| Erna Mahyuni blogs at ernamahyuni.com when she's not subbing for TMI. A slave to Bioware, Bethesda and her mini-zoo of two cats and a rabbit. |
January 23, 2013
JAN 23 ― Sometimes, I think the nation would be better served if Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s vocal chords took a trip to Siberia.
After all, few things have been as powerful and as destructive as his voice.
With that voice, he suggested Operasi Lalang. With his words, he brought low two institutions: the royalty and the judiciary.
But to silence him forever is to play by the rules he set. Kill dissent, smother criticism, strangle freedom of expression.
We may not like to listen to Dr Mahathir, but we have to give him the same rights we long for and deserve.
As he enters his twilight years he continues digging his own grave,
this time by insisting we scrutinise the citizenships granted to the
non-Malays during Malaya’s independence.
That he equates Sabah’s illegal immigrants with the Chinese and Indians is insulting. But hardly surprising.
Dr Mahathir believes that to elevate the Malays, it is necessary to
trample on the other races. In his heart, Malaysia has always been
“Malay-sia.” Land of the Malays, for the Malays, by the Malays.
What a lie.
And it is a lie perpetuated by the fools in Perkasa and the more right-wing elements in Umno.
This country would be nothing without the “pendatang.” Dr Mahathir
also forgets that many so-called Malays have ancestors who were also in
their days “pendatang.” The Bugis. The Minang. The Javanese.
Go to Kelantan and you will see Malays who have Thai ancestry. Go to
Johor and you will find Malays who can name Chinese among their
forebears.
USM professor Zilfalil Alwi, wrote a paper “Asal Usul Melayu
Berdasarkan Fakta Genetik” (Tracing the Origins of the Malays by
Analysing Genetic Data) where he theorised that early Malays could also
have been Indian priests who had arrived at the Malay peninsula to
propagate the Hindu faith.
That would make sense, seeing the predominantly Hindu Malay
population in Bali. Who eat pork unreservedly, to the horror of our
Malays when they visit the island.
Dr Mahathir says “Melayu mudah lupa” but himself forgets that
non-Malays have worked for the country, fought for the country, died for
the country. If tomorrow, should all the non-Malays leave en masse, the
country would be crippled.
Non-Malays have served in government, in the armed forces, as well as
in the police. Can Sabah’s illegal immigrants say the same? Can we say
that Sabah’s “instant citizens” fought off the communists or, in the
Confrontation, say they fought off Indonesia’s armed push to put an end
to Malaysia?
Unlike Sabah’s illegal immigrants, the Chinese and Indians did not
come from countries who still privately believe that Sabah and Sarawak
should belong to them.
If one day Sabah’s illegal immigrant population dwarfs the natives,
would it be surprising if either Indonesia or the Philippines attempts
to again “claim” the Borneo states as many of its citizens are there
anyway?
While Sabah’s illegal immigrants have contributed to the economy, the
natives do not embrace them as kin. They cannot claim a shared history,
they cannot pretend to have become part of the process that led to
Malaysia’s birth.
They did not win the right to citizenship. They do not deserve to be
citizens merely because they are willing to vote for Barisan Nasional.
Dr Mahathir also forgets the Orang Asli, who, among all the peoples
of Malaysia, most deserve to be called “sons of the soil”. But they have
benefited the least and suffered the most from Malaysia’s creation. We
take their land, send missionaries to “save their souls” when we can’t
even save them from poverty.
To the Orang Asli, we are perhaps the real pendatang who have taken everything and given them little in return.
They are barely even recognised in our history books or schools. How
many Malaysians, for instance, can name the many Orang Asli tribes?
Instead of recognising the Sakai and Jakun as the “real” bumiputera,
“sakai” and “jakun” are now Malay derogatory terms.
If you insist on semantics, Dr Mahathir, then technically we are all pendatang.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist
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