This study examines how deforestation in Malaysia is framed as an economic issue fought out in the political arena using cultural codes as an entry point to examining the political tensions of contemporary Malaysia. Three themes recur throughout this work. The first theme concerns the centrality of resources in Malaysia's colonial and post-colonial political economy. The second theme concerns the displacement of the anxieties of national and cultural survival onto the contests over economic rights. And the third theme is the way collective memories 'flesh out' contemporary contests between the state and civil society. In the sense that the three themes are inter-related, this study traces the twinned construction, and opposition, of the two central ideas: of 'nature' in the form of the rainforest and 'race' in the guise of nation. In keeping with the role of memory in present-day social and political engagements, this study weaves both archival and contemporary material to trace the construction of the history, imagery and vocabulary that have been mapped onto the physical space of the rainforest. I explore the production of the cultural codes through this mapping process that are then used to articulate the contests over the rainforest. These codes are the consequence of negotiations that reflect the unstable alliances and inconsistent identities of contemporary Malaysia, and they are the legacies, albeit translated, of colonialism. In retracing the contests over and about the forests, I hope to shed some light on why Malaysians made, and continue to make, decisions that appear to work against them. The decisions affecting the fate of the rainforest reflects choices made about the kind of society Malaysians live with. Hence, the three core chapters of this study examine military, political/cultural and economic contests and negotiations surrounding the birth of the Malayan/Malaysian nation-state through their impacts on the rainforest. By acknowledging how much of Malaysia's contemporary politics is its colonial legacy, I hope to highlight the trade-off we have made between limited political engagement and development. To accept that we cannot protect basic rights as the price of economic success is to continue to live within the racist framework of colonialism that human rights are only for some humans. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

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published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Malaysia does not seem to follow the conventional pattern of a larger power that uses stronger military force to gain a better security posture. Instead, Malaysia has chosen to adopt the more encompassing approach that defines national security as "the capacity of the society to protect individuals, groups and the nation from physical and socio-economic danger". Given this approach, which is almost anthropological in nature, Malaysia has been able to promote a form of national ideology acceptable to all communities, and has thereby provided a common basis for achieving and maintaining peace and harmony. A stringent internal security law was also enacted in 1969 to sustain this peace, as well as to curb any threat from future insurgents and terrorists. In addition, the government created a development and security plan known as KESBAN to win the hearts and minds of the population and launched massive border operations with Thailand to block the egress and exit routes of communists. As a result of such efforts the Malaysian government's overall containment policy was successful and the Malaysian government managed to secure the communists' surrender in December 1989. What it took to reach this point is what this thesis hopes to reveal. / Lieutenant Colonel, Malaysian Army

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 110-113. / The Malay house is defined and described in the Malaysian context . Underlying principles or rules that make up the· house are derived from the analysis of its physical, spatial and functional elements and the variations that these elements exhibit. Tho rules are tested in the reconstruction of the Malay house. Changes based on hypothetical cases are then introduced to find out how the house would transform under these new sets of requirements. It is found that it is possible for a person, having not seen a Malay house prior to this, to reconstruct one based on the rules stated in this work. It is also found that new systems have to be added to the existing systems in the Malay house to meet the requirements for change. The addition of new systems however, do not mean the destruction of the tradition. It is hoped that this prototype would be the basis for further research in the Malay house. / by Wan Burhanuddin B. Wan Abidin. / M.S.

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Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Robert M. McNab, Karen Guttieri. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-108). Also available online.

The thesis aims at studying the Entrepreneurial Development initiatives in Malaysia with specific reference to training and development initiatives. The concept of entrepreneurial development itself suffers from a lack of consensus as to whether entrepreneurs can be developed or not. Gibb's model maintains that the development of entrepreneurs can be influenced. This is supported by empirical evidences from investigations in both developed and undeveloped countries. The Malaysian entrepreneurial development initiatives are targeted at the indigenous people known as the Bumiputera who do not form the business community of the country. The research issue is whether the emergence of Bumiputera entrepreneurs can be explained by the government initiatives that have tried to overcome (or compensate for) the disadvantages of their background and culture. In implementing the entrepreneurial development policy the Malaysian government creates a range of assistance. One of the most important instruments which the Malaysian government has used is entrepreneurial training aimed at overcoming the technical and management handicaps of the indigenous people who tend not to be exposed to the business/private sector. To analyse the role of entrepreneurial training and other development initiatives primary data have been collected from 202 respondents, out of which 200 were used in the final analysis. The results of the study show that the background and culture of the Bumiputera are important elements in understanding Bumiputera entrepreneurs. The general environment is not found as being important but the specific environment created by the various initiatives is found to be significant. It was found that the entrepreneurs themselves considered the initiatives as inadequate but nevertheless were benefitting from them. It was also found that there were no significant differences between the retailers and the manufacturers and the entrepreneurs in the developed and less developed areas of the country.