Insular Southeast Asia - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 456

2025 by the end of Malaysia' s T Tenth Y ear Plan. These
plans have six featured goals:

High Malay TFRs can be related to Islamic funda-
mentalism and associated decline in the use of contra-
ception. Furthermore, population policy in 1984
promoted five-child families. Malay families receive pref-
erential treatment in university education, government
employment, and the like. Malaysia 2020 has pro-
nounced a goal of 70 million people as the optimum pop-
ulation size. This would substantially enlarge the
consumer market in light of industrialization ambitions.
The structure of Malaysian population has been al-
tered, with Malays now forming a dominant majority .
Many Chinese, seeing no future for their children, left
for Singapore, Canada, and Australia. Malays are now
58 percent of the population as compared to 56 percent
in 1970. The Chinese make up 25 percent and the Indians
7 percent. Multiple non-Malay ethnic groups, mostly in
East Malaysia, make up the final 12 percent.
In East Malaysia, populations are concentrated along
the coast and in surrounding urban centers. This con-
trasts with the sparsely populated interior where settle-
ments are along river arteries. Sabah' s population has
been boosted by the in-migration of nearly half a million
Filipinos. Many are illegal residents and every few years
there are crackdowns, arrests, and deportations. Every
year, there are 4,000 to 6,000 Filipinos deported for im-
migration offenses. Filipinos work in the banking, con-
struction, engineering, and medical industries. Some
20,000 Filipinas work as nurses, nannies, and maids.
In 2010, an estimated 2.2 million Indonesians lived
and worked in Malaysia. After the financial crisis, about
one million of these people were deported. In 2009, an
agreement was signed between Malaysia and Indonesia
that would allow Indonesians to work in the country but
they would have to pay six months wages to the govern-
ment for the privilege. Moreover, they have no rights to
decent working hours, fair wages, or reasonable living
conditions.
Many Indonesian women work as maids in Malaysia.
When a law was passed to allow them one day off a week
there was an outpouring of anger. One maid was beaten
to death by her employer.

Agriculture: T Transformation from traditional prac-
tices to a “new agriculture” to improve the produc-
tivity of land.
Manufacturing: T To decentralize Pinang and balance
production across the region in order to provide
more employment opportunity .
T Tourism: Significantly diversify the tertiary sector
and accelerate the move into more modern service
industries.
Infrastructure: Build new infrastructure to facilitate
the above developments with the intention of pro-
viding integrated services and logistics such as irri-
gation, utilities, and transportation.
Human Capital: Improve educational facilities and
teaching resources to properly train people in the
appropriate science and technology to compete in
the global marketplace.
Environment: Protect and conserve natural envi-
ronments in the course of development with the
goal of sustainability .

A Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was launched
in 1996. This 15 by 50 km (9 by 30 mi) corridor stretches
from the twin Petronas T Towers in Kuala Lumpur south-
ward to the international airport and includes the new
cities of Cyberjaya and Putrajaya. Kuala Lumpur and the
airport are joined by a high-speed rail system that opened
in 2002. There is a multimedia university in Cyberjaya, and
Putrajaya is designed to be the new administrative capital
of Malaysia with a paperless, electronic government.
The MSC is served by a fiberoptic/coaxial cable net-
work with direct links to ASEAN, Japan, the United
States, and the European Union. Firms locating in the
MSC enjoy tax and investment incentives and are al-
lowed to hire foreign “knowledge workers.” The “knowl-
edge workers” will live in “smart homes” in which they
can shop, entertain themselves, and further their educa-
tion online. As of 2004, over 1,000 high-tech firms had
located in the MSC.

A POPULATION ANOMALY
Malaysia' is population growth is relatively high, given its
level of development. It is also relatively higher than the
average rate for Southeast Asia. Malays have significantly
higher total fertility rates (TFRs) than the Chinese and
the Indian populations. The national TFR in 2009 was
2.6, of which Malays had a two-thirds contribution.

URBANIZATION
Migration has taken place in two ways. In the 1960s and
1970s, government efforts were concentrated in redis-
tributing rural populations to other rural areas via land
development schemes. The 1980s witnessed a dramatic
change, with the largest share of migration being rural to
urban. The rural sector was less able to absorb more