INTRODUCTION

Malaysia is a well-known country for wide ethnicity, about 5.72 million people live in eastern
Malaysia and 22.5 million live in the Malaysian Peninsula. The population of Malaysia is made
up of many ethnic groups. Malaysia is a multi-racial Southeast Asian nation with many
different ethnic groups living in the country. These include groups of Malays, Chinese, Indians,
and other Bumiputra indigenous people. The country's ethnic composition is as follows. 50.1%
of the population is Malay, 22.6% are Chinese, 11.8% are Bumiputra indigenous groups other
than Malays, 6.7% are Indian and other groups make up 0.7%. Non-citizens make up 8.2
percent of the resident population of Malaysia. This multicultural context makes Malaysia a
highly affluent society with various religions, food, culture, and customs. the diversity evident
in the Malaysian ethnic fabric is officially recognized and celebrated in the slogan ' Malaysia,
Truly Asia ' by Tourism Malaysia. National unity remains the main stated objective of
economic, social and national growth with the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and
multi-religious makeup of the population. In reaction to the 1969 ethnic tensions, the New
Economic Policy (NEP) was implemented in 1971. The primary objectives were to reduce
poverty regardless of race and to restructure Malaysian society in order to eradicate race
association with economic activity in order to reduce differences in the distribution of income
between races and to minimize the correlation of race with economic activities.

1.1 ORIGINS
1.1.1 MALAYS
The Malays are the country's largest ethnic group, accounting for 50.1 percent of the Malaysian
population. The Malays are typically indigenous to the region, Muslim, and practice Malay
culture. This means that Muslims are counted as Malays of any race as long as they practice
Malay culture. Malaysia is the country's largest group, with its language, Malay, being the
national language, dominating Malaysia's political landscape. Hinduism, Buddhism, and
animism influence their society. Since the 1980s and 1990s, however, facets of their culture
that reflect such elements have been banned or abandoned due to the efforts of the
"Islamization" movement. Among the many Malay subgroups there is significant genetic,
linguistic, religious, artistic and social heterogeneity, mainly due to hundreds of years of
immigration and assimilation within Maritime Southeast Asia of different regional ethnicity
and tribes. Historically, the Malay population is primarily descended from the earlier
Austronesian-speaking and Austro-Asian tribes that formed several ancient maritime trading
states and kingdoms, including Brunei, Kedah, Langkasuka, Gangga Negara, Chi Tu, Nakhon
Si Thammarat, Pahang, Melayu and Srivijaya. The rise of the Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th
century sparked a major revolution in the history of Malay, whose importance lies in its far-
reaching political and cultural heritage. Common definitive markers of a Malayness – Islam
faith, Malaysian language and customs – are believed to have been promulgated during this
period, resulting in the Malaysian ethnogenesis as a major ethnoreligious community in the
area. The Malays were regarded as a coastal-trading group with dynamic cultural
characteristics throughout their history. They absorbed, shared and transmitted numerous
cultural characteristics of other local ethnic groups, such as those of Minang, Acehnese, and
some degree of Javanese culture; however, it differs from the multi-religious Javanese culture
by being more overtly Islamic. Ethnic Malaysia is also the main source of the ethnocultural
production of related cultures such as Betawi, Banjar, Cape Malay, Cocos Malaysia and Sri
Lankan Malay, as well as the development of Malaysian trade and Creole languages such as
Ambonese Malay, Baba Malay, Betawi and Manado Malay.

1.1.2 CHINESE
Chinese Malaysians are the country's second largest ethnic group, accounting for 22.6 percent
of the Malaysian population. For decades, Chinese people have been in Malaysia, with the
beginning of this nineteenth-century immigration. Chinese Malaysians dominate the country's
business and trade. The Chinese worked in railroad building and tin mining when they arrived,
and later they began to own companies. For the most part, their religion is Taoism or Buddhism.
They're also having strong relations with China. Over the years, the Chinese have absorbed
aspects of Malaysian culture, intermarrying with indigenous groups, resulting in the creation
of a syncretism of practices and beliefs, a new culture consisting of both Malaysian and Chinese
tradition. Traditionally, Chinese Malaysians control the Malaysian economy's business sector.
Most of the Chinese in Malaysia are ancestral to Min (e.g. Hokkien), Yue (Cantonese), Hakka
and Teochew, and various towns and cities in Malaysia are dominated by various Chinese
dialects among Chinese speakers, for example, Cantonese in Kuala Lumpur, Hokkien in
George Town and Kuching, Hakka in Kota Kinabalu, Teochew in Johor Bahru, Foochow in
Sibu and Hainan in Kuala Terengganu, while Mandarin is now commonly used as a working
language among the various Chinese ethnicities. Culturally, many Malaysian Chinese have
retained their Chinese identity, including their different dialects, although the descendants of
the earliest Chinese settlers who came from the 13th to 17th centuries have assimilated
elements of Malaysian or indigenous cultures, forming a distinct sub-ethnic group known as
the Peranakans in Kelantan and Terengganu, Baba-Nyonya in Malacca, Baba-Nyonya in
Malacca and Penang as well the Sino-Natives in Sabah. Even with absolute population numbers
increasing with each census, the proportion of ethnic Chinese among the total population of
the country has declined steadily, partly due to lower birth rates and high emigration levels in
recent decades. A major "brain drain" from the nation is the large number of emigrants, many
of whom are young and highly educated. Despite the growing brain drain problem among
Chinese Malaysian youth, there has been a growing wave of new Chinese migration from
Mandarin-speaking northeaster China (North China and East China) and a new mixture with
the Vietnamese following an increasing number of Malaysian Chinese men marrying Mainland
China and Vietnamese foreign spouses.

1.1.3 INDIANS
Indian Malaysians make up 6.7% of the population of Malaysia. Tamils, Telugus, and Punjabis
are among the Indian subgroups. Tamils, who make up 86 percent of Malaysian Indians, started
arriving during the colonial era in the 18th and 19th centuries. Indian workers were brought to
the country to build railways, to work in plantations, and in palm trees for rubber and oil.
Ceylon Tamils (now English-educated in Sri Lanka) worked as teachers, clerks, public
servants, physicians, medical assistants, and other white-collar jobs. Most of the Punjabis were
serving in the Malaysian military. Their religions are Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism, with more
than 86% practicing Hinduism. Some of the Muslims of South Asian (Indian) ancestry have
intermarried with the Malay Muslims and become integrated in Malaysia. Malaysian Indians
are the world's fifth largest overseas Indian population. In Malaysia, after the ethnic Malay and
Chinese, they constitute the third largest group (constituting 7% of the Malaysian population).
In Malaysia, Orang India, or Hindu in Malay, they are usually simply referred to as "Indian."
The Indian population of Malaysia is noteworthy for its class stratification, with large elite and
lower income groups and various racial differences even within its fold. Malaysian Indians
make up a disproportionately large percentage of per capita professionals, making up 15.5
percent of Malaysia's professionals in 1999. Up to 38 percent of the nation's medical
professional workforce was made up of Malaysian Indians from a survey taken in 1984. In
1970, Malaysian Indians ' per capita income was 76 percent higher than that of the majority in
Malaysia. In spite of somewhat fruitful attempts by the Malaysian government to redistribute
wealth since the 1970s, Malaysian Indians still earn an income of 27% higher per capita than
that of the dominant Malaysian community as seen in the 2005 data. Nevertheless, a significant
number of Malaysian Indians remain among the country's poorest.

1.2 RELIGION
1.2.1 ISLAM
Malaysia is a country where Islam is the most professed religion. Roughly 19.5 million Muslim
followers, or 61.3 percent of the population, were present as of 2013. Islam in Malaysia is
portrayed by the Shafi'i interpretation of Sunni theology and jurisprudence. Traders from
Arabia, China and the Indian subcontinent brought Islam. In the 15th century, it became firmly
established. In the Constitution of Malaysia, Islam is granted to symbolize its importance to
Malaysian society as the "religion of the Federation." Other religions, however, can be openly
practiced. Malaysia's draft constitution did not specify an official religion. The rulers of the
nine Malay states embraced this change, who felt it was enough for Islam to be the official
religion of each of their individual states. Nevertheless, the Reid Commission's Justice Hakim
Abdul Hamid, who drew up the constitution, came out strongly in favour of making Islam the
official religion, and thus the final constitution appointed Islam as Malaysia's official religion.
All Malaysian ethnic groups are Muslim, as described in Article 160 of the Malaysian
Constitution. Nine of the Malaysian states, namely Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Kedah,
Perak, Perlis, Selangor, Johor and Negeri Sembilan, have constitutional monarchs from
Malaysia (most of whom are Sultans). Such rulers of Malaysia still have power in states over
religious affairs. There is no sultan in the states of Penang, Malacca, Sarawak and Sabah, but
the king (Yang di-Pertuan Agong) plays the leading role of Islam in each of those states as well
as in each of the Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya Federal Territories.
The Shafi'i school of thought's Sunni Islam is Malaysia's official, legal form, though syncretise
Islam with elements of shamanism is still common in rural areas. Mosques are a common scene
throughout the world, and they are heard five times a day by adhan (call to prayer) from
minarets. Government bodies and banks are closed every Friday for two hours, so that Muslim
workers can pray in mosques on Friday. However, the weekends fall on Friday and Saturday
instead of Saturday and Sunday in certain states like Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Johor.
Many states, especially Kelantan and Terengganu, have been introduced to all businesses that
close for prayers every Friday for 2 hours. Non-compliance would result in fines.
 1.2.2 BUDDISM
After Islam, Buddhism is the second largest religion in Malaysia, with 19.2% of Malaysia's
population being Buddhist, although some estimates put that number at 21.6% when combined
with Chinese religions. In Malaysia, Buddhism is primarily practiced by the ethnic Chinese of
Malaysia, but in Malaysia there are also Malaysian Siamese, Malaysian Sri Lankans and
Burmese who practice Buddhism like Ananda Krishnan and K. Sri Dhammananda and a strong
Malaysian Indian community. As early as 200 BCE, Buddhism was introduced to the Malays
as well as to the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago. Chinese written sources indicated that
in the Malay Peninsula some thirty small Indianized states rose and fell. Malay Buddhism
started when Indian traders and priests traveled the sea routes and brought Indian ideas of faith,
state, and the arts with them. The region's peoples, especially the royal courts, have for many
centuries synthesized Indian and indigenous ideas including Hinduism and Mahayana
Buddhism, shaping their political and cultural patterns. However, after Tamil Nadu's king of
Chola attacked them in the early 11th century, the Malay Kedah Kingdom denounced Indian
religion. The King of Kedah, Phra Ong Mahawangsa, was the first Malay ruler to reject the
traditional Indian religion; he converted to Islam, and the majority of Malays converted to Islam
during the golden age of the Malacca Sultanate in the 15th century. The majority ethnic group,
the Malays, is legally defined as Muslim according to the Malaysian constitution. They make
up 60% of the population, with the rest consisting mostly of Chinese, who are usually Buddhists
or Christians, and to a lesser extent Indians, who are typically Hindus. There are also fewer
other indigenous and immigrant populations; among the latter are Singhalese, Thai, and
Eurasian Malaysians. Nearly all Buddhists in Malaysia live in urban areas, as they are mostly
engaged in business or working in different professions. A number of Malaysian Buddhist
leaders have recently reacted to the decline in religious engagement by Buddhist family
members, seeking to reformulate their message to reflect more explicitly modern life. The
Buddhist Missionary Society is one of the groups involved in these educational projects.
Leaders of the Missionary Society have argued that while many educated youths seek an
intellectual approach to Buddhism, the tradition of ceremony and symbolism prefers an equally
large number of people to approach religion. Wesak is widely celebrated in Malaysia, a holiday
commemorating the birth of the Buddha.

1.2.3 HINDUISM
Hinduism is Malaysia's fourth-largest religion. According to the 2010 Malaysian Census, about
1.78 million inhabitants of Malaysia (6.3% of the total population) are Hindus. This is up from
1,380,400 in 2000 (6.2% of the total population). Most Malaysian Hindus are settled in
Peninsular Malaysia's western parts. In Malaysia, there are three states that qualify as an Hindu
enclave, where the Hindu percentage exceeds 10 percent of the population. According to the
2010 Census, the Malaysian state with the highest proportion of Hindus is Selangor (13.4%),
followed by Negeri Sembilan (11.6%), Perak (10.9%) and the Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory
(8.5%). Technically, the first three mentioned are Hindu enclaves. Sabah (0.1 percent) is the
state with the least proportion of the Hindu population. In the ancient and medieval era, Indians,
along with other ethnic groups such as Chinese, started arriving in Malaysia. There were 1,91
million Indian people of ethnic origin identified by the Malaysian Census in 2010. Around 1.64
million (86%) of the Malaysian Indian ethnic group are Hindus. Malaysian people even claim
to be Hindus among 0.14 million non-Indian ethnic groups. In 1957, Malaysia gained
independence from the British colonial empire, then proclaimed the official religion of the state
to be Islam and adopted a mixed constitution. On the one hand, it protects religious freedom
(such as Hinduism practice), but on the other hand, it also restricts religious freedom. In recent
decades, there have been growing allegations of religious persecution of Hindus by various
Malaysian state governments and their Sharia courts, along with other minority religions. The
Hinduism of Malaysia is diverse, with large urban temples dedicated to specific deities and
smaller temples on the estates. The temples of the property generally follow the Indian area
custom from which the worshippers of the temples derive. Many people follow South India's
Shaivite, or Saivite, tradition (Shiva's worship). Constructed on private property and long
before Malaysian independence, Hindu temples have been demolished in recent years by
officials of the Malaysian government. Some of the annual big Hindu festivals are Deepavali
(Lights Festival), Thaipusam (Lord Murugan Festival), Pongal (Harvest Festival) and Navaratri
(Durga Festival). Deepavali is Malaysia's largest Hindu festival. Traditionally, the Malaysian
Hindus have open houses over Deepavali, where people from different ethnic groups and sects
are welcomed to share the festival of light and taste Indian food and sweets in Hindu homes.

1.2.4 CHRISTIANITY
Christianity in Malaysia is a minority religion practiced by 9.2% of the population (2010
census), two-thirds of the 2,617 million Christians live in eastern Malaysia in Sabah and
Sarawak, where 33% of the population are living together. In Malaysia, the largest Christian
denominations are Anglicans, Baptists, Brethren, non-denominational churches, independent
charismatic churches, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics. Early
Christian presence in the Malay archipelago can be traced to Arab Christian traders from the
Arabian Peninsula who heard the gospel from Peter the apostle at Jerusalem (Acts 2:11), as
well as those evangelized by Paul's ministry in Arabia (Galatians 1:17) and the evangelistic
ministry of St Thomas to the early Arabians and Nestorians from as early as the 7th century
and to early Arab Christian, Persian and Nestorian traders in Malacca prior to the Portuguese
conquest in 1511. The British acquired Penang in 1786, and in 1795 took over Malacca, which
had been conquered by the Dutch in 1641. The Major Seminary was established in Penang in
1810 by Catholic priests from Thailand. The LMS was based in Malacca and Penang from
1815, but after 1842, when it became possible to enter China, most Protestant missions
collapsed. Catholic leadership remained, but it was divided between French and Portuguese.
The ministry of the Open Brethren dates back to 1860 and the Methodist church from 1885.
Presbyterianism grew in Johore through Chinese churches and in Penang, Ipoh and Kuala
Lumpur expatriate congregations. Indigenous peoples started their mission to Sengoi in 1932.
Through the Charismatic Movement of the 1970s, Pentecostalism became a greater influence,
but since 1935, missionaries of the North American and Ceylon Pentecostal Mission
(Pentecostal Church of Malaysia) had been involved. After the establishment of British North
Borneo, Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism arrived in North Borneo in 1882. The missionary
movement focused mainly on the Chinese and indigenous communities, such as the Kadazan-
Dusun people, for instance the Roman Catholic Mill Hill Missionaries. In the spread of
Christianity, migration was also an important factor. In 1882, among migrant Hakka Chinese,
many of whom were Christians, the Basel Mission also worked in Sabah. Catholics, Lutherans,
Anglicans and Methodists were among the Tamil migrants to Malaya. Migration increased
following the Boxer Rebellion, especially to the still strong Chinese Methodist centers of
Sitiawan and Sibu. In the 1930s, after migration from India's Kerala Coast, Mar Thoma and
Syriac Orthodox Churches were established. Rajah Brooke's rule in Sarawak included support
for an Anglican ministry from 1847 and was later admitted to Catholics. In 1928, the Australian
Borneo Evangelical Mission began working with limited funds, which culminated in today's
Sidang Injil Borneo, the largest indigenous church in Malaysia.
Christmas is a public holiday in Malaysia, although much of the public celebration is
commercial in nature and does not have any overt religious overtones. Christians often
purchase newspaper ads on Christmas or Easter, but this is usually only allowed in English-
language newspapers, and no permission is granted each year. The advertisements themselves
are typically arguments that are conditional. Good Friday is not a federal public holiday, but a
state public holiday in Sabah and also in Sarawak, where Christianity is the largest religion;
both states have been given a degree of greater autonomy than other states in the Union, as they
were considered politics on par with Malaya when they merged with Malaysia and Singapore.
But for some schools, it's a school holiday. Sometimes Malaysian Christians hold fasts that end
on Independence Day or Day of Malaysia and pray for Muslims. This has been explained in a
number of ways, including a desire to show patriotism, promote religious harmony, and
celebrate religious freedom.