Culture of Malaysia
Malaysia consists of two distinct geographical regions: Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. Malaysia was formed when the Federation of Malaya merged with North Borneo (today the province of Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore (seceded 1965) in 1963, and cultural differences between Peninsular and East Malaysia remain. During the formation of Malaysia, executive power was vested in the Perikatan (later the Barisan Nasional) coalition of three racially based political parties, namely the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). UMNO has dominated the coalition from its inception. Although Islam is the official state religion, the Constitution of Malaysia guarantees freedom of religion.
History of Malaysia
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who left UMNO in 2016 and formed his own political party, which teamed up with three other political parties to form Pakatan Harapan, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Malaysia after winning the election on the 10th of May, 2018. He defeated Najib Razak who led Barisan Nasional political party. Najib Razak was defeated by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad due to the factors such as the ongoing political scandal which is 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal that has arisen since 2015, the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (Malaysia) of 6% since 1 April 2015, high cost of living and openly extreme criticism against the Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
The unpopular tax was reduced to 0% on 1 June 2018. Government of Malaysia under Tun Dr Mahathir tabled for first reading Bill to repeal GST in Parliament on 31 July 2018 (Dewan Rakyat). GST was successfully replaced with Sales Tax and Service Tax starting 1 September 2018.