Article Outline
Islam is the country’s official religion, although the constitution guarantees freedom of religion. More than half the people of Malaysia are Muslims, including nearly all ethnic Malays. Most Chinese are Buddhists, although Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism) are also important. Most Indians practice Hinduism. In Sabah and Sarawak many of the indigenous peoples are Christians, although traditional beliefs are also widely practiced.
In Malaysia education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16, and an additional two years of free education are optional. In 2002–2003, virtually all Malaysian children attended primary school. Parents may choose between Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, or Tamil as the language of instruction for their primary school children. Bahasa Malaysia is the primary language of instruction in all secondary schools, although continued learning in Chinese and Tamil is available and English is a compulsory second language. Enrollment in secondary education was 70 percent in 2002–2003. Malaysia has a number of institutions of higher education, including nine universities. Universities include the National University, in Bangi; the University of Technology, in Johor Baharu; and the University of Malaya, in Kuala Lumpur.
The people of Malaysia have a variety of lifestyles. Important among ethnic Malays are respect and obedience toward parents and elders, community self-help, and, in rural areas, the maintenance of law and order through cooperation and respect for the village headman. Marriages, burial customs, and other aspects of Malay life conform to Islamic law. In general, religion plays a major role in each group’s way of life. Wedding ceremonies of ethnic Indians, for example, follow Hindu traditions, whereby the wedding takes place on a day and hour prescribed by a Hindu astrologer. Traditional Chinese family structure is patrilineal and patriarchal; as in China, sons are preferred over daughters in order to maintain the family surname through descent. Kinship ties among the extended Chinese family are very strong and carry into the business environment. Because ethnic Chinese own many Malaysian businesses, these ties hinder occupational mobility among Malays.
Rural ways of life differ significantly from urban lifestyles. In East Malaysia, about three-quarters of the population is rural. Many indigenous ethnic groups, including the Iban (Sea Dayaks), Bidayuh (Land Dayaks), and Kadazan, practice shifting cultivation (also known as slash-and-burn agriculture). In this type of agriculture, trees and grasses are burned from an area so a crop may be planted; after several seasons, the land is abandoned and a new area is burned for planting. These groups live mostly in single-family housing units, but many indigenous people in East Malaysia live in longhouses, a traditional dwelling of Borneo.
Since Malaysia gained independence, there have been significant differences in the social standing of the three main ethnic groups—indigenous bumiputras (mostly Malays), ethnic Chinese, and Indians. Many of these differences are holdovers from the colonial period. While Malays have traditionally predominated in politics and government, ethnic Chinese and Indians have been disproportionately successful in the economy. The incidence of poverty is significantly higher in rural areas, where the majority of bumiputras live. Bumiputras generally work as laborers on estate farms, raise crops on small plots, or practice subsistence agriculture (farming to meet family or village needs rather than for profit). In general, ethnic Chinese have played the major role in both the rural and urban sectors of the economy, and this has been an issue of contention for many bumiputras. In May 1969 ethnic-based tensions erupted into violent riots in Malaysia. In 1970 the government introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) to try to eliminate the relationship between ethnicity and income. The 20-year period of the NEP produced some improvements, including a reduction of people living at or below poverty level, from 52 percent in 1970 to 17 percent in 1990. However, the income gap between groups, especially bumiputras and ethnic Chinese, remained substantial. In 1991 the government introduced the New Development Policy (NDP) as a successor to the NEP, continuing many of the same initiatives but with a stronger emphasis on increasing business ownership among bumiputras. In the early 2000s economic and social differences continued to be a significant social issue in Malaysia.
Malaysia reflects different cultural traditions, including those of China, India, the Middle East, Europe, and the entire Malay Archipelago. Early Malay empires absorbed Indian influences, such as Hindu epics and the Sanskrit language. The kingdom of Malacca, centered in the present-day state of Melaka, developed as an Islamic state, or sultanate, in the 1400s. Later, new cultural influences from Europe and China mixed with Hindu and Islamic traditions. A collective but distinctively Malay cultural pattern has emerged out of all these influences, with artistic expressions in literature, music, dance, and art forms.
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