m

MALAYSIA
ETHNIC GROUPS

Fatima Mujagic
Multiethnic States

INTRODUCTION
When I started reading of about Malaysia, Ive found it very interesting. It is a country known
for the Petronas Tower in its capital Kuala Lumpur. Of course, there are other things it is known about,
but the Petronas Tower is kind of a symbol. However, for this paper the tower is irrelevant. Malaysia is
a diverse country, in cultural and geographical sense. This paper will give an overview on the country
in general, of the history, of different ethnic groups and discuss more on the those groups.

OVERVIEW OF THE COUNTRY

This part of the paper will give an overview of the population, geographical information and
about the governmental structure.
Malaysia has a population of around 31 million people. Throughout the 20 th century the population of
Malaysia had a rapid growth, which is typical for most Asian countries.

Malaysian Population from the beginning of the 20th century

32
31
30
29
28
27
26
2004

2006

2008

2012

2014

2016

Population

Figure 1. (Growth of Malaysians Population)

Sex ratio is 15,3 females to 16,4 male, meaning that on every 100 women come 107 men. Malaysias
age groups are as follow: 0-15 years old 25,3% (7,8 million), 16-64 years old 69,9% (22 million), and
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over 65 years old theres 6% (1.9 million). Right now, this is good for the country, as it has enough
workers to support the over 65-year olds. But the situation will become more difficult when the
groups the middle group retires. From the graph below it can be seen the data for the last three years.

Figure 2. (Population Age Distribution) taken from Malaysia Department of Statistics

In Malaysia, there are 28,4 million Malaysian, and 3,3 million people who are non-Malaysians. The
expectancy rate for male 72 years, and for female 77. The countrys GDP in 2015 was around $258607
million, and per capita GDP was estimated at $8292,32. In total 67.9% of the population was
employed. The percentage of men who are able to work and are employed is 80,6%, while for the
females the number is 54,1% (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2016). The dominant and official
language is Bahasa Malaysian. In the second place comes English, then Chinese since it is the largest
ethnic group. Furthermore, they have an official religion, and that is Islam. Muslims make up 61,3% of
the population. Buddhists come second place with 19,8%, third are Christians 9,2%, and then Hindus
with 6,3% The literacy rate is 92% (IndexMundi, 2016).

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Now off to the Malaysian geography.

Figure 3. (Map of Malaysia) taken from World Atlas

The map above gives us a good picture of the geographical location of Malaysia. It is a country in
Asia. It borders with Thailand on the Malaysian peninsula and with Indonesia on Borneo island and
Brunei. Malaysia has access to the South China Sea, the gulf of Thailand from the peninsula. The
island part of Malaysia has access to South China sea, Pacific Ocean, Sula sea and Celebes sea. The
peninsular part of Malaysia is called West Malaysia and the island part is East Malaysia. Area size of
Malaysia is 330 803 km2. On the sea, Malaysia has over hundreds of small islands. West Malaysia has
2 608 km2 of coastline, and east Malaysia has 2 607km2.
Malaysia is located in South East Asia. Just a little above the equator. It is an exotics country with
equatorial climate. Malaysia is a country with diverse land, meaning there are mountains, beaches and
tropical forests. Because of the location of the country and the access of water (seas and the ocean),
there is lots of rain during the year, and seasonal monsoons. That why they also have the rich tropical
forests with rich flora and fauna. On the contrary to everyones beliefs, Malaysia doesnt have high
warm temperatures. Like all equatorial and near equatorial countries, the average temperature is

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around 26 Celsius degrees. The moist air gives the impression that it is hotter than it usually is. Also,
theres only summer in Malaysia. The provided information can be best seen from the maps below.

Figure 4. (Malaysian position) taken from World Atlas

As it can be seen, Malaysia is a very interesting country geographical wise.
The third part here, is the governmental structure of the state. Malaysia has 13 federal states. It is a
parliamentary democracy with a federal constitutional monarchy. The leader of the Islamic faith is also
the head of the state. He is the Paramount ruler and they refer to him as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
He is not a regular monarch. He is selected by nine hereditary monarchs, sultans in this case. These
hereditary rulers are all from the West (Peninsular) Malaysia. Four Malaysian federal states on the east
dont have sultans but governors and dont take part in choosing the head of state. The legislative
power is divided in two levels, the federal and state level. Malaysias parliament consists of the Senate
and the Hall of People. Every one of the thirteen states have its own constitution, but it must be
aligned with the states constitution. As one of the Commonwealth countries, the justice system is
based on the British one.

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In this part of the paper weve seen the information about the demography, geography and political
structure. It is very diverse, different and complicated sometimes (Commonwealthofnations.com,
2016).

HISTORY OUTLINE
This part of the paper will examine how ethnic minorities came to Malaysia and how they
influenced the country. Malaysian history has witnessed hundreds of different kingdoms, empires and
dynasties ruling throughout the country. At one point of the time, there were over 35 kingdoms,
empires and different dynasties coexisting on the Malaysian territory. The major ethnic minorities are
Chinese, Indian and indigenous ethnic groups. The biggest ethnic group are the Malays. The
Malaysian country in the sense of culture and tradition, even religion, is so diverse. Lots of different
influences can be found in their cuisine, traditional clothing, etc. every of the ethnic minority group
left a trace in the culture when they arrived. Throughout the rest of this part of the paper, well
discover how did all these minorities influence Malaysia through history.
The first influence came from Indians. Before that, Malaysia was a somewhat tribal land with some
parts having rulers. India was more developed, and saw an opportunity to trade there. The beginning of
the Indian influence can be traced back to 3 rd century BC. At this time, they started their first trade
business with Malaysia. Then, traders would come with lots of good, sell it, and go home. With the
trade came also the introduction to Hinduism and Buddhism. However, in the first century among
Indians were also Chinese arriving to trade. But this time, they stayed. To explain this better, they
build ports, were they had some of their people being their the whole year who would sell/trade good.
It wasnt like before, when they arrived with goods, and when they would sell it all, they would travel
home. Now goods started arriving more often, and someone was always there to trade. This is how the
Indian and Chinese influence began to spread. Buddhism and Hinduism spread fast. The Malaysian
rulers started adopting these religions. Chinese have brought Confucism, but it wasnt as influential as
the previous two religions. Mostly because, Chinese rulers never invaded Malaysia. The first big
kingdom on the territory of peninsular Malaysia was the Langkasuka Kingdom. There are records
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about the Kingdom, but no 100% certain location. Most believe that the archeological findings in
Yarang are the remains of the kingdom. The kingdom was a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom, influenced by
Indians. It is believed to be one of the earliest kingdoms on the Malaysian peninsula, established in the
second century (MetPublication,2014).
Through the 4th and 5th century there was rise of kingdoms and empires in Malaysia. The most notable
one for this topic is the Pallava Dynasty. This dynasty was founded in South India. This dynasty
spread to South East Asia, bringing the Indian influence on Malaysia. In this period Buddhism and
Hinduism were flourishing in Malaysia. This dynasty has built lots of temples for their Gods and
Goddesses. The architecture from Pallavas is still visible today and gathers lots of tourist. All the
temples are of big importance for the Malaysian history, culture and tradition (A. Javid & T. Javeed,
2008)
The next big empire was the Srivijaya Empire. Founded in the 7 th century, this was another Buddhist
empire. This empire has traded mostly with Chinese. China was the biggest trader with the empire of
Srivijaya. Several Chinese dynasties like Tang and Song were constantly trading. The Srivijaya
Empire even treaded the Chinese dynasties more favorably than other traders from other countries.
The Chinese even had some sort of embassies, and were favored in courts, and their products (S. Zain,
n.d.). Because of the privileged status, the Chinese had, lots of them settled down. Their biggest
influence was on the Malaysian cuisine.
In the 13th century began the fall of empires. It started with the Srivijaya Empire. Also, at this time
Islam arrived for the first time. With the arrival of Islam, began the rise of sultanates. The one who
brought Islam were Arab traders. This was the end of the Hindu and Buddhist domination. Arabs
brought new, never before seen goods to Malaysia. All those traders that were coming were the rich
ones who could afford themselves such long trips and had lots of goods. The rulers of different
kingdoms and empires, were influenced by rich Arab traders. Soon they converted to Islam. The most
powerful Islamic sultanate was the Malacca sultanate. It was founded in the 15 th century, at the same
time the Langkasuka Kingdom was dissolved. In general, Arabs didnt influence the tradition and
culture very much as Indians did, because they came late. However, they did influence the dominant
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religion for the rest of the time. Because the Malacca sultanates power, it attracted lots of traders from
the region. Not only did Malacca help Islam to rapidly spread over Malaysia, but also on Java,
Sumatra and the rest of the archipelago (C.E. Bosworth, 2007).
Even though the Malacca sultanate was powerful, Portugal conquered it in the 16 th century. Portuguese
were the first colonizers of what is known today as Malaysia. they were the first once to introduce
Catholicism to the Malaysians. In his book published in 2007 Marshall Cavendish says that they were
trying hard to convert the population. The initial plan was to make the Malacca land a dominant
catholic land. They didnt succeed, but as a result of that there are now 9,2% of Christians in Malaysia.
The Portuguese were not the only colonizers. The Dutch Empire colonized the Malaysia in 17 th
century. The Dutch didnt leave any influence in the state, as it was seeking only to trade (Europa
Publications, 2003). The Dutch empire was not the last one. The British Empire was getting bigger and
bigger colonizer. Malaysia was in the 18 th and 19th century an important trader for Brits. In 1824 the
Dutch and British Empire signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, were the Brits now have taken over Malacca
(The Commonwelath.com, 2016). The Malacca sultanate under Brits, wont existed for much longer as
Malacca. In 1946 the Malay Union was created, which two years later wan renamed as the Federation
of Malaya. In 1957 in August 31 st, Malaysia became independent of the United Kingdom. The state
was struggling, for a long period of time, until 1970s. They developed four five-years plans in order to
boost the economy and strengthen the state. Part of the plan was executed in 1990s with the building
of the Petronas Skyscrapers (Thecommonwealth.com, 2016). Once again, Indian and Chinese workers
rushed to the new land of promise in Asia, and, of course, stayed there.
This section has shown how different people had to do more with the culture, religion and tradition of
Malaysia than natives have. Especially big influence have had Indians in culture, traditional clothing,
architecture, while Chinese did influence the cuisine. The Arabs, although they didnt stayed in
Malaysia, have brought Islam, and replaced the dominant Hinduism and Buddhism. These were never
trying to change the Malaysian natives on purpose, but managed to do that by accident. Portuguese
have tried to force it, and it didnt happen.

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IDENTIFICATION OF DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS

It was a surprise to me to see that Asian countries are so diverse. Malaysia has many different
ethnicities. It has a big number of different indigenous groups. Well start off with defining the
different ethnicities. In Malaysia, they are dived into two groups: Bumiputras and Non-bumiputras.
Bumiputras have constitutionally more right than non-bumiputras. The bumiputra status have only
Malays and some indigenous groups. Non-bumiputras are Chinese, Indians, rest of the indigenous
group and other ethnic groups. Getting the bumiputra status is very hard, unless one is born by parents
who are bumiputras. Different federal stated of Malaysia have different rulers for granting a bumiputra
status. In some one can also get the status if one of the parents has the bumiputra status, in other states
only if father has the status. It is considered by the West as very discriminatory. Here the focus will be
on the Chinese, Indians and indigenous groups.

Ethnic Groups

12%

9%

7%

50%
23%

Bumiputra (Malays)

Chinese

Indians

Indegenous people (Non-bumiputras)

Others

Figure 5. (Percentage of Malaysian ethnicities) created with data from WorldAtlas.com

From the pie chart above it can be concluded that the biggest ethnic group in Malaysia is the Malay
ethnic group with the bumiputra status. The second largest groups are the Chinese, referred to as
Malaysian-Chinese. The next are the indigenous people (non-bumiputras), and lastly MalaysianIndians.
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The focus will be put first on the Malaysian-Chinese ethnic group. This is a very interesting group.
From the history outline, we saw that this group of people started arriving as early as in the 1 st century.
As they have arrived from different parts of China, the languages they use with family are: Hakka,
Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, and Teochew. But the main language in Chinese private schools in
Mandarin (Minorityright.org, n.d.). This sometimes is very hard for students, who dont speak
Mandarin at home and havent learned it, but have to do it in their schools. Malaysian-Chinese are
mostly Taoists, Buddhists, Confucius or Christians. Malaysian-Chinese are considered to be the most
educated ethnic minority in Malaysia. the have three educational streams: English, Malaysian and
Chinese. Around 90-95% of Malaysian-Chinese go to the Chinese primary school, meaning they will
have when they finish the highest proficiency in Mandarin (A. Grant & A. Portera, n.d.). Also, they
dominate the business in Malaysia. They are dominant in trading and hotel business (Worldatlas.com,
2016). The Malaysian-Chinese are very important to Malaysia because they are the business leader.
The second group to be analyzed are the Malaysia-Indians. It is the second largest ethnic minority in
Malaysia, since there are more indigenous groups, not just one. Anyway, most Indians live in East
(Peninsular) Malaysia, 80% of them (minorityright.org, n.d.). There is a very interesting thing in
Malaysia regarding the Indians. In the middle of the 20 th century most of them worked on plantation.
Since the plantation work has replaced people with machine, many of them transferred to work in the
police force (minorityright.org, n.d.). A popular stereotype is that most Indians want to become
doctors. Indians make 15.5% of workers in Malaysia. In this 15,5% almost 30% are doctors, then
come lawyers with around 26%, dentists and veterinary surgeons with 30% (S. Haque, 2003). Most of
the Malaysian-Indians are the working-class. The Indians are a very important part of Malaysia,
especially when looking at the Malaysian culture, architecture and tradition.
The indigenous groups in Malaysia are numerous. There are the Orang Asli and Orang Ulu indigenous
groups. These two indigenous groups have subgroups. The Orang Alsi, which reside in East Malaysia,
has eighteen subgroups, with biggest being the Semang, Senoi and Aboriginal Malay. The Orang Ulu
indigenous groups live in the Sarawak federal state of Malaysia and includes eleven subgroups. In
Sabah, another federal state, there are thirty-nine indigenous groups who are called Annak Negeri
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(International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, n.d.). Lots of the indigenous groups live in tribes.
The government is promoting heavily the use of Malay language, in order to decrease use of the
indigenous languages and English. Because of this, the indigenous people are marginalized, since they
cant speak Malay good or at all, and so cant find work. This may be the contributing factor to an
extremely high level of school drop-outs: some 80 per cent of the 26,000 students leaving primary
schools and 40,000 leaving secondary schools prematurely between 1992 and 1997
(minorityrihgts.org, n.d.).

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
The ethnic groups chosen for this paper are Chinese, Indian and the indigenous group. There
are many differences between them. Very interesting is the social aspect of how they try to fit in. After
the social aspect, political representation will be analyzed, and finally the economic.
Malaysian Chinese in contrast to Malaysian-Indians are more true to their origin. Socially there are
more closed and concentrate on their religion and tradition. They rarely marry non-Chinese. In order to
marry a Malay-Muslim, according to the constitution, one has to convert to Islam. But, as always there
are those who renounce their religion and marry a Muslim-Malay. Their children are considered to
Malays. There are more marriages between Chinese and Indians in Malaysia, and they refer to their
mixed-race children as Chindians (L.H. Guan & L. Suryadinata, 2012). Also, Indians if not Muslims,
have to renounce their religion if they want to marry a Muslim-Malaysian. But, they do marry more
often other races than Chinese do. The indigenous people, dont mix at all, almost. They tend to live in
their tribes and communities. It is hard for them to mix, because they speak their languages, which is
different than Malaysia, Chinese or Indian.
Regarding the political representation, most ethnic groups tend to support their ethnic parties. Since
Chinese are the business leader in Malaysia, it is to no surprise that their parties have lots of influence.
Most of Chinese support the Malaysian Chinese Association (L.H. Guan & L. Suryadinata, 2012). The
Malaysian-Indian are mostly represented by the Malaysian Indian Congress party. There are many

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parties founded by Malaysian-Indians. But interesting is that also many Indians support parties that
represent all ethnic groups. On the last elections, the Malaysian Indian Congress brought in 65% of
Indian vote. It is the majority, but for about 20% less than it was in previous elections (Astro Awani,
2014). I couldnt find much about involvement in politics form indigenous people. The probable
reason is that they dont have any dominant party, mostly because of the lack of education. Also, some
of the indigenous people are Bumiputras and thus represented by bumiputras parties.
The economic status also differs among these three groups. About 54,7% of Chinese work in
administrative and managerial positions and have the lowest poverty rate (indianmalaysian.com, n.d.).
The Chinese, from the three ethnic groups are the highest taxpayers. Only 10% of workers must pay
income tax. Around 85% of these are Chinese (asionone.com, n.d.). On the other hand, we have about
40% Indians at the bottom of the income rate. But theres also a 20% of them who are doing very
good, having a more than average income. The Malay Mail Online reported these numbers, and stated
that: Income inequality is highest in the Indian community as compared to other ethnic groups. This is
further compounded by a sub culture of violence and gang-related crime. The root cause can be
identified at the dysfunctional families and structural issues pertaining to marginalization (of the
Indians) (2015). In contrast to these two groups the indigenous people are the least privileged. They
mostly live in remote areas, and live from traditional work (producing knives, and similar things).
Theres so little information about the indigenous people, as there are many different sub-groups, and
some do better than other because of the bumiputra status, but mostly all of them are underprivileged.

CONCLUSION
Throughout this paper the general overview, history and ethnic groups of Malaysia were
analyzed. The focus was on the ethnic groups. The three largest are the Malaysia-Chinese, MalaysianIndians and indigenous people. Even though I havent written much about racism in Malaysia, from
the information reported in this paper it is obvious that not only the constitution is discriminatory
towards non-Muslim-Malaysians, but so are the people. The Malay population has been multiracial
and multicultural for as long the nation exists, but with the arrival of Brits who favored the Malays and
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gave them more rights than to others, the racism spark was flamed on. This is what we often see from
history of colonizers. They come in divide the people, and then leave a mess. The same have done the
Dutch in Rwanda. Anyways, the Malaysian parties for all citizens are getting more recognition. And it
has been recognized by the government that it has become a problem. But as long as few corrupt
families lead the country, like in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they wont solve the problem of racism.

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