for most visitors, presents a happy mix: there is high-tech infrastructure and things generally work well and more or less on schedule, but prices remain reasonable and daily life far more vibrant than, say, sanitized Singapore.

Malaya was formed in the year 1957 and became independent from British Colonialisation. The Union Jack was lowered and the first Malaysian flag was raised in the Merdeka (independence) square on midnight 31st August, 1957. Six years later, Malaysia was formed in 1963 through a merging of Malaya and Singapore, including the East Malaysian states of Sabah (known then as North Borneo) and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo. The first several years of the country's history were marred by Indonesian efforts to control Malaysia, Philippines' claims to Sabah, and Singapore's expulsion in 1965.

Today's Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, nominally headed by the Paramount Ruler (Yang di-Pertuan Agong), who is elected for a five-year term from among the nine sultans of the Malay states. The current king, from Terengganu, was sworn in on 13 Dec 2006. In practice, however, power is held by the Prime Minister, who is the leader of elected government. The United Malays National Organisation party and its National Alliance coalition have ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since its independence, and while periodic elections are contested by feisty opposition parties, the balance has so far always been shifted in the government's favor by press control and use of restrictive security legislation dating from the colonial era.

Malaysia's development has been fast but uneven. Contributing to this is the Bumiputra or Malay-first policy, an affirmative action policy which stems out from the race riots in 1969, sparked by the Malays frustration over the ethnic Chinese minority economic clout. The policy favours the bumiputras in areas such as government jobs, housing, bank loans and contracts. This inequity has posed challenges in moving the multi racial country forward.