States Of Kedah Research Articles

Antibacterial activity of ten medicinal plants obtained from some selected villages in the states of Kedah and Penang, Malaysia

The antimicrobial activities of ten plant extracts showed some degree of variation among Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Nineteen crude plant extracts were active against Gram positive bacteria as compared to only 9 against Gram negative bacteria. The most resistant bacteria was K. pneumoniae K6 which showed no sign of susceptibility towards any of the plant extracts. This might be due to the presence of s-lactamase, which had been reported recently. S. epidermidis* showed susceptibility towards all plants except for M. citrifolia L . The highest zone of inhibition was 14.67 mm which was found in P. guajava extracts against S. epidermidis and this is closely followed by M. indica (at 13.67 mm ) against the same bacteria. Among all the plants which have been studied only M. citrifolia L . extract did not show any sign of antimicrobial activity. The result showed that means of inhibition zones between each plant extract were significantly different. Key words : Antibacterial; Gram positive; Gram negative; medicinal plants.

Mahsuri’s curse—globalisation and tourist development in Pulau Langkawi

The legend of Mahsuri abounds in Malaysian school textbooks. Mahsuri was a beautiful and very charming village maiden who lived in Pulau Langkawi and was wrongfully put to death in 1819 or the year 1235 hijrab. Accused of adultery by a jealous member of the royal house, Mahsuri, who was married to the Chief Minister, was sentenced to death together with her alleged lover, a trader from a place which is now part of Thailand in Phuket. Killed with her own family’s keris (a traditional Malay sword), Mahsuri put a curse on Pulau Langkawi for seven generations. She swore before her death that there would be no peace or prosperity on the island for the duration of these seven generations. Mahsuri’s family moved to another village in what was then the territory of Thailand and finally settled in Phuket, illustrating the cultural and trading links that have existed in this northern part of Malaysia between the southern parts of Thailand and the states of Perlis and Kedah. Mahsuri’s family and she appear to have not been allowed to rest in peace since her premature death. Her tomb, which was enshrined by the villagers, has been relocated several times and the exact location of its whereabouts may not be known. The tombstone itself is now housed in a museum that has been constructed near to the site where the tomb is believed to be. A huge tourist complex called Kota Mahsuri is being developed around the site of Mahsuri’s tomb. Pulau Langkawi may be the island paradise lost. Perhaps Mahsuri’s curse lingers, no matter that seven generations have passed and with them the industries that integration with the global economy has seen developed, declined and disappeared. Then again, perhaps this is indeed the curse—the quest for prosperity in a globalizing world and its relentless exploitation of the heritage in strategic parts of Malaysia—both natural and cultural—for the gains of a few and questionable benefits to the rest.

THE EVALUATION OF BEACHES IN NORTHERN MALAYSIA

This paper reports on findings of an IRP A Long Term Research that among others, aims at ranking natural tourism resources found in the states of Penang, Kedah and Perlis. Selected tangible resources such as beaches and waterfalls \Vere assessed using structured evaluation sheets. This paper discusses the methods and approaches utilized in assessing the products. Five evaluating factors that were used to determine product attractiveness and quality include transportation & accessibility, accommodation, facilities & infrastructure, tourist activities and physical features. The resulting quantitative rankings can assist tourism planners and marketers in planning and plotting potential tourist routes and developing more integrated regional tourism products.

THE EVALUATION OF BEACHES IN NORTHERN MALAYSIA

This paper reports on findings of an IRP A Long Term Research that among others, aims at ranking natural tourism resources found in the states of Penang, Kedah and Perlis. Selected tangible resources such as beaches and waterfalls \Vere assessed using structured evaluation sheets. This paper discusses the methods and approaches utilized in assessing the products. Five evaluating factors that were used to determine product attractiveness and quality include transportation & accessibility, accommodation, facilities & infrastructure, tourist activities and physical features. The resulting quantitative rankings can assist tourism planners and marketers in planning and plotting potential tourist routes and developing more integrated regional tourism products.

Blood, Sweat and Jihad: The Radicalization of the Political Discourse of the Pan‑Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) from 1982 Onwards

How Islamist politics in Malaysia leapt to a different register Kemenangan Islam tidak akan datang dengan sendirinya. Allah telah menentukan bahawa kejayaan dalam kehidupan dunia adalah hasil yang berterusan. (1) Ustaz Yusof Rawa, President of PAS, 29 April 1983 After the Malaysian elections of December 1999, PAS emerged as the strongest opposition party in the country with the largest number of opposition seats in Parliament (27). For the first time, the Islamist opposition party had come to the forefront of the combined opposition forces in Malaysia, reducing the secular-leftist Democratic Action Party (DAP) to secondary position. It was also the first time that the discourse of the opposition front had shifted to a religio-political register--with the debate on the issue and the implementation of shariah law being high on the list of priorities--whereas opposition politics prior to 1999 was marked by a lack of consensus and a variety of positions (minority rights, the national language issue) taken up by the respective parties outside the ruling coalition. PAS had managed to stage a spectacular victory, though the overall 1999 election results were still in keeping with previous victories won by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. PAS's hold on the north of the Malay peninsula seemed permanent, with two states, Kelantan and Trengganu, under its control. PAS had also won major victories in the states of Kedah, Perak, Perlis and Selangor, and speculation was rife about the possibility of the Islamist party breaking UMNO's hegemonic hold on the Malay-Muslim constituency and coming to power in the next elections (scheduled for late 2003 or early 2004). However, PAS was not allowed the time and opportunity to enjoy the fruit of its victory. Soon after, the country was gripped by the fear of militant Islamist terror as the UMNO/BN-led federal government began to crack down on a number of alleged militant networks and cells operating all over the country. In 2000, federal authorities apprehended members of an obscure and little-known cult group calling itself the al-Maunah movement, which it claimed was set up with the intention of toppling the government and introducing an Islamic state in Malaysia. Shortly after, members of the so-called jihad gang were also rounded up by the Malaysian police. Though PAS was not directly blamed for any of the actions of these organizations, the mainstream media did present a somewhat sensationalized picture of PAS (or some of its members at least) working hand-in-glove with these underground movements. The terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 altered the political fortunes of PAS for good. Worldwide the fear of militancy was used by a number of governments to demonize Islamist movements and parties in their own countries, and PAS was caught in the net as well. During the American-led attacks on Afghanistan that followed, PAS responded by calling for a against the West. (2) Some PAS leaders even went as far as saying that they would not stop their followers from going to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban troops opposed to the United States. PAS support for Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban regime incurred a heavy political cost. Unaware of (or oblivious to) the negative image that it would create for itself at home and abroad, PAS's decision to declare a against the West was the biggest own-goal scored by the party in the past few years. By publicly voicing its stand in favour of bin Laden and the Taliban, the party alienated itself from vast sections of the local and international community, and pushed itself back to the margins of the local political scene. The situation was exploited to the full by the Mahathir administration, which saw it as the best justification for its own policies vis-a-vis the local Islamist opposition. …

The Sam-Sams: A Study of Historical and Ethnic Assimilation in Malaysia

The Sam-Sams are Thai-speaking Muslim communities found in the northwestern Malaysian states of Kedah, Perlis, and Perak as well as in some southern Thai provinces of Trang, Phang-nga, Songkhla, and Satun (Setul). Officially, however, there have been no Sam-Sam communities in either Malaysia or Thailand since 1911. They are now regarded as Malays (in Malaysia) or as Thai Muslims (in Thailand). The focus of this study is on the Sam-Sams in three districts of Kedah, namely Kubang Pasu, Padang Terap, and Kota Setar, where the community can still be distinguished from its Malay neighbourhood. The study highlights certain aspects of the Sam-Sams their origin, in particular, and their socio-cultural development and reviews the role of the Sam-Sams in the modern nation-state of Malaysia.

Seasonal occurrence of Lytocestus lativitellarium Furtado and Tan 1973 in Clarias macrocephalus Günther in Kedah and Perak, Malaysia

The caryophyllid cestode, Lytocestus lativitellarium Furtado and Tan 1973, was found to be the most abundant parasite in Clarias macrocephalus Günther from the states of Perak and Kedah in Malaysia. The cestode was also found infecting a small number of C. batrachus (L.) from Kedah. There was a seasonal cycle of prevalence, intensity and maturation of the cestode, all these parameters being higher in the first half of the year and decreasing in the second half of the year. Smaller catfish had higher frequencies of prevalence and intensity of the cestode than did larger catfish. The cestode was distributed mainly in the second segment of the intestine. The effect of the cestode on the catfish and its culture is briefly discussed.

Some Comments on the Eradication of Poverty under the Third Malaysia Plan

In July this year, the Malaysian Government launched its Third Malaysia Plan (TMP), the fifth Five-Year Plan1 in the country ever since 1956. Being an extension of the Second Malaysia Plan (SMP) and constituting the second phase in the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP), the TMP naturally embodies the two-pronged objectives of the NEP, namely : the eradication of irrespective of race, and the restructuring of Malaysian society in order to correct racial imbalance and eventually to eliminate the identification of race with economic functions and geographical location. In fact, due to the studies undertaken during the SMP to assess and quantify the extent of in Malaysia, the TMP has, for the first time, specified explicitly the targets of eradicating and reducing economic imbalances in the various states of Malaysia. According to the TMP, as many as 791,000 households (or 49-3 % of all house holds) in Peninsular Malaysia received less than the line in 1970 (TMP, 1976-80, Kuala Lumpur, 1976, p. 160). Unfortunately, it does not reveal what level it uses as the line. It only mentions that the poverty line income takes account of minimum nutritional and other non-food require ments of each household to sustain a decent standard of living based on the estimates made by the Institute of Medical Research and the Ministry of Social Welfare. Despite this glaring omission, the Plan claims that the percentage of poor house holds in Peninsular Malaysia has declined to 43-9 in 1975. However, the total number of poor households in 1975 has increased to 835,100 (TMP, p. 73) ? an increase of 43,300 households or an average rate of increase of 1 % per annum. These poor households are found in all communities and in both rural and urban areas. But the bulk is Malay (about 74% of all poor households) and is found in the rural areas (about 86 % of the total). According to the TMP, the major groups affected by are the padi-planters, rubber smallholders, coconut smallholders, fishermen, estate workers, residents of New Villages and agricultural labourers. Faced with this situation, the TMP has set a target to reduce the incidence of in the whole country to 33-8 % in 1980 (p. 73). This means that the present 835,100 poor households would be reduced in number to 768,300 house holds by the end of the Plan. Using the data on per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of differences, the TMP also reveals the economic imbalances between the various states in the country. It shows that in 1975, for example, the per capita GDP of Selangor (including the Federal Territory) is 53 % higher than the national average while the per capita GDP of the four poorest states of Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Perlis is less than two-thirds of the national average (p. 200). In order

Fertility Differentials In Early Postwar Malaya

During theearlypostwar years up to1957, the three main races in Malaya-Malays, Chinese, and Indians-experienced some differences in their levels of fertility. The lowest fertility was recorded among the Malays, with Chinese and Indian fertility about 5 percent and 10 percent higher, respectively. The comparatively low fertility of the Malays was owing to the exceptionally high rate of divorce, which meant unstable marriages and shorter periods of exposure to the risk of childbearing.A fairly well-defined pattern of state differences in fertility levels is found to exist in Malaya. Briefly, fertility was on the high side in the northern states of Johore, Malacca, and Negri Sembilan, and on the low side in the northern states of Penanq, Kelantan, Perlis, Kedah, and Trengganu, with the central states of Perak, Selangor, and Pahang in the intermediate position.The usual rural-urban fertility differentials are seen to prevail in Malaya as a whole and in the smaller units at state levels. Finally, the three main races registered higher fertility in rural areas, and the greatest gap between rural and urban rates prevailed among the Chinese.

The Malayan Elections of 1959

S OME KNOWLEDGE of the Federation of Malaya's human geography is essential if the country's political institutions are to be understood. In order of both numerical and political importance, the three major communities of the country are the long established Malays, the rather newly established Chinese, and the substantial Indian minority; within each of these communities there are important sub-divisions. The three communities are sharply differentiated from one another in economic roles, social institutions and mother tongue. There are, moreover, marked regional differences in the ethnic composition of the population and these differences reflect regional variations in the economic structure. The large urban population and the population of the more important tin-mining areas is predominantly Chinese. Rubber plantations owned by European companies usually employ Indian labour, whereas plantations owned by Chinese are usually worked by Chinese labourers. Rubber small-holdings, which account for a substantial proportion of the aggregate Malayan production of rubber, are mostly owned by Malays and Chinese and worked by the owners or tenants and their families, sometimes with paid assistance. Malays form the majority of the population in the important rice-growing areas and fishing is almost exclusively a Malay occupation on the east coast of Malaya. In the northernmost States of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Trengganu, the Malays carry on traditional methods of rice production and fishing. They have not felt the full force of the economic and social changes which have resulted directly from the development of rubber plantations and tin mines and the vast influx of Chinese and Indian immigrants to service these industries. The east coast States of Kelantan and Trengganu, in particular, have retained their traditional character; they are cut off from the rest of Malaya by a thick belt of jungle and their Malay Governments have been successful in preventing an influx of foreigners and foreign ideas. Even their Malay cousins in the west coast States regard the north-east coast as something like a foreign country. It is in the four northern States that any political party preaching Malay nationalism and Malay rights and privileges is most likely to flourish. The coastal plains on the west coast from slightly north of Penang down to the island of Singapore contain the great majority of the huge areas of land under rubber and the rich tin-producing areas. It is the States of Penang,

Recent Malayan Excavations and some Wider Implications

During 1937–38, with my wife's tireless co-operation, I archæologically explored the Malay States of Kedah, Perak, and Johore, with the primary object of obtaining data on the spread of Indian civilization in South-East Asia. The full report, including that of the systematic excavation of many sites of the “Hindu period” in Kedah, was published in JRASMB, vol. xviii, part 1, 1940, with 89 plates and 15 figures. Subsequently we excavated one or two other sites in Kedah and also explored Province Wellesley. The report of this supplementary work, delayed by the war, will shortly appear in JRASMB. The object of the present paper is to give a summary of our main Malayan results in the sphere of cultural history, as well as to point out some wider implications in conjunction with my earlier excavations in Siam, which these Malayan investigations do much to complete and illuminate.