URBANIZATION AND URBAN GROWTH DURING COLONIAL RULE AND INDEPENDENCE IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Abstract

Contrary to popular impressions, the pace of urbanization in contemporary developing countries is no more rapid than were the patterns of a century ago in the West (Preston, 1979) While it is true that most third world cities are growing very rapidly often at rates of two or three percent per annum the pace of population growth in rural areas has been almost as rapid. This results in only moderate increases in the relative urban share of the total population in most developing countries. The dynamics of urbaniza-tion and its relationship to social and economic change can only be revealed by intensive historical studies of individual countries during the process of development. Peninsular Malaysia is a most interesting case for analysis of urban change. Except for the city-state of Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia has been the most successful of Southeast Asian countries in terms of socio-economic development, especially since Indepen-dence in 1957. Yet, it comes as a surprise to learn that the rate of change in urbanization in Peninsular Malaysia slowed down during the post-Independence era of the 1960s, a period of much more sus-tained economic growth and diversification than the preceding pre-Independence era. While there were some unique political factors (the "Malayan Emergency " and a major resettlement program) that accelerated urban-ward movements during the early 1950s, these events are only part of the explanation for the changing pace of urbanization. Another issue that draws attention to the study of urbani-zation in Peninsular Malaysia is the present government’s explicit goal to "restructure Malaysian society so that the present identi-fication of race with geographical location is reduced and

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