Rural poverty in Peninsular Malaysia and the Malaysian national agricultural policy

The National Agricultural Policy was implemented to arrest the decline that agriculture experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s. It aims to modernise and revitalise Malaysian agriculture and alleviate rural poverty while retaining labour in agriculture. This paper evaluates its likely effects on poverty among small‐scale padi farmers. The analysis is based on an evaluation of the strategies and programs that are being implemented as part of the policy. It is argued that the National Agricultural Policy will not alleviate poverty in the padi sub‐sector for three main reasons. Firstly, the strategies and programs currently being employed are essentially unchanged from those that were unsuccessfully employed in the past. Secondly, it is premised on a theoretical base which will not lead to the development of effective anti‐poverty strategies. And, finally, it is flawed by policy contradictions.     

Optical and radar remote sensing data for forest cover mapping in Peninsular Malaysia

This study aims to map forest cover in Peninsular Malaysia using satellite images as deforestation is of concern in the recent decades, and is an important environmental issue for the future too. The Carnegie Landsat Analysis System‐Lite (CLASlite) program was used in this study to detect forest cover in Peninsular Malaysia using Landsat satellite data. The results of the study show that CLASlite algorithm misclassified some oil palm, rubber and urban areas as forest vegetation. A reliable forest cover map was produced by first combining Landsat and ALOS PALSAR images to identify oil palm, rubber and urban areas, and then subsequently removing them. The HH and HV polarization data of ALOS PALSAR (threshold method) could detect oil palm plantations with 85.26 per cent of overall accuracy. For urban area detection, Enhance Build up Index (EBBI) using spectral bands from Landsat provided higher overall accuracy of 94 per cent. These methods produced a forest cover reading of 5 914 421 ha with an overall classification accuracy of 94.5 per cent. The forest cover (including rubber areas) detected in this study is 0.38 per cent higher than the percentage of 2010 forest cover detected by the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia. The technique described in this paper presents an alternative and viable approach for updating forest cover maps in Malaysia.     

Stories of space and subjectivity in planning the Multimedia Super Corridor

The Malaysian government has embarked on an ambitious refashioning of the nation called Vision 2020 in pursuit of its goal of becoming a ‘developed country’. A pivotal component of this ‘vision’ is the planning and provision of information technology (IT) infrastructure in a multi-billion dollar urban mega-project called the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). The purpose of my paper is twofold. First, I situate an official planning document for the MSC entitled Physical Design Guidelines for the Multimedia Super Corridor in the activity of transnational planning practice. Second, I argue that a thematic series of organizing planning concepts and practices can be identified in this document. These concepts and practices work in two ways: first, by representing highly positioned notions of sub-urban, middle-class urban design conventional in specific North American cities as universally applicable to, and desirable for, the broader national development goals the MSC is intended to lead; second, by creating a ‘total image’ for the MSC that suggests an apparently seamless relationship between the MSC and the proper citizens for it at every imaginable scale. One important effect of these plans is the material transformation of a rural landscape of and for production into an urban landscape of and for consumption. This transformation raises the question of who can belong to the ‘nation’ being (re)imagined via the MSC.     

Seismological Activities in Malaysia

In this paper,the development of the National Seismic Network of Malaysia is described firest.Then,the maximum intensities on the Modified Mercalli(MM) scale experienced by Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia and the damage to man-made structures caused by earthquakes are analyzed.Finally,the seismicrisk management and strategy to mitigate seismic risk in Malaysia are outlined.     

马来西亚半岛及泰国的“缝合带”对东南亚古构造再造的意义

在几乎所有有关东南亚的古构造再造中,人们普遍认为从泰国到马来西亚半岛存在着一条或多条长缝合带。但是这两地业已建立起来的有关缝合带的地质证据却与古构造模式依据的许多地质解释与推论相悖。除泰国难-程逸缝合带可能例外外,其他缝合带与俯冲过程的关系很值得快得怀疑。现行再造方案所提出的致使冈瓦纳块体与亚洲块体相联合的碰撞事件的时代始终是最关键的问题之一。就该区主要造山运动而言,能够对此难题做出解释的古生物、地层、火山岩、变质岩及构造方同的证据,给出了与模式不相一致的年代结果。     

Tropical residual soil as compacted soil liners

A series of laboratory tests was conducted on a tropical residual soil, which is widespread and readily available over a considerable part of Peninsular Malaysia, to assess whether it could be compacted as hydraulic barriers in waste disposal landfills. Index properties, swelling potential, cation exchange capacity (CEC), compaction characteristics, and hydraulic conductivity of the soil indicate that it is inorganic, very plastic, inactive (activity <0.75), moderately expansive (modified free swell index is about 3.06), and of fair attenuation capacity (for inorganic contaminants). For hydraulic conductivity measurement, the soil was compacted in rigid-wall permeameter moulds at a variety of water contents and compactive efforts and then permeated with de-aired tap water. The results of hydraulic conductivity tests illustrate that hydraulic conductivity lower than 1×10^–7 cm/s can be achieved using a broad range of water contents and compactive efforts, including water contents dry of optimum. Its shrinkage and strength properties show that it has minimal potential to shrinkage and has adequate strength to support the overburden pressure imposes by the waste body. These findings suggest that the residual soil can be potentially utilized as compacted soil liner material.     

Gondwana and Cathaysian blocks,palaeotethys sutures and cenozoic tectonics in South-east Asia

The Triassic Indosinian Orogeny followed extinction of the Palaeotethys Ocean resulting in suturing of Gondwana affinity and Cathaysian blocks.The Gondwana affinity Sinoburmalaya block of Peninsular Malaysia, characterized by Carboniferous—Permian mudstones containing glacial dropstones and sparse fauna and flora, is traced extensively into Sumatra. This mudstone facies is flanked on the east by a sandstone-dominated facies and by carbonate localized in the Kinta Valley. The muddy and sandy facies both begin with a basal Carboniferous condensed red bed sequence, which unconformably overlies the older formations of Sinoburmalaya. Both facies also demonstrate a Late Permian conformable transition into overlying limestone. The Cathaysian block of East Malaya is characterized by Late Permian Gigantopteris flora and fusulinid limestones associated with andesitic volcanism. It is similar but not identical to the West Sumatra Carboniferous—Permian block, characterized by Early Permian volcanism, fusulinid limestones and early Cathaysian Jambi flora.The South to SSE trending central Peninsular Malaysian Triassic orogenic belt swings south-east from Singapore to Bangka, then east to Billiton. The Palaeotethys suture (Bentong—Raub Line) forms the western margin of this belt and is therefore unlikely to continue south along the Palaeogene Bengkalis Graben, which transects the north-west—south-east orogenic fabric of Sumatra.The oroclinal bending of the Indosinian Orogen, from a north-west—south-east grain in Sumatra to a northerly grain through Peninsular Malaysia, is attributed to the Palaeocene collision of India and its subsequent indentation into Eurasia. The bending was accomplished by clockwise rotation and right-lateral shear parallel to the orogenic grain. The Mesozoic Palaeotethyan sutures were transformed into Palaeocene and younger shear zones. The outer zones of the orocline experienced pull apart tectonics (Andaman Sea and Sumatra basins) while the inner part (East Malaya to Billiton), being compressional, lacks Cenozoic basins.