Economic Change in East Malaysia

Book excerpt: An authoritative economic history of Sabah and Sarawak since the 19th century emphasising their distinctive colonial history and the attempts to modernise them since they became part of Malaysia in 1963. They remain dependent on the production and export of a relatively small range of primary products. The considerable scrutiny from environmentalists and international and local pressure groups of timber exports in particular is examined. The book's examination of economic strategy in these states since the 1880s, demonstrates that the roots of the problems in the 1980s lay in policies formulated in the wider context of capitalist economic growth.