Impacts of Population Growth on Malaysia's Culture

I have chosen to write an essay on Malaysia’s population growth, how it has changed and how it affects the culture of my country. In my essay, I had included the background and the history of my country and also the reason why it had change and how it’s change for the past few years. I also include my critical and original thinking regarding this topic.

Malaysia Background and History

As a Malaysian, I can safely say that Malaysia have a very interesting background and history. Malaysia is known for it rich cultural history. The rainforest and the wildlife in Malaysia are preserved from century. Now days, Malaysia also known for it cuisine, world famous beaches and also Malaysia is famous among the tourist because of the different shopping mall that Malaysia have and the price of shopping in Malaysia is quite cheap. Malaysia had been a tourist spot for so many years already and to cater to this tourist needs, Malaysia has plenty of Resort that are offering a perfect gateway for tourist that would like to escape from the city life. But it’s not just for the tourist, sometimes the local also like to get away from the busyness of the city and routine life and just relax. Malaysia is known also as the only country that has mixture of three different races such as Malay, Indian and Chinese. In Malaysia, there are three different religions this is because in Malaysia they got three different races so the religion is also different. Mostly Malay peoples, they are Muslims, Indians are Hindus while Chinese are mostly Buddhist. So as you can see, it a multicultural country and it’s a colourful country to live in because everyone regardless which race are you, they intent to celebrate each other celebration. Now I would like to briefly explain Malaysia history, Malaysia gains their independent in 31st August 1957. Afterward, subsequent states join Malaysia in 1963 and formed the country of Malaysia (Malaysia Background, 2002). Malaysian national language is Malay. It’s safe to say that Malaysia is a wonderful place not just to live but also to visit because Malaysia can offer you so many things.

Culture in Malaysia

As mention earlier, Malaysia is known for its culture and culture does play a strong foundation in everyday life of Malaysian. Malaysia is vibrant and diverse in they own ways. Malaysian people intent to share each other’s cultural richness and it’s had been Malaysia main political stability and growth. Malaysian peoples are warm accommodating and a very easy-going people. Malay culture had always been linked by the love of the land and a strongly believe in Islam (Culture and Peoples, 2010). Family ties, tolerance, goodwill and good manners are among the social norm of Malaysian people. In Malaysia, education level of Malaysian had a change toward the better in where new schools and subsidies for the lower income population are provided by the government and also a new infrastructure are provided in order to achieve the high level of education (Culture and Peoples, 2010). Also, there’s a different festival and celebration in Malaysia that we celebrate every year such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri for the Muslim, Deewali for Hindu and Chinese New Year for the Buddhist. National Day or Merdeka celebration are celebrate every year and normally all Malaysian will come together and celebrate them together with a colourful traditional performance, foods, firework and performance from the famous Malaysian artist.

Population Growth in Malaysia

(Malaysia Population, 2009)

As you can see on the graph above, Malaysian population had growth however the population in Malaysia grow slowly. There are not many different in each year. For example, in 1999 the population for Malaysia was 22.712 million while in 2002 the population for Malaysia was 24.527 million and in 2009 the population for Malaysia is 27.761 million. As you can see, there are not much different between these years. However throughout the year Malaysia population growth had grown.

The reason of the population change (How and Why)

In the 60’s changes in population pattern and economy had significantly affected Malaysian families. Some of the reason is that the rural-urban, economic development and migration play one of the strongest reasons. Now days most of Malaysian family consist of father, mother and two or one children. Extended family consist at least one elderly parent with an adult child (Malaysia, Marriage and Family information pattens, 2010). Other reason why it change or grown slowly is probably because in the 60’s peoples intent to get marry in the younger age and have a lot of children but in the modern world, people intent to marry in later age and normally have only one or two children in their family.

Population Growth effects on the culture

Population growth does somehow effects the culture in Malaysia. But the effects hit the city people more than the villager. In the village the culture and the tradition is still protected while in the city, the culture is more modernized than in the village. In the village, traditional custom are still hugely practice and intent to be more protective about it. While in the city, it’s more toward the western culture where the younger peoples most likely to spend their night in the club, drinking and shopping rather that spending their time with the family. The way they dress also changing, it’s more toward the western. You can rarely see anyone in the city wearing Malaysian traditional dress but in the village you can still see them in Malaysian traditional dress. Other reason why it could effects Malaysian culture is because there’s a lot of foreigner now days leaving in Malaysia, so people in the city intent to follow the foreigner culture rather than sticking with Malaysian culture. But the benefit of this is that most of Malaysian can speak well English. Also it makes Malaysia and attractive country to visit and live in and also make people know that Malaysia is a multicultural country.

Conclusion

To conclude my research on how the population growth in my country which is Malaysia had effects the culture, I must say that even though there’s a negative side of the growth however there’s also plenty of benefits. Such as, now that Malaysia is well known all around the world, it’s actually creating more opportunity for us as Malaysian to grow or to develop not only our country but also our self. Even though the effects hit more towards the city people, it does not mean that all of them already forgotten about their culture. Even so most of them act or follow western culture more than our own culture, they still care about the value of family and still respect the country that they live in. Here we can see the clear difference how Malaysia was few years ago and how Malaysia is today.

References

Alloexpat (2010). Culture and Peoples, 26 February 2010 from: http://www.malaysia.alloexpat.com/malaysia_information/culture_malaysia.php

Index Mundi (2009). Malaysia population. Retrieved 03 March 2010 from: http://www.indexmundi.com/malaysia/population.html

Malaysia.com (2009). About Malaysia. Retrieved 26 February 2010 from: http://www.malaysia.com/about-malaysia.html  

Malaysia information (2002). Malaysia background . Retrieved 26 February 2010 from: http://www.asia-planet.net/malaysia/information.htm 

Malaysia information (2002). Wealth of Culture. Retrieved 26 February 2010 from: http://www.asia-planet.net/malaysia/wealth-culture.htm