In recent years nuptiality has come to be recognised as an integral part of the study of the demography of any country, largely because the formation and dissolution of marital unions have an important bearing on the level of fertility. We may regard marriage as an event that marks the beginning of the potential period of childbearing and marital dissolution as the end of this period. It is also recognised that age at marriage can affect the level of fertility and hence the rate of population growth. In this chapter an attempt is made to examine nuptiality trends and patterns in Malaysia during the postwar period.

Our study of nuptiality will be based on marital status data collected in the population censuses and classified into single, married, widowed and divorced. The data reflect unions in which the partners have participated in some form of legal marriage solemnised according to the various marriage laws. We should always bear in mind that the modern form of consensus unions among persons who have never been married according to either legal or customary rites is rather rare in Malaysia. We should also note that it is not possible to investigate nuptiality by means of comprehensive data derived from marriage registration records since such annual statistics have never been compiled and published regularly.

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS AND LAWS

The great diversity of religions that we have observed in an earlier chapter necessarily implies that it would be quite difficult to have a common legislation to govern all the various types of marriages taking place in the country. It was inevitable that over the years separate laws were introduced to regulate these marriages, which are solemnised according to the various religious and customary rites. There are one set of laws governing the marriage of persons both of whom are Muslim and another group of laws meant to regulate all the other marriages contracted between non-Muslims. Almost all these marriage laws have their roots during the colonial period, introduced in different parts of the country at different times as determined by the extent or concern of British rule or influence at that time.

The most important marriages are those contracted by persons both of whom profess the Islamic faith. Such Muslim marriages must be solemnised and registered under the provisions of the respective laws enacted by the state governments and the Federal Territory.

The amount of labour available for the production of goods and services in a country is determined by a variety of demographic, social and economic factors. The size of the total population and its composition with respect to sex and age determine the maximum limits of the number of persons who can participate in economic activities. Other factors such as the race composition, the degree of urbanisation and the proportion of married women play an important part in influencing the proportion of the population, which will be represented in certain age groups in the working population. Among the more important economic and social factors are the industrial structure of the economy, the mode and organisation of production, the per capita income and the traditional attitudes towards working women and working children. By and large, demographic factors are the major determinants of the size of the male working population since by convention nearly all men are engaged in some form of gainful work from the time they reach adulthood until they approach the retirement age. On the other hand, socio-economic factors seem to exert a greater influence on the size of the female working population.

CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

The labour force statistics of a country can be collected by means of the gainful worker approach or the labour force approach. The older gainful worker concept was widely used before World War II and even during the early postwar years in some countries. In Peninsular Malaysia it was last used in September 1947 when the first postwar census of population was conducted. According to this concept the respondents were requested to state their usual occupation or gainful work from which they earned their income without reference to any time period. Those who were ascertained to have engaged in gainful work were considered as in the labour force, while those without any such work were classified as outside the labour force. Apart from the absence of a reference period to which the data could refer to, this method of collecting statistics cannot provide figures for the employed and the unemployed separately.

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING

Malaysia consists of two distinct geographical segments separated by the South China Sea, Peninsular (or West) Malaysia in the west and east Malaysia in the east. The long narrow peninsula of West Malaysia extends from latitude 1° 20′ north to latitude 6° 40′ north, and from longitude 99° 35′ to longitude 104° 20′ east. It is situated in a central position within Southeast Asia, being an extension of the Asian land mass as well as part of the wider Malay archipelago. Beyond Peninsular Malaysia's northern land border lies Thailand, and its immediate neighbour in the south is the small island state of Singapore joined to it by the old rail-and-road causeway and the new second-link bridge, both cutting through the narrow Straits of Johore. In the west just across the busy Straits of Malacca is the large elongated island of Sumatra, part of the multi-island Republic of Indonesia.

East Malaysia occupies the north and north-west portion of the huge island of Borneo. It extends from latitude 0° 85′ north to latitude 7° 35′ north, and from longitude 109° 60′ to longitude 119° 35′ east. To the south, it shares a common land border with Kalimantan which is an Indonesian territory, and in the north across the Sulu Sea is the Republic of the Philippines. Because of its proximity, the people have considerable contacts with these two neighbours, perhaps more so than with Peninsular Malaysia. Though East Malaysia has a land area of 198,160 square kilometres that is larger than the 132,090 in West Malaysia, it is not that important viewed from many aspects. For one thing, it contains only two states, Sabah and Sarawak as compared to the eleven states and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, the hub of the Federal Government, in Peninsular Malaysia.

Peninsular Malaysia extends some 740 kilometres in length from Perlis state in the north to Johore Bahru town in the south, and about 322 kilometres in width at its widest point. The total land area approximates 132,090 square kilometres, slightly larger than England without Wales. It has a coastline of nearly 1,931 kilometres, covered in many places with mangrove swamps, sand bars and sandy beaches. The western side has a few natural harbours but the eastern coastline is rather shallow, sandy and without good harbours.

In interpreting the figures in respect of population size and growth, we should be mindful of the population censuses not being conducted on a uniform time interval of ten years as practised in most countries. The holding of the third pan-Malaysia Census in 1991 has resulted in a break in the intercensal time interval, 10 years for the 1970–1980 period, 11 years for the 1980–1991 period and nine years for the 1991–2000 period. What this implies is that we should pay more attention to the figures for annual rate of growth rather than intercensal rate of growth presented in Table 2.1 and other tables where time-series data are included for the purpose of examining population trends.

It is also necessary to explain the presentation of the figures according to geographic areas. The practice of examining some of the census results in terms of three broad geographic regions in the census reports has been adopted in our analysis. West Malaysia, also known as Peninsular Malaysia, consists of eleven states and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur with common land boundaries and shared historical, political and economic background. The two states of Sabah and Sarawak, collectively known as East Malaysia, are separated by the vast expense of the South China Sea, apart from their separate history, economy and population.

OVERALL POPULATION GROWTH

The figures for 1960 are obtained from the pre-Malaysia Censuses conducted in this year in Sabah and Sarawak and from intercensal population estimate for West Malaysia where the census was held in 1957 instead of 1960. The changes in the size of the population over time are caused by natural increase and net international migration. The population of Malaysia prior to its establishment was estimated to total about 8,035,600 in the pre-merger year of 1960. By the first pan-Malaysia Census held in 1970 the population has grown to above the ten-million mark of 10,439,400, an increase of 2,405,800 or an annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent during this ten-year period. In the second pan-Malaysia Census conducted in 1980 the population was enumerated as 13,136,100, an increase of 2,696,700 since 1970 or an annual growth rate of 2.3 per cent. The race riots that flared up on 13 May 1969 in Kuala Lumpur started a fresh movement of non-Bumiputera persons outward to Singapore and other countries.

This book, a project of the Malaysia Study Programme of ISEAS, is a sequel to my earlier book on The Population of Peninsular Malaysia published some time ago in 1988 and just reprinted by ISEAS in 2007. The old book was essentially based on materials derived from the early population censuses and other relevant sources pertaining to the eleven states of West Malaysia. It was not feasible to include Sabah and Sarawak in the book considering the extreme paucity of comparable data for these two eastern states for the period under study.

The situation has improved quite significantly following the formation of Malaysia in 1963 when a wide range of pan-Malaysia statistics was made available from the four population censuses held since 1970 and from other sources dealing with vital events, labour force, etc. The emergence of favourable conditions has enabled me to bring out a completely different book covering the entire country rather than a second edition of the original book. In writing this new book on The Population of Malaysia, I have been guided by the need to present a comprehensive analysis of the demographic trends and patterns discernable in the multiracial country during the last four decades or so.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of numerous institutions and individuals. For helping me to access the research materials, my thanks go to the University of Malaya Library, the National University of Singapore Library, ISEAS Library and the London School of Economics Library where I visited during my frequent visits to London. My special thanks go to the Malaysian Department of Statistics for willingly supplying the necessary data. I would like to thank Ambassador K. Kesavapany, Director of ISEAS, for his encouragement and hospitality, and Mrs Triena Ong of ISEAS Publications Unit for overseeing the expeditious publication of the book. Needless to say, any opinions and shortcomings in the book are my own.

The movement of people within Malaysia has assumed greater significance as a result of the official concern about the unbalanced distribution of the population among the various parts of the country. This concern was explicitly expressed in the development plans adopted from the early 1970s onwards, and specific strategies were spelled out to, among other things, redistribute the population. The plans seek to distribute the population to sparsely settled rural areas with agricultural potential, to spread out the urban population more evenly throughout the country, and to rearrange the population with the view of attaining greater economic balance among the major communities. The underlying purpose of the last strategy as stated in the Third Malaysia Plan was to free the Bumiputeras from their dependence on subsistence agriculture and to allow them to participate in the “modern rural and urban sectors of the economy at all levels”. In fact, the Second Malaysia Plan as spelled out the overall aim of the population policies was meant to achieve “economic balance between urban and rural areas and to eliminate the identification of race with vocation as well as location”.

Internal migration may be defined as a change of residence from one community or geographical unit to another within the national boundaries. The movement of people within the country can be examined in terms of the following categories:

1. 1. Migration among the thirteen states, known as inter-state migration.

2. 2. Migration among the various districts within a particular state. This is known as intra-state migration at the district level.

3. 3. Migration among different urban and rural areas. This can be classified into urban-urban, urban-rural, rural-urban, and rural-rural.

An urban area is defined as a conurbation with 10,000 or more inhabitants. The rural-urban type of movement is more commonly known as urbanisation. Each state is sub-divided into smaller units known as districts, with different number of districts in each of the thirteen states. In view of the national aim of achieving a more balanced socio-economic development among the various ethnic groups and among the various regions of the country, the population censuses have always collected statistics that can enable us to study internal migration.

The size and structure of the population of Malaysia at any point of time are determined by the interactions of migration, fertility and mortality in the immediate past. While an earlier chapter has dealt with migration, this chapter will be devoted to an account of fertility and mortality. As in any country, the statistics required for the analysis of mortality and fertility are derived from the compulsory registration of births and deaths. The registration system is under the overall charge of the Registrar-General in the National Registration Department, and in each state there is a Registrar in charge of the Registration Department. In each state there are also registration centres situated in hospitals, police stations and city halls in urban centres, while in the rural areas registration of vital events can be made with authorised persons such as village headmen, headmasters and estate managers. The registration laws stipulate that the time allowed for registration is 14 days for live-births and still-births and 12 hours for deaths.

The birth and death statistics are compiled and published by the Department of Statistics. The vital statistics published by the Department of Statistics since the formation of Malaysia in 1963 are not comprehensive and uniform from year to year. For most years, the statistics are more comprehensive for West Malaysia than for East Malaysia, and hence the absence of national figures for the whole of Malaysia. Some of the difficulties encountered in obtaining national figures will be discussed in our analysis of the published data in regard to certain aspects of fertility and mortality discussed in this chapter.

POPULATION CONTROL PROGRAMME

The provision of family planning services on an organised basis dates back to 21 October 1954 when the Family Planning Association of Selangor was officially established as a voluntary organisation. With the support of individuals, firms and foundations, the Association was able to open two clinics in Kuala Lumpur in January 1954. These clinics, the first two of its kind in the country, ran only weekly sessions after office hours with the assistance of volunteers. In the early days the clinics were fairly well attended by many women and, encouraged by this modest success, more clinics were established in Selangor.

In this chapter we will examine the structure of the population in terms of sex composition, age structure, educational attainment and citizenship pattern. The structure of the population has evolved over many decades in accordance with not only demographic determinants like migration, mortality and fertility, but also social and economic forces. These variables have exerted their influence in different ways and in varying degrees on each aspect of the population structure. In Malaysia international migration has left its pervasive and permanent imprint on many facets of the population. The two important topics concerning ethnic composition and religious pattern have already been examined in the previous chapter.

SEX COMPOSITION

In a closed population unaffected by migration, the sex composition is determined by the proportion of boys and girls at birth, but this is counter-balanced by males being subject to higher mortality so that the eventual sex ratio of the general population is very near normal with fairly even numbers between the two sexes. However, in a country where migration of predominantly males has been a major force of population growth, we can expect the sex ratio to deviate from the normal pattern. This is true in the case of Malaysia where predominantly male migration has always been significant, resulting in more males than females in the population. However, in the course of time a slow movement towards a more balanced sex ratio has taken place, first as the proportion of female immigrants increased, then as the volume of natural increase became larger, and latterly as the flow of migration diminished.

The distribution of the population by sex and the computed sex ratio defined as the number of males per thousand females are presented in Table 6.1. During the first wave of migration before World War II, the male migrant workers had no intention of settling in the country, and hence they left their families in their own country. The extremely uneven sex ratio commenced to improve after the war when the previous large-scale migration ceased, but this improvement took a very long time. This is the explanation for the population in 1970 to continue to have more males than females, 5,266,100 and 5,173,300, yielding a sex ratio of 1,018 males per 1,000 males.

The great ethnic diversity of the Malaysian population began to take shape after the penetration of European rule into the country. Malaysia has been one of the most important areas of migration ever since the establishment of British colonial rule in Penang in 1786 and in other parts of the country in the nineteenth century. The large and sustained immigration was mainly due to the demand for labour in the public works and primary production sectors, the excellent prospects for trade and commerce, and the law and order attendant on British rule. Such forces of attraction coupled with liberal immigration policies, were reinforced by equally strong repelling forces in the immigrants' countries of origin. Natural calamities, political upheavals, population pressure, and lack of economic opportunities induced the immigrants to leave their countries for Malaysia at a time when the supply of labour from the indigenous Malays was neither adequate nor forthcoming.

In the early days the immigrants would usually leave their families behind in their own countries and came to Malaysia not as permanent settlers but as “bird-of-passage”. With their earnings, quite a number were able to send regular remittances to their families, made occasional visits home, and eventually returned to their countries after acquiring some wealth or on retirement. In the course of time, however, an increasing proportion of immigrants brought their families along, sent for their families or married local residents and remained in the country permanently. But their numbers did not alter the generally transient character of the population, which persisted until the outbreak of war in Malaysia in December 1941. The Japanese Occupation, the increasing supply of local labour in the postwar period, and the strict immigration control from the 1950s have put an end to large-scale immigration. At the same time an increasingly significant proportion of the prewar immigrants have come to regard Malaysia as their permanent home.

During the prewar period there were essentially three main streams of migration into Malaysia: the northern stream from China, the western stream from India, and the relatively less important stream from the then Dutch East Indies in the south. In view of the pronounced differences in magnitude, composition, mode of entry, and government regulations, it is perhaps more convenient to consider each stream separately.

In this final chapter we will make an attempt to examine the most plausible course of future trends in the population of Malaysia. This can be accomplished by projecting the population into the future on the basis of certain assumptions concerning the future path of migration, mortality and fertility. Before analysing the salient features of these projected figures, we will discuss the 1984 pronatalist policy that has exerted some influence on the course of population dynamics in the country.

THE 70 MILLION POLICY

Many of the past demographic trends and patterns discussed earlier were influenced by government attitudes and policies, some of which are translated into administrative procedures or even enshrined in the laws of the country. In general, the future population trends will depend partly on what had already happened to the growth factors of fertility, mortality and migration in the immediate past and partly on government policies that are likely to affect the future path of population growth. In this respect, Malaysia stands out as one of the very few countries that are now advocating for a larger population than what was previously thought to be desirable and have even pin-pointed a particular population size to be achieved ultimately in the future.

The genesis of the new policy can be traced to September 1982 when the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, first mooted the idea of an ultimate population size of 70 million in his presidential address to a general assembly of the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO). His rationale was that Malaysia needs a big population to provide a large domestic market to support its future industries in the face of an increasingly protectionist world market. The concept of a large population was in sharp contradiction to the existing population policy under which the government family planning programme has been functioning for many years since 1966. It is not surprising that this sudden pronouncement sparked off considerable controversies and discussions about the implications of 70 million people in the fields of housing, education, health, employment, food production, water requirements and energy consumption. Some of the ensuing debates were rather confusing in the face of a failure to provide reasons for selecting 70 million and to specify the year in which this target is to be attained.

Mr Hensley began his presentation by stating that New Zealand's security will remain very closely, indeed “inextricably” linked to the security of Southeast Asia. He pointed out that New Zealand's first links with Southeast Asia were its defence ties and that it is from this that other ties binding the two actors have followed. While these defence ties are “half buried” now and have been overlaid by important ties of trade, investment and tourism, Hensley emphasized that all these ties are undergirded by a common interest in the security of the region.

Hensley went on to explain how New Zealand came to realize the importance of Southeast Asia as a factor impacting its own security. He argued that a number of developments since the 1930s — the problematic dependence on the forces of the British Empire, the fall of Malaya and Singapore in 1942 and the rise of communist insurgencies thereafter — had brought about this realization. Further, the role that New Zealand played in dealing with such developments, particularly through its defence roles and investments have played a “modest part” in shaping the current security structure of the region.

Hensley suggested that an important legacy of security initiatives in the past decades, and of New Zealand's role in them, is the “Five Power Arrangements”, in particular the FPDA which continues to have a role in the contemporary context. He argued that the arrangement flourishes as a way of “building familiarity and interoperability” among the armies of the five member countries. This, he argued, has had its benefits in terms of maintaining professional skills and in supporting peacekeeping, such as in the case of East Timor where Singapore and New Zealand troops were grouped under the same command.

Hensley pointed out that despite the absence of “external threats” the region could still be vulnerable to future risks, the most serious of them being terrorism. Hensley suggested that the rise and potency of terrorism in the region had much to do with its alliance with “two partners”: religion and globalization.

As the first speaker, Dr Anthony Smith reviewed the varied perceptions that have formed New Zealand's policies towards Southeast Asia since the end of World War II. He also outlined the breadth and substance of the relationship between ASEAN and New Zealand in the contemporary context.

Dr Smith opened his analysis by noting the shifts in New Zealand's perception of Southeast Asia over the decades. From an initial “disinterest” in the aftermath of WWII, New Zealand began by the 1950s to view the region as a source of instability and concern, warranting its involvement in the Malayan Emergency, Confrontation, Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and the Vietnam War. This position again altered by the mid-1970s and 80s as New Zealand began to appreciate the role of ASEAN in forging a “diplomatic community” providing greater stability and resilience to its constitutive members in the region. Dr Smith pointed out that by the 1990s — by which time Southeast Asia had convincingly demonstrated its commercial and strategic potential — New Zealand had come to perceive the region as an economic “opportunity”.

Anthony Smith next described the dimensions of the current relationship between ASEAN and New Zealand in terms of security, commercial and people-to-people ties. He pointed out that the New Zealand Foreign Ministry placed importance on ASEAN not only as a regional organization but also in terms of its individual member states. ASEAN's role in improving the security of Southeast Asia in fact reduced New Zealand's need to pay attention to the region. Thus, supporting ASEAN and its principles has been in the clear interests of New Zealand. Stronger ties between ASEAN and New Zealand are evident from the latter's interest in working as a “team player” with ASEAN and increased likelihood of New Zealand signing ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).

Dr Smith argued that New Zealand and ASEAN shared concerns over a range of global issues and have collectively promoted rules based international behaviour. Efforts to strengthen international norms governing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and common concerns over hostilities in South Asia, the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia exemplify this aspect of their relations.

Dr Jose L. Tongzon highlighted that his main objective was to look at the relationship between ASEAN and New Zealand from the economic perspective. He commenced his presentation by stating the trade relationship between New Zealand and ASEAN — there had been inconsistent growth in the trade relationship in the past ten years. The second part of his presentation dealt with this issue, the slow growth and obstacles to trade and investment between these two economies.

ASEAN-New Zealand trade relations have seen an inconsistent growth pattern from 1993 to 2004. Trade relations were significant since 1993 but stalled in 1997, when the Asian financial crisis took place. It has been inconsistent in the post Asian crisis period. For instance, exports to New Zealand fell during the Asian financial crisis, and also in 2001 and 2004. In contrast, ASEAN imports from New Zealand have grown significantly in 2003 and 2004. Another notable point is that exports from New Zealand were significantly higher than ASEAN exports to New Zealand. The bilateral trade remains insignificant, accounting for only 1 per cent of total ASEAN imports and exports.

Dr Tongzon explained that trade relations between the two countries were greatly affected by the following factors: firstly, the increase or change in commodity prices, especially from New Zealand; secondly, world demand had a impact on trade relations; and lastly, the appreciation of the New Zealand dollar. As the latter appreciates, there is an increase in trade between the two regions.

Different products in ASEAN and New Zealand dominate the composition of trade between the two regions. The composition of New Zealand exports to ASEAN is dominated by dairy products, fruits, vegetables, meat and food products. There is potential for export between New Zealand and ASEAN as a population boom is expected in the ASEAN countries. Additionally, as more people are becoming health conscious and there is insufficient domestic supply to keep up with the increase in demand, there is certainly scope for New Zealand exports in ASEAN.

Mr Tsang provided a Singapore hotelier's perspective on running a chain of hotels in New Zealand. He was appointed managing director of Millennium & Copthorne New Zealand, CDL Investments New Zealand and Kingsgate International in July 2001. He was also instrumental in Singapore property giant CDL or City Development's foray into New Zealand in the early 1990s. Under his tenure Millennium & Copthorne profits rose from $1.5 million in 2000 to $23 million in 2005.

CDL acquired its first chain of Quality Hotels in 1992 followed by the Kingsgate hotel chain in 1994. Subsequently CDL Hotels adopted the name of the parent company Millennium & Copthorne Hotels which is listed in London. Millennium and Copthorne New Zealand Limited is also listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Presently, they are the largest owner-operator of hotels in New Zealand with a portfolio of thirty hotels, which are owned, leased, franchised and/or managed, with around 4,000 rooms in fifteen locations across Australasia. The company also has extensive land and property development interests in both New Zealand and Australia under its subsidiaries CDL Investments New Zealand Ltd and Kingsgate International Corporation Ltd.

Mr Tsang pointed out that when CDL had plans for expansion in Australasia, the New Zealand market was favourably viewed as a great tourist destination with a hospitality sector which was less saturated than Australia's. They were also attracted by its transparent laws and ease of communication being a fellow commonwealth country.

On the downside, New Zealand's population of four million made it have a small domestic market. Nevertheless, the group got around the problem by focusing on foreign tourists and promoting holidays within New Zealand to great success. There was also a lack of a skilled and motivated workforce. The unions had initially prevented hotel staff from taking on more than one role. However in a small hotel, staff often had to multitask. Fortunately following negotiations, the unions relented and rules were relaxed.