1.1 Background of multi-ethnicity in Malaysia

Malaysia is a multi-racial country with multi-ethnic groups and multi-religion. This has added complexity to the political situation in Malaysia.

The reasoning behind this matter has to fall on history. British formally made Malaysia a colony in 1867. During the time, the British brought in different groups of people that originate mainly from China, South India and etc to exploit economic industries. According to Britannical (2021), the people from the same origin were gathered and placed according to the economical activities assigned in a different part of Malaysia. In the other words, the social relationship between the community was severely divided due to geographical as well as historical reasons.

After independence, the population in the urban area grow rapidly because of the development of infrastructure as well as the economy in the area. This attracted different ethnic groups of people to city. Since then there are multicultural communities in the city adapted to stay together. Despite the hard adaptation, there is still bias and discrimination often happens due to misunderstanding of each other cultures and backgrounds. Subcequently, this led to a turbulent society.

Figure 1.1.1 Demographic study of Malaysia in 2013. Source: Author (Based on Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal. (2021, July 15). Current Population Estimates, Malaysia, 2021 [Press release].

Figure 1.1.2: Map of Bumiputra and Chinese registered voters according to 2008 electoral district. This can be taken as a close approximation to the actual ethnic distribution in Malaysia. Source: A. (2008, April 19). Estimated population density in Malaysia in 2010 [Mapping]. Wikipedia.

A demographic study was done to identify the location with where highest diversity of ethnicity in Malaysia. By reading the map of Bumiputera and Chinese registered voters according to the 2008 electoral district (Suruhanjaya, 2008), we are able to know a close approximation of the actual ethnic distribution in Malaysia. It shows that most of the land (Blue) in Malaysia is still occupied by Bumiputera groups.

Region demarked with red is where mostly Chinese groups populated. Whereas colors range in the middle of the graph indicated the higher diversity of ethnicity in Malaysia. Overall, regions near the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia have a higher diversity of ethnicity.