Peninsular Malaysi a

Gaijin-BeeProfessor of Geography, University of Singapore

New edition of

Land, People and Economy in Malaya

Longm anLondon and New York

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KPJB 1 8 53

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Longman Group Limited London

Associated companies, branches and representativesthroughout the world

Published in the United States of Americaby Longman Inc., New York

©OoiJin-Bee 1963 . , _ ; , "This edition © Longman Grbu? Limited 1976

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without theprior permission of the Copyright owner.

First published 1963 as Land, People and Economy in MalayaThis edition first published 1976

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

OoiJin-BeePeninsular Malaysia.

(Geographies for advanced study)Published in 1963 under title : Land, people, andeconomy in Malaya.Bibliography: p.Includes index.1. Malaya. l. Title.

DS592.05 1976 959.5 75-42166ISBN 0 582 48185 6

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Set in IBM Baskerville 11 on 12ptand printed in Hong Kong b ySheck Wah Tong Printing Press I

Contents

List of illustrations VIPreface to the first ed iti on xPreface to th e second edi t ion X llGlossary o f l\la lay te rms X IVNote on Malay spelling xvAcronyms XVI

PART ONE: The land1. Ge ological evo lution, relief and drainage 32. Clim ate 293. So ils 704. Vegetat ion 89

PART TWO: The people5. The evolution o f the population pattern 109G. The pat t ern o f popula t ion di stribution 1337. Set tle m ent pattern s 17 5

PART THREE : The economy8. Th e rudimentary economies o f the Orang Asli 1979 . The modern economy : Backgro und 20 3

10. Agriculture 20911 . Livesto ck rearing, fish ing and forest production 30 712. l\lin ing 33 213. Ind ust ry 35G14. Trad e 3 7215. Transport 3841G. Problem s and pro spects 408

Appe ndix : T ime chart showing major p oli ti cal changes 111 theMalay Pen insula an~Borneo 418

List o f referencesIndex

420429

v

PART ONE

The land

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1Geological evolution, relief and drainage

The geological evolution of the Malay Peninsula

In early Palaeozoic t imes an extensive landmass lay between presen t -dayAsia an d Aus tra lia. This ancien t landmass was co mposed of crystallineroc ks such as sch ists, gne isses and plutonites. Van Bemmelen (1949)calls it the Indonesian Primeval Continen t. During th e co urse o f thePalaeozoic era par ts of this Continent, incl uding the part now occup iedby the Malay Peninsul a, be gan to subs ide, creat ing geosynclinal condi-t ions. A long period of quiet subsidence and sedim entation was followedin the course of time by a very long and involved cycl e of mounta inbuilding. The geo logical history of the Malay Peninsul a forms part o f thestory of this oro gene sis, which is st ill co n t inuing in some areas ofpresen t-day Indonesia.

The geosynclinal areas were covered by seas, but their limits ar euncertain. It is probable that most of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, theMalay Peninsula , parts of west ern Borneo, south-eastern Sumatra andmost o f J ava were covered by suc h geosyncl inal seas , thou gh not all atthe same time.

In the part now occupi ed by the Malay Peninsula, evidence ofsedimentat ion in Upper Cambrian t im es has been fo und in the north-west. The sediments included ceme n t-b edde d sands, muds, silts andpebbles laid down in shallo w waters, on the northwest coast o f theLan gkawi Islands as well as on a Thai island north of the Langkawis(Procter , 1966) . Subsidence cont inued to Silurian t imes and geosynclinalconditions appeared to have been created as far south as present-daySelangor. Thick layer s of limestone and shales were laid down in thegeo syncline- the limestones of this age have been estimated to b e7 500 ft (2286 m) thick in the Lan gkawi Islands Oanes, 1961) and6 000 ft (1 829 m) thick in the Kuala Lumpur area (Gobbett, 1964).Similar foss il-bea ring Ordovician -Silurian sedime n ta ry rocks comprisinglimestone, shale and ch ert have been discovered in west Perlis, so uthKedah, the Kanthan, Grik and Kroh areas of Perak, and the southBentong area of Pah an g (Fig. 1).

3

Geological evolution, relie] and drainage

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Fig. 1.1 Geology of the Malay Peninsula.

4

Th e geological evolution of the Malay Pen insula

T he first of the many phases of oro genesis (mountain-building) affect -ing the Malay Peninsula occurred in Upper Silurian -Lower Devoniant imes. This w as probably preceded by volcanic activity . Although theorogeny was a minor one , it had the important effect o f cre ating twolong narrow geo synclinal basins due to the rise of a geanticlinal ridgeoccupying the site where the Main Range now stands. The geosynclinalbas in west of this ridge was a miogeosyncline in which vo lcan ic act ivit ieswere absent. In contrast, evidence of subsequent volcanic activity hasbeen fo und in the eastern geosyncline, which consequently has beente rmed an eugeosyncline (Chung, 1970).

Sedimen tat ion in the mi ogeos yncline took place without a break inthe shallow seas which covered the area during the Upper Pal aeozoi c era.The sedime n ts deposited during the Devonian and Carboniferous periodsconsisted of a succession of limestones at the southern part of the mio-geosyncline and of fine-grained non-calcareous materials at the northernend . Limestone ro cks of De vonian age 'have been proved to occur in theKanthan limestone hill and in southwest Kampar, Perak, where they areabout 4000 ft (1 219 m) thick. Carboniferous fossils and rocks havebeen found in Perlis, Kedah and Perak.

The sedimentation record in the eugeosyncline appeared to have beendiffe ren t in detail from that in the west. Sediments of Devonian age inwes t-central Pah ang consist ed of conglomerates , quartzites, graptol iticshales and cherts, which have been intruded by basic ro cks. These rockswere previously known as the Foothills Formation and the 'OlderArenaceous Series'. Carboniferous rocks are widespread along the eastcoast where they were probably laid down in a shallow water marineenviro nmen t. In the Kuantan area they consisted of carbonaceous shales,phyllites, quartzites and limestone bands. In central Pahang they weremade up o f thick successions of limestone. In southern Kelantan theCarb oniferous sediments discovered were calcareous mudstones inter-cala ted with pyroclastics (Chung, 1970).

In Upper Carboniferous-Lower Permian times another pe riod oforogenesis was accompan ied by the emplacement of granite in manyparts of Peninsular Malaysia. Radiometric datings have established thesegran it es, the oldest known to date, to be 280 to 300 million years old(Snelling et al., 1968).

According to van Bemmelen (1949) a period of orogenesis in Carbo-Permian times affected the area where the present Anambas Island islocated (east of the present east coast of Peninsular Malaysia). A geanti-cline was pushed up in this zone, with compensatory subsidence of theadjacen t regions. The border deep north o f the geanticline was situatedin the area where Natuna Island now stands. The wide and shallowsou thern border deep extended from the eastern half of present-dayPen insular Malaysia (with the Kelantan-Trengganu Border Range andthe Tahan Range as central axis) to the island of Karimata and the

5

Geological evolution, relief and drainag e

OLDMOUNTAINSYS TEMS

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Fig. 1.2 Structural belts in the Sunda area (after van Bemmelen).

southern part of West Borneo (Fig. 1.2) . Both deeps were centres ofvolcanic activity. The products of vulcanism in the southern deep werethe clastic ejectamenta formerly classified as the Pahang Volcanic Series(a term no longer in use; the rocks are now known to be more wide-spread in distribution and cover a wider range of time-Carboniferous toTriassic-than was once thought).

The next phase in the evolution of the Malay Peninsula occurred atthe end of the Palaeozoic era when the geosynclinal strip along easternPeninsular Malaysia, Karimata and the southern part of West Borneo wasuplifted by orogenic forces. The geanticlinal ridges so formed wereintruded by granitic magma. The uplift of a geanticline along easternPeninsular Malaysia brought about compensatory subsidence along

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Book CoverTitle PageContentsPART ONE : The land1 Geological evolution, relief and drainage