I got this mail and thought why not just post it in my blog so that everyone will be enlightened?
This is my first serious post. Enjoy.
I did not make any changes to the original text. So, whatever you read is not written by me at all.
Here goes....
I salute my former colleague Syed Imran....
I got this from a friend and decided to resend it as it explains in
great detail what a Malayu really is. It is time we stopped those who
corrupt the original meaning in order to use it to divide Malaysian.
Mahathir should know this since he registered himself as an Indian in
Singapore where he studied medicine. Inside him, he knows the real
reason why he now considers himself a Malay and refuses to acknowledge
his Indian roots. There are opportunists everywhere and UMNO has
become the platform for them to satisfy their greed. It will also be
the platform on which they destroy themselves.
The Deputy PM expressed disappointment with the Chinese for not voting
UMNO but when you look back at recent history, did he thank the
Chinese for their role in getting independence for Malaya? The
Chinese, Indians and Malays were supposed to be equal partners as a
condition for obtaining Merdeka. Then, the Malays asked for 25 years
of "Special Privileges" so that they could catch up with the other
races. Along the way, they changed the Constitution and it is now an
unquestionable "Malay Right" for perpetuity. Look at your genuine
history books (not the ones they distorted) to see if I am telling the
truth. Or go to the newspaper archives in the Straits Times and in
London to get to the truth.
Because of this, the UMNOputras own the banks, the plantations,
petroleum. The Malays are encouraged to start and own their businesses
entirely on their own (100%). The non-Malays start their own
businesses but when they get big, 30% must be given to bumiputras. Who
are these bumiputras? They are selected UMNOputras ( not ordinary
Malays) - those who use politics to get what is not rightfully
theirs. They use the law to rob others of their wealth. Yet, they will
not give a single share to the ordinary Malays in the streets - it is
all theirs to keep. They will not do what they ask the non-Malays to
do - sharing their wealth.
Not only that, they rob the ordinary Malays daily with the Water
Concessions, the Tolls, etc.
CH
Melayu By a Malay-Syed Imran
You may have already read this article I published more than a year
ago, below this is another article written by a "Malay" who I salute,
that reinforces what I have said.
I'd like to challenge your article on the origins of the word Melayu.
(I hope you will not be emotional about this email and create an
issue about it, but rather treat this as an intellectual argument
between two matured individuals. I have presented facts here for you
to review, and if you disagree please substantiate it. Since you have
come out with a blog to attempt to tell us the origins of the word
Melayu, and as a Malay, if you are really and truly keen in your own
heritage and roots, I am writing to you with the facts of the origins
of the word Melayu, in fact there are many scholars of yesteryear's,
Malays, who will tell you that the only original words in the Malay
language are "Tanah" and "Melayu")
Melayu is derived from the Javanese word Melayu, there are many other
words in the Malay vocabulary that actually come from the various
Asian languages mostly those of Sanskrit Origin.
The Sanskrit in Malay is derived from the Indian influence of the
Majapahit, Srivijaya and other Indian influences in South East Asia.
This particular word in Bahasa Malaysia is derived from the word
Melayu from Javanese. Javanese was the lingua franca of the people in
the region having had its own script, which was actually taken from
the Arabic script, the bugis and the rest have dialects close to
Javanese.
The Malay language in its romanised context only evolved in the early
part of the 20th century.
In Javanese the word Melayu means running away, or a runaway, that is
why if you go to Java and ask a Javanese if he is Melayu he will feel
very insulted. The word Melayu found on the statue as claimed in your
URL; http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/malays4.htm thus denotes that
this person was a Melayu, a "Runaway."
These people, the runaways whether in Sumatra or in the Malay
Peninsula referred to themselves as orang Melayu, it is therefore no
coincidence that the word orang is placed before Melayu, people who
ran away so to speak.
In the Malay Peninsular, it was gradually accepted as the word to
describe the Javanese, the Bugis, the Menang, the Achinese etc. and
even the Kelantanese who are actually Yunanese and have their origins
in China, because they recognized the fact that at the end of the day
they were all Melayu, or Run Aways from their respective homelands the
word was accepted by all these communities to describe themselves.
In fact, before the formation of the United Malays National
Organisation (UMNO), it is a fact that all the people in the country
had referred to themselves as Menang, Achinese, Bugis, Javanese etc.
etc. and we all know that the Kelantanese used to treat the other
Melayu, that is the Menang, Javanese, the Bugis etc. as foreigners.
Well for that matter, even Mahathir Mohammed was registered as Indian
in King Edwards College where he studied medicine.
The Malay therefore very much like the Indians, and later the Chinese
are Melayu in the very true sense of the word because they all left
their respective countries to come to this location in South East Asia
called Malaysia today.
The real natives of the country are the Orang Laut, the Jakun, the
Kadazaan, the Iban, the Senoi and the rest, and not the so called
Orang Melayu, because these people are actually Javanese, Achinese,
Bugis, people from the Mollucas islands, and other parts of
neighbouring Indonesia, including those from Cambodia and even China
(Yunanese). That explains the word Melayu in various parts of Sumatra
too.
The Javanese people in particular were referred to as Java Kontra a
term they despised and today in Sumatra they are referred to as Orang
Transmigrasi which is more acceptable to the Javanese in Indonesia
then the term Melayu.
For Malay citizenship and for permanent residence reasons, the Orang
Java, be they Sundanese, Orang Java Barat, Orang Java Tengah or Orang
Java Timor, or any other Indonesian for that matter recognises the
fact that the day he becomes a Malaysian citizen, he is now an Orang
Melayu that is a new word coined by Malaysians of these origins to
legitimise their Bumiputraism.
And to become Bumiputra this way, that is by becoming a Melayu, he has
to profess the Islamic faith. This privilege is not extended to
Dayaks, from Kalimantan, or Christian Filipinos, or for that matter
Christians from among the peoples of Sumatra, Java or any other
Indonesian Islands.
The irony of all this is the fact that if you look at the real Orang
Asli of Malaysia as a whole you'll find out that the majority of them
are not from the Islamic faith, and that is one of the reasons why in
Sabah the registration department of the Federal Government
legitimised and gave citizenship and permanent residence status to
hundreds and thousands of illegal Fillipina immigrants from the
Southern part of the Philippines.
I therefore disagree with your attempt to legitimize the term Orang
Melayu as a race, it is not and never will be. The so-called Melayu
must own up to their own heritage the way the Chinese and Indians in
Malaysia proudly do.
And if we are to use this word called Melayu, it should be a term used
to refer to all Malaysians except the ethnic Malaysians who are orang
Asli.
The term Bumiputera was coined and the Malay placed in that category
to legitimize the fact that he is ethnic when he is not.
It is a shame, and in fact a disgrace that they are the only group of
people who by this very act, show the world that they are ashamed of
their own heritage.
And who else can be so? Only those who run away or are banished from
their own lands, for it is only such people who are ashamed of their
own heritage.
Even the customs, the traditions, the dressings, the architecture etc.
point to the fact that the so called Orang Melayu of Peninsular
Malaysia are actually not one and the same people.
Scroll below and read the next article by Syed Imran a Melayu and an
ex Bernama Journalist from Penang
Some time ago I wrote about the Melayu and the origins of the name
Melayu, which means runaway.
Today another "Melayu has written" totally unconnected this man, yes
he is a man he stands up for the truth has written a similar article.
I am sending both these articles to you for your reading and circulation
All immigrants
Syed Imran, an Arab-Malaysian born in Penang, Malaysia, an ex-Bernama
journalist (1971-1998) and former press secretary to the Minister in
PM's Department, posted a great blog days ago, which was translated
into English.
Please circulate it and let all Malaysians understand the facts.
*Antara pendatang dan penumpang (English Translation) *
To begin with, I was quite reluctant to comment on the mess created by
the statement made by Ahmad bin Ismail, the head of the Bukit Bendera,
Pulau Pinang UMNO Division.. Whether he made the statement in
reference to Chinese Malaysians is no longer the question, as the
issue has spread and has been hotly debated.
If it is not handled carefully and smartly, this issue could make
clear water murky, giving opportunity to parties who are keen on
seeing this country crash, not to mention falling into the hands of
foreigners. In today's borderless world, international electronic
media coverage makes it difficult for any country to hide or deny any
given event.
The main issue brought up by Ahmad Ismail revolves around the question
of "squatters", that is, that Chinese Malaysians are squatters in this
country. He explained that he was referring to pre-independence days.
However, it had hurt the sensitivity of the Chinese Malaysian
community.
I don't know Ahmad Ismail personally, but I was quite close to his
late elder brother, Abdul Rahim Ismail, the owner of Rahim
Construction Company that was once famous as an "Earth-Prince"
(Bumiputra) construction firm in Pulau Pinang. I don't know what has
happened to the company after Abdul Rahim passed away.
Personally, I don't agree with what Ahmad Ismail said for the following reasons.
To me, nearly 90 percent of Malaysians, especially those in the
Peninsula, are immigrants, and all of us are actually squatters in the
land of Allah anyways. We are anything but permanent owners, we are
merely squatters.
For example, I come from a family that squatted in this blessed land.
My paternal grandfather and grandmother migrated from Mecca and
Brunei, while my maternal grandmother came from Hadramut, Yaman. We
are immigrants and squatters, as are almost everyone else in this
country.
As for Ahmad Ismail, he is also an immigrant having descended from an
immigrant's family who squatted in this country. Ahmad Ismail cannot
deny the fact that his grandfather and grandmother moved from India to
this country in search of a better life in this blessed land.
It is also the case with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi whose
maternal grandfather hailed from Guangdong in southern China. In
short, Pak Lah's grandfather, Allahyarhamah Kailan, whose name was
Hasson Salleh or Hah Su Chiang, was an immigrant. He moved to Tanah
Melayu from Guangdong in the mid-19th century. He stayed in Bayan
Lepas as a rubber estate worker, a padi farmer and later became a
diamond trader.
Najib Tun Razak, Deputy Prime Minister, is also a descendant of an
immigrant Bugis family that came from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Hishammudin
Hussein cannot escape the fact that there is Turkish blood running
through his veins.
The Malacca Malay Sultanate was founded by an immigrant coming from
Sumatra -- Parameswara, a prince who practised Hinduism.
A reading of the history of Malay Sultanates would reveal that some of
them were founded by Bugis immigrants, while others were of Hadramut
and Minangkabau parentage.
Almost all Malays living in this country are from outside Tanah
Melayu, but are defined as "Malay Race" by the Federal Constitution.
We are "Malay" in definition by the Constitution, that is, we are
Muslims; we practise Malay customs and speak the Malay language.
Unfortunately, the Malay language itself seems> to have been killed by
the Malays in UMNO when they named it the Malaysian language (Bahasa
Malaysia).
Therefore, Arabs like Syed Hamid Albar and myself, Achehs like Sanusi
Junid, Indians like Kader Sheikh Fadzir and Nor Mohamed Yakcop,
Bugises like Najib, Minangs like Rais Yatim, Jawas like Mohamad
Rahmat, and others from Madura, Pulau Buyan, Siam, Myanmar, Yunnan
(China) and the Philippines are conveniently categorized as Malays.
They are accepted as Malays regardless of whether they speak Malay or
otherwise at home like those of us who speak Arabic, the Jawas that
speak Jawa, the Minangs that speak Minang, or the Mamak that speak
Tamil..
These languages are anything but Malay if we look at it from the
perspective of the Federal Constitution, so they should never have
been declared Malays. But for the sake of political correctness, all
of them are accepted as Malays and "Earth Princes" (bumiputra).
It is grossly unfair to point to the Chinese as immigrants when the
Arabs, Indians, Achehs, Minangs, Bataks, Mandailings, Jawas, Maduras,
and Bugises are immigrants no less in this country. We cannot deny the
fact that most of the Chinese's grandfathers and
grandmothers migrated to this country in the days of the Malacca Malay
Sultanante, some of whom did so during the period of Kedah Sultanate,
Terengganu Sultanate and Kelantan Sultanate respectively. After
Francis Light wrested Penang from the hands of the sultan of Kedah in
1786, more Chinese had arrived here.
We are all immigrants squatting in this country. Only the Negrito,
Jekun, Semang, Jahut, Orang Laut, Orang Darat, Senoi, and other
indigenous people groups (like the Kadazandusuns, ibans and bidayuhs)
can be correctly considered the original inhabitants of this country.
We must never forget the contributions and sacrifices made by all the
races in building our nation in all its aspects, including the
economy, social structure, national defense and, most importantly,
national unity. We are all taxpayers whether or not we are descended
from immigrants or squatters.
