Malaysia, a nation of 25 million in Southeast Asia, has boasted rapid economic growth and diversification over the past several decades. Not a paragon of human rights, the country holds free elections, yet freedom of speech, press and religion are strictly curbed. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country, and tensions among ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians, which also sound religious overtones, are a key challenge to maintaining unity and order. 

Lay of the Land: Malaysia is a federation in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of 127,355 square miles, slightly larger than the state of New Mexico. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. Comprised of two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo, which are 400 miles distant from another across the South China Sea, Malaysia is comprised of eleven states in Peninsular Malaysia and two in Malaysian Borneo. The largest city and capital is Kuala Lumpur (city limits pop.: 1.6 million; urban area: 7.2 million) while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. Located near the equator, Malaysia experiences a tropical climate, with nearly 80% of the land covered by tropical rain forests, swamps or mountains. In both regions, plains hug the coastline while mountains rise in the interior. Monsoon rainfall averages about 100 inches a year, and most areas are warm and sunny. Malaysia shares control, with Indonesia, of the Strait of Malacca, a 500 mile long sea corridor between Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, which is the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and through which more than 50,000 vessels pass each year, carrying about 25% of the world’s traded goods, including oil, Chinese manufactures, and Indonesian coffee.   

Prehistoric Malaysia may be traced back as far as 200,000 years ago from archaeological remains found at Bukit Jawa, an archaeological site in Lenggong Perak. Many millennia later, the early Buddhist Malay kingdom of Srivijaya dominated much of the Malay peninsula from the 9th to the 13th centuries CE. It was followed by the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit, which gained control of the Malay peninsula in the 14th century. In the early-15th century, Sultan Iskandar Shah, a Hindu prince who converted to Islam, established a kingdom in Malacca that controlled peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand, and the eastern coast of Sumatra. Viable for more than a century, the sultanate spread Islam to most of the Malay Archipelago. Malacca was the foremost trading port at the time in Southeast Asia, where Chinese, Arab, Malay, and Indian merchants traded precious goods.

Berita Harian

Although Malaysia initially pursued a pro-Western foreign policy, the government began to shift away from this in the mid 1970s. This policy shift was continued and strengthened by Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who was in power from 1981 to 2003 and pursued a regionalist and pro-South policy with frequently strident anti-Western rhetoric.  Under Mahathir, Malaysia frequently championed what he called “Asian values” and criticized “Western values,” using this line of argument to justify one-party rule, discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion and gender, and the suppression of individual and civil liberties. 

Malaysia views regional cooperation as the cornerstone of its foreign policy.  Despite Malaysia’s anti-Western rhetoric, the country in fact has recently worked closely with Western countries including the US, and led a crackdown against Islamic fundamentalists after the September 11, 2001, attacks.  Under Prime Minister Mahathir’s successor, Abdullah Badawi, relations with Western countries have improved, though tensions over human rights and trafficking remain. Indeed, Malaysia’s spotty record on human rights has provided the basis for some tension in US-Malaysian relations, including the September 2008 summoning of the Malaysian ambassador to the State department to explain legal charges brought against prominent opposition leaders. 

In 2007, industry and services dominated the GDP at 45.3% and 44.8% respectively, while agriculture accounted for only 9.9%. In the present century, the government has tried to move the economy farther up the value-added production chain by attracting investments in high tech industries, medical technology and pharmaceuticals. The government is continuing efforts to boost domestic demand to reduce the economy’s dependence on exports. Nevertheless, exports - especially of electronics - remain a significant driver of the economy. As an oil and gas exporter, Malaysia has profited from higher world energy prices, although the rising cost of domestic gasoline and diesel fuel has forced Kuala Lumpur to reduce government subsidies.

In April 2009, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the prime minister of Malaysia urging him to ratify core international human rights treaties like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The letter continues that Human Rights Watch would like the government to “give priority to the issues of arbitrary and preventive detention, freedom of expression, protection of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and ending impunity for security forces.” There has been censoring of national newspapers and reporters for these publications have been denied access to press conferences regarding government activity. In addition to this, there is much impunity that pervades law enforcement and immigration officials. Between 2003 and 2007 there were 85 deaths in police custody–many of these cases have gone unresolved.

Thomas K. Wright

Zulhasnan Rafique

Zulhasnan Rafique has been the Malaysian ambassador to the United States, replacing Awang Adek Hussin, since December 2016. A nation of more than 30 million people in Southeast Asia, Malaysia censors speech and the press, but has generally free and democratic elections.

Born September 20, 1954, in Selangor, Malaysia, Zulhasnan Rafique attended La Salle High School in Petaling Jaya, and graduated Victoria Institution, the country’s most prestigious secondary school, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital and largest city, circa 1972.

Zulhasnan joined the Royal Malaysian Air Force as a fighter pilot in 1973 and retired in 1985 with the rank of major.

Zulhasnan then entered the private sector, working as managing director and executive chairman of Seri Meraga Consolidated Sdn Bhd., an investment holding company in Kuala Lumpur.

Zulhasnan got involved in politics in 1995 as a committee member of the Wangsa Maju division of the United Malays National Organisation, a center-right formation that has been Malaysia’s dominant political party since its founding during the British colonial period in 1946. He was elected to the Malaysian Parliament in November 1999, representing the Barisan Nasional party in Wangsa Maju.

On September 16, 2002, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was forced, at a security check at Los Angeles Airport, to remove his shoes and belt. Badawi was on his way to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. Zulhasnan responded to this news by demanding that U.S. government officials be subjected to the same treatment when they travelled to Malaysia.

After being reelected to Parliament in March 2004, representing the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Setiawangsa, Zulnahasnan was appointed deputy minister in the newly-upgraded Ministry of Federal Territories, and became minister in February 2006 after his predecessor was convicted of corruption charges. Zulhasnan served as minister until April 9, 2009, when Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak dismissed him from the cabinet. Because Zulhasnan had been reelected again in March 2008, he kept his seat in Parliament until May 2013, when he was not nominated to run again.

Leaving politics for a while, Zulhasnan was executive director of Island & Peninsular Berhad, a holding company specializing in property development and the production of palm oil. He

served as chancellor of Geomatika University College, a mostly science and technical school in Kuala Lumpur, from 2014 to December 2016.

Zulhasnan is a sportsman who enjoys polo, rugby, badminton, soccer, swimming and squash. He is married to Nooriah Ana Razak, with whom he has three adult children: Syazna Leana, Syaira Leena and Muhammad Suhail. In 2001, Zulhasnan and his wife founded the Amal Wangsa Foundation.

-Matt Bewig, David Wallechinsky

To Learn More:

Eager Beaver, but First Things First (by Chow How Ban, The Star)

Former FT Minister Zulhasnan Appointed As The New Malaysian Ambassador To United States (Malaysian Digest)

Setiawangsa: Zulhasnan not one to Rest on his Laurels (by Mitra Lingham, Malaysian Times) 

Malaysia's Embassy in the U.S.