Abdul Rahman was the first Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya. He was born in 1903 in Alor Setar and died in 1990. He was the son of the sultan of Kedah, and was educated in Malaya, Thailand, and England. As head of the United Malay National Organization, he became chief minister of Malaya after an election victory in 1955, and when Malaya attained sovereignty in 1957, he became its Prime Minister. He was the principal architect of the alliance of Malaya with Singapore, Sarawak, and Sabah, which in 1963 resulted in the creation of Malaysia. Research Abdul Rahman
The Dayak (Dyaks) are an aboriginal people of IndonesianBorneo and Sarawak. They are a finely-formed race, of a yellow complexion. 19th century explorers described them as docile, industrious, and superior to the Malays. The practice of head-hunting (hunting their enemies to make trophies of their heads) was still practised among the Dayak as late as 1900, but had been abolished where European influence prevailed. Research Dayak
Sir James Brooke the Bajah of Sarawak, was an English colonial governor. He was born in Bengal in 1803, and died in 1868. In 1838, having gone to Borneo, he assisted the Sultan of Brunei (the nominal ruler of the island) in suppressing a revolt. For his services he was made Rajah and Governor of Sarawak, a district on the north-west coast of the island, and being established in the government he endeavoured to induce the Dyak natives to abandon their irregular and piratical mode of life and to turn themselves to agriculture and commerce; and his efforts to introduce western values were successful. He was made a KCB in 1847, and was appointed Governor of Labuan. In 1863 he finally returned to England, leaving the government in the hands of his nephew, Charles Brooke. Research James Brooke
The Federation of Malaysia is a country comprising thirteen states in south east Asia. It has a total area of 329,750 km2. The climate is tropical with annual monsoons in the south-west from April to October and in the north-east from October to February. The terrain is comprised of coastal plains rising to hills and mountains. Natural resources are tin, crude oil, timber, copper, iron ore, natural gas and bauxite. The religion is dependant upon the race, with the Malays are nearly all Muslim, the Chinese inhabitants predominantly Buddhists, Indian inhabitants predominantly Hindu. The official language is Bahasa Malay with English, Chinese and Tamil languages also spoken.
From the 9th to the 14th centuries Malaysia was part of the Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya before being conquered by the Hindu Javanese. During the 19th century Britain took over control of Malaya, until in 1957 Malaya became independent and in 1963 eleven states formed the federation of Malaysia with three more states: Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak joining afterwards in 1963. Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia in 1965. Research Malaysia
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