Last year 10 million tourists from around the world heeded this fast-track nation’s siren call to savour its multiple charms. An explanation There must be very few in India who are unaware of the multiple charms of Malaysia as a tourism destination. This relatively parvenu nation’s $57 million (Rs.251 crore) media campaign that kicked off nearly two decades ago continues to attract international tourists to its sprawling shopping malls, pristine beaches and ancient remains. After the country threw open its borders for tourists in April 2022, post long travel restrictions disallowing foreign tourists during the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia experienced 10 million footfalls. Tourism is an important sector for this country which earns 102 billion Malaysian ringgit (Rs.1 lakh crore) from toursim. This southeast Asian country (pop. 33 million) has earned an enviable reputation among high-flyers worldwide as a golfing (thanks to the nearly 200 world-class golf courses across the country) and Formula-racing destination. Malaysia’s ‘truly Asia’ claim, a slogan that has remained unchanged since 1999. Its population comprising ethnic Malays (52 percent), Chinese (22 percent) and Indians (7 percent) live in peace and harmony. Like most South-east Asian nations Malaysia too experienced an economic crisis in 1997. But under the leadership of its tough, outspoken former prime minister Mahathir bin Mohammed who transformed the nation into an economic powerhouse, it was the first ASEAN country to bounce back. It’s hardly surprising that Malaysia’s ‘Truly Asia’ media campaign has struck a resonant chord in middle class India. Two thousand years ago, Indian monarchs ruled this land. In the Bujang Valley, Kedah, one can study the sprawling ruins of an ancient Hindu kingdom dating back to 300 AD. Indian kings are believed to have sailed across the Bay of Bengal to establish kingdoms there. By the 12th century, the strongest of these kingdoms, Srivijaya was lauded by Chinese, Arab and Indian traders as hosting the best trading port in the region. Soon however, other entrepots emerged and by 1400 AD, the region came to be known as Malacca, with Islam becoming the major religion and the rulers calling themselves sultans. The first Europeans to discover Malacca were the Portuguese who arrived in 1511. Led by Alfonso de Albuquerque, they sailed into Malacca harbour, opened cannon fire and captured the city. The next to arrive were the Dutch who captured the region in 1641. In the 18th century, the East India Company spread its tentacles as it had done in the Indian subcontinent and subjugated this land absorbing it into the British Empire and Somerset Maugham country of rubber plantations and Planters Punch. The Japanese Imperial Army overran most of the Malaysian peninsula during the Second World War but handed the conquered territories back to Britain following the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the surrender of Japan in 1945. Malaysia attained its independence a decade after India on August 31, 1957. The government established was a constitutional monarchy where the post of head of state is rotated among the hereditary sultans…
