KUALA LUMPUR: Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah launched a book titled “Striving for Inclusive Development: From Pangkor to a Modern Malaysian State,” here, today.
The book, penned by the sultan, charts Malaysia’s economic and social transformation over the past 150 years.
Sultan Nazrin said the book chronicled how Malaysia was what it was today due to the collective contributions of all communities.
“The book charts our country’s fascinating economic history over the past 150 years.
“It is a journey that demonstrated national perseverance, institutional changes and indeed, a long term, ‘Striving for Inclusive Development’,” he said at the launch at a hotel here.
The book, Sultan Nazrin’s second, is based on primary data sources, archival documents and national and international research from the signing of the seminal Pangkor Treaty in 1874 through the British occupation to the present.
Sultan Nazrin also spoke on his research journey to produce the 531-page book which involved a lot of data collecting, including his own experience witnessing the changes in Malaysia’s economic history.
He added that in trying to unlock the secrets of history, he had done an immense amount of time researching, spending time in dusty archives and dimly-lit libraries and trying to instil some order into complex data sets.
“I talked to numerous scholars and economic historians, and consulted experts across many disciplines.
“From my childhood to the present, I have experienced how our country has evolved.
“I have seen how our people’s fortunes have vacillated during economic cycles — though still following an upward arc and how they have, in general, shifted from agricultural-based rural lifestyles to prosperous, city-based lifestyles.
“Some challenges remain, however, and new ones have emerged,” he added.
In 2017, Sultan Nazrin published a book titled “Charting the Economy: Early 20th Century Malaya and Contemporary Malaysian Contrasts”.
Also present at the event was Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Zara Salim, economist Professor Emeritus Peter J. Drake, and University of Cambridge centre of development studies director Dr Ha-Joon Chang and Media Prima Bhd group managing director Datuk Kamal Khalid.