Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Malaysia's planning organization has become the institutional centrepiece of that country's development effort. Indeed, Malaysia ranks as one of the non-Communist developing countries where planning is most highly institutionalized. Malaysian planning evolved as an effective policy mechanism for directing the authoritative allocation of public resources towards declared developmental objectives. Despite this attachment to national planning, Malaysia remains a staunchly market-oriented, open, and predominantly private enterprise economy. Nevertheless, as the role of planning expanded, private sector activity became increasingly subject to policy interventions predicated upon the politically-determined goals of development planning.
1 Rudner, Martin, ‘Trends in Malaysian Development Planning: Goals, Policies and Role Expansion’, Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs. Vol. 14, No. 2 (1980)Google Scholar; Esman, Milton, Administration and Development in Malaysia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972).Google Scholar
2 Yah, Lim Chong, Economic Development of Modern Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1967)Google Scholar; Thoburn, John T., Primary Commodity Exports and Economic Development: Theory, Evidence and a Study of Malaysia (London: John Wiley & Sons, 1977).Google Scholar
3 Malaysia, , Economic Report, 1976/77, Vol 5 (Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Finance, 1976), pp. 29–41Google Scholar; Malaysia, , Economic Report, 1978/79, Vol 7 (Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Finance, 1978), pp. 51–68Google Scholar; Bhanoji Rao, V. V., National Accounts of West Malaysia, 1947–1971 (Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1976), esp pp. 80–1.Google Scholar
4 Thoburn, J. T., ‘Exports and Economic Growth in West Malaysia’, Oxford Economic Papers, Vol 25, No. 1 (03, 1973), pp. 89–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Lim, David, Economic Growth and Development in West Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. 1973), p. 127.Google Scholar
6 Bauer, P. T., The Rubber Industry. A Study in Competition and Monopoly (London: Longmans, Green, 1948)Google Scholar; Drabble, J. H., ‘Malayan Rubber Smallholdings in the Inter-War Period. Some Preliminary Findings’, Malayan Economic Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (10 1978), pp. 61–72Google Scholar and ‘Peasant Smallholders in the Malayan Economy: An Historical Study with Special Reference to the Rubber Industry’, in Jackson, James C. and Rudner, Martin (eds), Issues in Malaysian Development (Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd, 1979), pp. 71Google Scholaret passim; Martin Rudner, The State and Peasant Innovation in Rural Development. The Case of Malaysian Rubber, reprinted in Lim, David (ed.), Readings on Malaysian Economic Development (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press 1975).Google Scholar
7 Ghee, Lim Teck, Peasants and their Agricultural Economy in Colonial Malaya 1874–1941 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Rudner, Martin, ‘Agricultural Policy and Peasant Social Transformation in Late Colonial Malaya’, in Jackson and Rudner (eds), Issues in Malaysian Development, pp. 7–61.Google Scholar
8 Malaysia, , Economic Report 1975/76, Vol. 4 (Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Finance, 1975), pp. 104–5Google Scholar; Lim, D., Economic Growth and Development in West Malaysia, pp. 234–45Google Scholar; Fujimoto, Akimi, ‘Land Tenure and Rice Production: Implications for Land Reform in Malaysia’, Kabar Seberang, No. 7 (1980), pp. 42–4Google Scholar; Purcall, John, Rice Economy: Employment and Income in Malaysia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1971).Google Scholar
9 Tan Soo Hai, Ding Eing, The Rice Industry in Malaya, 1920–1970 (Singapore: Malaya Publishing House, 1963)Google Scholar; Lim T. G., Peasants and their Agricultural Economy in Colonial Malaya; Rudner, ‘Agricultural Policy and Peasant Social Transformation in Late Colonial Malaya’.
10 Hirschman, Charles, ‘Sociology’, in Lent, John A. (ed.), Malaysian Studies: Present Knowledge and Research Trends (DeKalb, IL: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, 1979), pp. 8–29.Google Scholar
11 Rudner, Martin, ‘Malayan Rubber Policy: Development and Anti-Development During the 1950s’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (09 1976).Google Scholar
12 Rudner, , ‘Trends in Malaysian Development Planning’; David Lim, ‘Malaysia’, in Hoong, Yip Yat (ed.), Development Planning in Southeast Asia: Role of the University (Singapore: Regional Institute of Higher Education and Development, 1973).Google Scholar
13 On economic planning in Malaya during the colonial period, see Rudner, Martin, ‘The Draft Development Plan of the Federation of Malaya’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (03 1973)Google Scholar, and National Planning and Economic Modernization in Malaysia. The Politics of Beginning Development (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1975), esp. Ch. 4Google Scholar; Ann, Lee Soo, Economic Growth and the Public Sector in Malaya and Singapore 1948–1960 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Edwards, C. T., Public Finance in Malaya and Singapore (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1970), Ch. 2Google Scholar. For a survey of public financial institutions and their roles during this period see Drake, P. J., Financial Development in Malaya and Singapore (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1969).Google Scholar
14 Lim, D., ‘Malaysia’, pp. 120et passim.Google Scholar
15 Malaysia, , Second Malaysia Plan 1971–75 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1971)Google Scholar; Milne, R. S., ‘The Politics of Malaysia's New Economic Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Summer 1976), pp. 235–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16 Second Malaysia Plan 1971–73 Ch. I; Malaysia, , Mid-Term Review of the Second Malaysian Plan (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1973), Ch. IVGoogle Scholar; Milne, ‘The Politics of Malaysia's New Economic Policy’; Rudner, ‘Trends in Malaysian Development planning’; MacAndrews, Colin, ‘The Politics of Planning: Malaysia and the Third Malaysia Plan’, Asian Survey, Vol. 17, No. 3 (03 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ungku A. Aziz, ‘Footprints in the Sands of Time—The Malay Poverty Concept Over 50 Years From Za'aba to Aziz and the Second Malaysia Five Year Plan’ and Robless, C. L., ‘The Feasibility and Internal Consistency of the New Economic Policy’, both in Chee, Stephen and Mun, Choo Siew (eds), Malaysian Economic Development and Policies (Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Economic Association, 1975).Google Scholar
17 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The Economic Development of Malaya (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955).Google Scholar
18 On education policy and development in Malaysia, see Rudner, Martin, ‘Education, Development and Change in Malaysia’, South East Asian Studies (Kyoto), Vol. 15, No. 1 (06 1977)Google Scholar; Hirschman, Charles, ‘Political Independence and Educational Opportunity in Peninsular Malaysia’, Sociology of Education, Vol. 52, No. 2 (04 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chee, Tham Seong, ‘Issues in Malaysian Education: Past, Present and Future’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2 (09 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hon-Chan, Chai, Education and Nation-building in Plural Societies: The West Malaysian Experience (Canberra: The Australian National University, 1977)Google Scholar; Hoerr, O. D., ‘Education, Income and Equity in Malaysia’, in Lim, D. (ed.), Readings on Malaysian Economic Development.Google Scholar
19 Federation of Malaya, Report on Economic Planning in the Federation of Malaya in 1956 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1957), p. 4.Google Scholar
20 On this point see Hirschman, , ‘Sociology’, esp. pp. 18–25Google Scholar; Parkinson, B. K., ‘Non-Economic Factors in the Economic Retardation of the Rural Malays’, Modem Asian Studies Vol. 1, Pt 1 (01 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilder, William, ‘Islam, Other Factors and Malay Backwardness: Comments on an Argument’, Modern Asian Studies Vol. 2, Pt 2 (04 1968).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 Rudner, Martin, ‘Malayan Quandary: Rural Development Policy Under the First and Second Five-Year Plans’, reprinted in Lim, D. (ed.), Readings on Malaysian Economic Development.Google Scholar
22 Aziz, Ungku, The Subdivision of Estates in Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: Department of Economics, University of Malaya, 1962)Google Scholar; Rudner, , ‘Malayan Rubber Policy’, esp. pp. 256–9.Google Scholar
23 Ness, Gayl D., ‘Economic Development and the Goals of Government’, in Gungwu, Wang (ed.), Malaysia (London: Pall Mall, 1964)Google Scholar; Edwards, , Public Finance in Malaysia and Singapore, pp. 58–60Google Scholar; Rudner, Nationalism, Planning and Economic Modernization in Malaysia, Ch. 3; Silcock, T. H. and Fisk, E. K., The Political Economy of Independent Malaya (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1963).Google Scholar
24 Milne, R. S. and Ratnam, K. J., The Malaysian Parliamentary Election of 1964 (Singapore: University of Malaya Press, 1967).Google Scholar
25 Malaysia, , First Malaysia Plan 1966–70 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1966), para. 35Google Scholar; Ness, Gayl D., Bureaucracy and Rural Development in Malaysia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967).Google Scholar
26 First Malaysia Plan, paras 2, 45, 46, 47.
27 Ibid., paras 280(iii) and 281(v).
28 Ibid., para. 19; Malaysian academic economists shared this pessimism about the future of natural rubber: Lim, D., Economic Growth and Development in West Malaysia, pp. 13et passim.Google Scholar
29 Federation of Malaya, Second Five Year Plan 1961–65 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1961), para. 55Google Scholar; First Malaysia Plan, para. 22.
30 Edwards, , Public Finance in Malaya and Singapore, pp. 214–47Google Scholar; Bell, Simon, ‘The Tax/Subsidy Policy of the Malaysian Government towards Rubber Producers in Peninsular Malaysia’, Kabor Seberang, No. 7 (1980).Google Scholar
31 Second Five-Year Plan, para. 45; Wilson, T. B., The Economics of Padi Production in North Malaya, Pt 1 (Kuala Lumpur: Department of Agriculture, Federation of Malaya, 1958).Google Scholar
32 Second Five-Year Plan, para. 55.
33 Ibid., para. 56; First Malaysia Plan, Ch. 7; Rudner, ‘Malayan Quandary’.
34 Second Five-fear Plan, para. 55.
35 Rudner, ‘Malayan Quandary’.
36 First Malaysia Plan, para. 280.
37 Second Malaysia Plan, chs 2 and 3.
38 Ibid., para. 1. See also Milne, ‘The Politics of Malaysia's New Economic Policy’.
39 Second Malaysia Plan, para. 2; Malaysia, , Third Malaysia Plan, 1976–1980 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1976), ch. 4.Google Scholar
40 Second Malaysia Plan, ch. 2.
41 Ibid., paras 21–8; Third Malaysia Plan, paras 187, 203; Malaysia: Fourth Malaysia Plan 1981–1985 (Kuala Lumpur; Government Printer, 1981), paras 487–96.Google Scholar
42 Third Malaysia Plan, para. 33.
43 Second Malaysia Plan, para. 379.
44 Ching, Lim Sow, Land Development Schemes in Peninsular Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia, 1976).Google Scholar
45 Barlow, Colin, The Natural Rubber Industry. Its Development, Technology and Economy in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1978), esp. pp. 172–4.Google Scholar
46 Cho, George, ‘The Location of Development Centres for Rubber Smallholders in Peninsular Malaysia’, in Jackson, and Rudner, (eds), Issues in Malaysian Development, esp. pp. 101–5.Google Scholar
47 See Lim See Yan, ‘The Inflation Syndrome and its Implications for Policy’, H. G. Manur, ‘Inflation in Malaysia—Diagnosis and Prescription’, Ramesh Choucher, ‘Price Stability and Inflation in Malaysia’. Lajman Sirat, ‘Price Behaviour and Inflation in Malaysia’, all in S. Chee and Choo Siew Mun (eds), Malaysian Economic Development and Policies.
48 Ching, Lim Sow, ‘Towards an Equitable International Trade in Natural Rubber’, Malayan Rubber Review, Vol I, No. 1 (1976).Google Scholar
49 Ibid. Dr Lim is currently Head of the Rubber Economics and Planning Unit of the Malaysian Rubber Research and Development Board; Hon, Lew Sip, ‘A Case for an International Price Stabilization Scheme for Natural Rubber’, UMBC Economic Review, Vol. XII, No. 2 (1976)Google Scholar, Mr Lew was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Primary Industries; Tan Siew Sin, former Minister of Finance and currently Financial Consultant to the Government, cited in New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur), 11 04 1979Google Scholar; Malaysia, , Economic Report 1978/79, Vol. 8 (Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Finance, 1978), esp. pp. 35–6.Google Scholar
50 See Tuck Hoong, Paul Chan and Hock, Lee Kiong, ‘The New International Economic Order—Some Implications for Malaysia’, UMBC Economic Review, Vol. XII, No. 1 (1976).Google Scholar
51 The impact of inter-war international rubber export restriction schemes on the Malayan rubber economy is reported in P. T. Bauer, The Rubber Industry; Bauer, P. T., ‘The Working of the Rubber Regulation’, Economic Journal, Vol. LVI (09 1946), pp. 391–414CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bauer, P. T., ‘Malayan Rubber Policies’, Economica, Vol. XIV (1947), pp. 81–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Barlow, , The Natural Rubber Industry, pp. 58–73Google Scholar; Drabble ‘Peasant Smallholders in the Malayan Economy’.
52 Wasserman, Ursula, ‘Commodities in UNCTAD: Rubber’ and ‘Jakarta Natural Rubber Agreement 1976’. Journal of World Trade Law, Vol. 11, No.3 (05/06 1978)Google Scholar; Rudner, Martin, ‘Development Policies and Patterns of Agrarian Dominance in the Malaysian Rubber Export Economy’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 15, Pt 1 (02 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 Rudner, ‘Development Policies and Patterns of Agrarian Dominance in the Malaysian Rubber Export Economy’; Fryer, D. W. and Jackson, J. C., ‘Peasant Producers or Urban Planters?’, Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. VII, No. 2 (1966).Google Scholar
54 Fourth Malaysia Plan, para. 697.
55 Second Malaysia Plan, para. 415.
56 Ibid., paras 934, 955.
57 Fourth Malaysia Plan, para. 699.
58 Second Malaysia Plan, para. 433.
59 Ibid., paras 430–1.
60 Ibid., para. 435; Lim, D., Economic Growth and Development in West Malaysia, pp. 239–44.Google Scholar
61 Third Malaysia Plan, para. 955.
62 See Rudner, Martin, ‘Trends in Malaysian Development Planning: Goals, Policies and Role Expansion’, Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs (12 1980).Google Scholar