Malaysia is a country located in Southeast Asia. A little less than 330,000 km² for 30 million inhabitants. The density is 86 inhabitants per km². The capital is officially Kuala Lumpur. Although all government institutions are located in its suburb of Putrajaya. The geography of Malaysia is particularly interesting for two points. First, the fact that it is a country separated in two, the peninsula on one side, Borneo on the other. And secondly, because it is a country where several ethnic groups live together. Physical geography: As said before, the country is cut in two. On one side there is the peninsula, it is called the Malay Peninsula or West Malaysia. On the other there is the island Borneo, but the country occupies only a small part. The island is shared with two other countries: Brunei on one side and Indonesia on the other.
The Malaysian part is called East Malaysia. Moreover, at the end of the Malay peninsula we find another country: Singapore. It might sound weird as a carving, but it is simply due to colonization. Malaysia is a former British colony and Indonesia a former Dutch colony. The two colonial powers quite simply shared the territories. This is why Borneo is still cut in two even today. As for Singapore and Brunei, these are former British colonies as well. Singapore became independent from Malaysia in 1965 and Brunei remained British until 1984. Malaysia is independent.
of the United Kingdom since 1957. The climate is the same everywhere, it is tropical equatorial. There are two mountain ranges. That of the peninsula is the central chain which is part of a larger chain called the Tenasserim chain. The Tenasserim chain also covers Thailand and Burma. The highest mountain in the chain can be found in Malaysia, Mount Tahan at 2,187 meters. In East Malaysia, there are other mountains with Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in the country which rises to 4095 meters. It is also the highest mountain in the entire Malay Archipelago if you don’t consider Papua to be part of the Malay Archipelago. Otherwise Malaysia is a very forest country, especially in Borneo. As for the coasts, on the coast western part of the peninsula, they are swamps which means that there are few coastal dwellings. On the contrary, on the eastern coast there are beaches. Same for Borneo. Territorial administration: Malaysia is a federation made up of 13 states and 3 territories. 11 states are located in West Malaysia and 2 states are in East Malaysia. 2 federal territories are located in West Malaysia and 1 territory in East Malaysia. States are governed by governors. But in some states, the governor has a special status. In 7 states, all located in West Mal, the governor has the status of Sultan. In one state, Perlis, the governor is a Raja. In one state, Negeri Sembilan, the governor is a Yamtuan Besar, a statute specific to that state. In the others, they are normal governors. Regarding federal territories. One of them is Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The other is Putrajaya, the land where political institutions are located, which is supposed to become the new capital of Malaysia. It is right next to Kuala Lumpur. And the last one is Labuan, which is a collection of islands mainly.
These three federal territories are in a way districts directly managed by the federal government. The federated states, on the other hand, are subdivided into districts. 88 districts in West Malaysia. In East Malaysia, the two states are divided into Divisions. 5 Divisions in Sabah and 12 Divisions in Sarawak State. The Divisions are themselves divided into Districts. 25 in Sabah and 36 in Sarawak. The districts of West Malaysia are then subdivided into Mukim or city directly, it depends. When Malaysia became independent from the United Kingdom in 1957, there was only the peninsula. Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei were therefore still British colonies. In 1963, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah decided to integrate Malaysia as states of the federation. Brunei refuses and prefers to remain a British colony. In 1965, Singapore became independent from Mal. Today, Sarawak and Sabah remain part of Malaysia but have a rather special status. You could almost say they are Malaysian settlements now. And we will also see that the population of Borneo is different. Demographics: Malaysia is a culturally Malaysian country. It means that she is part of a Malaysian cultural whole. We’re talking about the Malay world. The other countries of the Malaysian world are Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. In Mal, Singapore and Brunei, Malaysian is the official language. In Indonesia, the official language is Indonesian. Concretely the difference between Indonesian and Malaysian is minimal. You could say it’s the same language, the Malay language. This Malay language in reality does not really exist, it is rather a collection of dialects. Mal is therefore a language created to standardize Malay in Malaysia. Much like Indonesian is a language created to standardize Malay in Indonesia. The main difference between the two languages is the European influence. Mal using a lot of English vocabulary while Indonesian uses Dutch vocabulary. she is therefore the only official language of the country. But in fact English still has a great influence it is practically an administrative language. Other languages are spoken and that is due to the communities. Indeed, in Mal,, there are several ethnicities. A citizen of Malaysia is called a Malaysian. The word “Malay” refers to ethnicity. Malays are the Malay speaking populations who are generally Muslim. You could say that Indonesians are also predominantly In Mal, Malays represent 50% of the population. To this population, we can add the Natives who represent 10% of the population.Whether it is she or the Indigenous, both are indigenous, they are said to be Bumiputera. The difference is that Malaysians speak Malay and are Muslims. The term indigenous is used to name all other indigenous peoples who are not Malay. Most of the natives have animistic religions.
