Peninsular Malaysia

In order to facilitate the merger, the Borneo States (which initially also included Brunei) were brought in as well as it was believed that with the inclusion of the various ethnic groups in Borneo, the racial arithmetic would be offset such that the influx of ethnic Chinese from Singapore would not politically overwhelm Malaya, satisfying the Malay ultras.

Singapore within Malaysia was seen as having a special status (similar to Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom) and was thus not grouped with the other non-autonomous states in the Peninsula.

The Orang Asli are the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia; in 2022, they numbered around 209,575 and mostly lived in inland parts of the region.

[7] The term East Coast (Malay: Pantai Timur; Jawi: ڤنتاي تيمور) is particularly used in Malaysia to describe the following states in Peninsular Malaysia facing the South China Sea, a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean: The term West Coast (Malay: Pantai Barat; Jawi: ڤنتاي بارت) refers informally to a collection of states in Peninsular Malaysia situated towards the western coast generally facing the Strait of Malacca which is a component of the Indian Ocean, as opposed to the East Coast.

The West Coast is partitioned further into three regions: Although Johor has a coastline facing the South China Sea on the Pacific Ocean, it is not generally regarded as an East Coast state, since the main coastline of the state is located on the Straits of Johor of the Indian Ocean.

The East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia is socioculturally different in terms of overall racial composition and political affiliations compared to the West Coast – the states' demographics in the former are overwhelmingly Malay and its people lean towards social conservative and Islamist values, their electoral representation dominated by the Malaysian Islamic Party.