Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 13. June 11 1979
Economic Deprivation
Economic Deprivation
During the nineteenth century, Malaysia (comprising Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah) became British colony. Under colonial rule, large quantities of our natural resources and wealth were being plundered. In fact, before Second World War, 10-15% of Malaya's national earnings was expropriated to Britain annually for several decades. With this ruthless exploitation, economic and social development of our country was impossible.
After the War began the period of intensifying national liberation movements of the local people throughout the world against the colonial rules. The British realised that it was impossible for them to continue their direct rule of Malaya and the two states of North Kalimantan. Thus 'independence' was granted to Malaya in 1957. Prior to giving independence to Malaya, Britain had taken great pains to train and educate an elite class to care for and protect their vast economic interest. This period marked the beginning of students going overseas, at that time most of them were from the Malay aristocratic class or wealthy businessmen. The notable ones were Tengku Abdul Rahman (former Prime Minister of Malaysia) Tun Abdul Razak (late Prime Minister of Malaysia) and bee Kuan Yeuw (present Prime Minister of Singapore). Under the rule of this elite class who largely served the British interests, it was not surprising to find that the vast economic interests of British remained intact even after independence.
Today, 22 years after independence, the Malaysian economy still bears the prominant features of foreign domination. According to the Third Malaysia Plan, in 1975, foreign companies continued to own some 60% of our country's productive assets. Foreign domination in major sectors of the Malaysia economy results in massive outflow of capital as repatriation of profits and dividend payments. It is significant to note that in the period of 1957/75 1500 million pounds in profit were expropriated from Malaysia and Singapore, an amount almost enough to pay for the running of 130 universities for one year. Thus foreign domination of our economy has led to a general shortage of funds for the development of more institutions of higher learning. Till today only 0.1% of Malaysians have the opportunity to attend tertiary institutions