The document summarizes the socio-cultural setting of Malaysia. It describes the main ethnic groups - Malays, Chinese, and Indians - and how their ways of life differ, with religion playing a major role. Rural lifestyles centered around practices like shifting cultivation are described as significantly different from urban areas. Social issues stemming from colonial-era economic disparities between ethnic groups are discussed, as well as the government's attempts to address them. The diverse cultural influences that have shaped Malaysian culture, including from China, India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, are also summarized.

1. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Reported by:
Cleofe Maris Mesa
(Crim. 2-C, Group 3)

2. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Way of Life
The people of Malaysia have a
variety of lifestyles. Important
among ethnic Malays are respect
and obedience toward parents
and elders, community self-help,
and, in rural areas, the

3. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
maintenance of law and order
through cooperation and respect
for the village headman.
Marriages, burial customs, and
other aspects of Malay life
conform to Islamic law. In
general, religion plays a major

4. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
role in each group’s way of life.
Wedding ceremonies of ethnic
Indians, for example, follow
Hindu traditions, whereby the
wedding takes place on a day
and hour prescribed by a Hindu
astrologer. Traditional Chinese

5. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
family structure is patrilineal and
patriarchal; as in China, sons are
preferred over daughters in
order to maintain the family
surname through descent.
Kinship ties among the extended
Chinese family are very strong

6. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
and carry into the business
environment. Because ethnic
Chinese own many Malaysian
businesses, these ties hinder
occupational mobility among
Malays.

7. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Rural ways of life differ
significantly from urban
lifestyles. In East Malaysia, about
three-quarters of the population
is rural. Many indigenous ethnic
groups, including the Iban (Sea
Dayaks), Bidayuh (Land Dayaks),

8. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
and Kadazan, practice shifting
cultivation (also known as slash-
and-burn agriculture). In this
type of agriculture, trees and
grasses are burned from an area
so a crop may be planted; after
several seasons, the land is

9. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
abandoned and a new area is
burned for planting. These
groups live mostly in single-
family housing units, but many
indigenous people in East
Malaysia live in longhouses, a
traditional dwelling of Borneo.

10. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Social Issues
Since Malaysia gained
independence, there have been
significant differences in the
social standing of the three main
ethnic groups—indigenous
bumiputras (mostly Malays),

11. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
ethnic Chinese, and Indians.
Many of these differences are
holdovers from the colonial
period. While Malays have
traditionally predominated in
politics and government, ethnic
Chinese and Indians have been

12. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
disproportionately successful in
the economy. The incidence of
poverty is significantly higher in
rural areas, where the majority
of bumiputras live. Bumiputras
generally work as laborers on
estate farms, raise crops on

13. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
small plots, or practice
subsistence agriculture (farming
to meet family or village needs
rather than for profit). In
general, ethnic Chinese have
played the major role in both the
rural and urban sectors of the

14. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
economy, and this has been an
issue of contention for many
bumiputras. In May 1969 ethnic-
based tensions erupted into
violent riots in Malaysia. In 1970
the government introduced the
New Economic Policy (NEP) to

15. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
try to eliminate the relationship
between ethnicity and income.
The 20-year period of the NEP
produced some improvements,
including a reduction of people
living at or below poverty level,
from 52 percent in 1970 to 17

16. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
percent in 1990. However, the
income gap between groups,
especially bumiputras and ethnic
Chinese, remained substantial. In
1991 the government introduced
the New Development Policy
(NDP) as a successor to the

17. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
NEP, continuing many of the
same initiatives but with a
stronger emphasis on increasing
business ownership among
bumiputras. In the early 2000s
economic and social differences
continued to be a significant
social issue in Malaysia.

18. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Culture
Malaysia reflects different
cultural traditions, including
those of China, India, the Middle
East, Europe, and the entire
Malay Archipelago. Early Malay
empires absorbed Indian

19. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
influences, such as Hindu epics
and the Sanskrit language. The
kingdom of Malacca, centered in
the present-day state of Melaka,
developed as an Islamic state, or
sultanate, in the 1400s. Later,
new cultural cultural influences

20. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
from Europe and China mixed
with Hindu and Islamic
traditions. A collective but
distinctively Malay cultural
pattern has emerged out of all
these influences, with artistic
expressions in literature, music,
dance, and art forms.

21. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Source:
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. ©
1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.

22. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Malaysia
Terima Kasih!!!

23. Socio-Cultural Setting
as we
Understanding

24. Socio-Cultural
Community
for
establish a

27. Republic of the Philippines
CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY
Dumarao Satellite College, Dumarao, Capiz
Theme: “Understanding Better the Political, Economic &
Socio-Cultural Setting of Southeast Asian Nations for
Peace, Prosperity & People”
March 09, 2015 (8:00-11:30 am)
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