Who Is The Pendatang?

It looks like our favourite pendatang is back with no apologies.

Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen. We are ALL pendatang from some place or another, starting from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

But first things first.

Someone check his legal papers to make sure there's no haram behind the pendatang. If so, we might need to engage in some deportation.

If not, we may need to give him a bit of education - something he is evidently lacking, hardly surprising since he belongs to UMNO.

But before I begin, perhaps I'd like to point out to everyone, that we all came into this world with nothing and we will all leave with nothing.

I believe that nothing actually belongs to us - we're merely temporary custodians of whatever we own, be it land or property. So I really don't see what the fuss is to establish who settled down first in this part of the planet.

And interestingly, the Shanghai Fish (who doesn't come from China) points out that for all the racial classification we do, Malaysia has never had a 'malay' Prime Minister since independence.

China and India have the two biggest populations in the whole of Asia. Ever so often, the two nations get a little crowded. So their citizens (or rather, inhabitants) cheerfully pack up their bags and find a new place to stay.

If you observe closely, the Indians and Chinese are crawling all over the world, in almost every city in every country, in every continent - like a nasty rash. :) Old habits are hard to break.

So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Malaya, being smack in between those two countries, and strategically on the ocean trade route, would be a place where both Indian and Chinese merchants would meet.

Both originating from very highly populated countries, it also isn't a tall order that they would notice the beauty of Malaya and decide to call it home. In fact, the very word 'Malaya' has its roots in India.

I'd expect the Chinese settled down in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaya and the Indians on the West Coast. The East Coast and West Coast are separated by the Titiwangsa range, but I'm fairly certain the Chinese and Indians would have gone over to explore "the other side".

This is where the trouble starts. I hate to break it to you, ladies, but we're going to have to shoulder the blame for this one, because this is probably what happened.

A nice, well-brought-up but unconventional Indian girl would have probably wandered a little too far off from her Indian village and into a neighbouring Chinese one.

She'd have hidden behind a tree and watched a Chinese man cut down a tree, all the while noticing the outline of his muscular chest, unhidden by hair and his skin light in colour. She'd have muttered, "DAMN!!!"

Similarly, a nice, well-brought-up but unconventional Chinese girl may have observed an Indian man at work, admired his hairy chest and his deep tan, all the while whispering, "DAMN!!!"

Now when a woman has made up her mind, it is next to impossible to try and change it. So the rest, as they say, is history.

And the moral of the story is, men should have been prohibited from walking around without a shirt on. But it's obviously too late to argue over that now.

I realise I have gone off-tangent (and that's nothing new, of course), but what I was trying to say, is that Malays are essentially a cross-product of the Chinese and Indians, because frankly, the whole of South East Asia is.

Forget Malaysia. Indonesia obviously has its roots very deeply entrenched in India, even if you look beyond the superficiality of its name. When I'm at the airport, I still get confused between India and Indonesia. IND or INA?

And the currency? You'd think they'd get a little original. But nope, the 'rupee' became 'rupiah'.

The Indonesians seem to be proud of their Indian heritage - Bali has been so well-preserved. Very fascinating, since Indonesians are actually more Chinese than Indian, as the Bugis are the product of intermarriage between the Chinese and the Arabs!

The nephew of Daeng Kemboja was appointed the First Sultan of Selangor. That makes the entire Selangor Sultanate part Arab, part Chinese! Let's not get into the other Sultanates - Perak, Kelantan and Johor.

Like Shanghai Fish says, history is determined by the lessons taught within a civil society, pre-determined by a select few so-called "scholars".

If it is repeatedly fed to us, it will be interpreted as the gospel truth. If unchecked, this can lead to a total distortion of historical facts and if when a lie is spun too often, we tend to actually believe it as the truth.

Like poor little Ahmad Ismail, who lives in denial.

What Exactly Offends You?

Someone has pulled the carpet under my feet when it comes to political correctness. Because I swear to God, I have no idea what is acceptable and what isn't, these days.

The Spanish Olympic basketball teams have apologised for the picture. And the Chinese aren’t terribly offended, by the looks of it. But everyone else and their pet turtles are.

Perhaps I should begin by asking, "Since when did slitty eyes become a bad thing??" I have dated many Chinese men in my 29 years of roaming the planet we fondly call Earth, and I think it looks very good on them, in case you hadn't noticed yourself.

You know ol' Stevie of You-Tiup? He has slitty eyes and he's very cute. I should know - I've gone out with him before AND sat in his famed 1990 Honda CRX with a 1.6l DOHC ZC engine before it got sold off. (Eat your hearts out, girls).

How could natural physical features ever be a bad thing?

I once went to Kenny Rogers for lunch with three of my Malaysian-Chinese colleagues. If you've never been there, I should explain that their meal-set provides for one muffin, the flavour of which is your choice.

Yours truly picked chocolate, while the other three picked banana and vanilla flavours, I think. When the muffins arrived together, I found it amusing.

"Look," I pointed out, "we've chosen our flavours according to our skin tones!"

I was severely chastised for that. "You shouldn't say that about your own skin colour," my colleague rebuked me.

I don't understand why. I'm Malaysian-Indian. I'm dark.

Compared to a Scandinavian, I'm charcoal. Compared to the Spaniards, I'm somewhat tanned. Compared to the average Malaysian-Indian, I'm sort of light-skinned. Compared to an African, I'm paleface.

So-freaking-what? I love my skin colour. Don't presume that I don't like it. Don't presume that being light or dark-skinned is a bad thing. It isn't, no more than having slitty eyes.

And why can't people refrain from speaking on behalf of other people? Most of the outrage came from people who know neither the Chinese nor the Spanish.

I've lived in Madrid for a bit. I think they're probably the most friendly people in the European continent, though I admit, I haven't been to every single country in Europe. Yet. :)

But seriously. I've been on the Metro, sat in their buses, gone into their stores, driven on their roads, filled up fuel at their stations - and not been discriminated against, even once.

The fuel station story is an interesting one. I figured theirs would be self-service like Malaysian ones, but I didn't know what the procedure might be like. So I asked my colleague, Emilio, what the word for 'full tank' was.

"Lleno," he told me. It just means 'full'. I also discovered they didn't have swipe counters at the kiosk like we do here, and I didn't want to leave my credit card with the guy manning the store inside.

"Would he be worried about serving a foreigner?" I asked Emilio.

Emilio looked bemused. He obviously hadn't considered that situation. "Just tell him you're a foreigner and leave your pasaporte as exchange, if he asks," Emilio finally suggested doubtfully.

I wasn't too comfortable with that idea, but I had no choice.

At the petrol station, I stated my request to the store clerk. He smiled, nodded and waved me on. I didn't have to leave my credit card, a cash deposit or even my passport.

He just trusted me - a foreigner - completely. Heck, I could have driven off without paying. There's no one in Malaysia who would trust me so explicitly and yet, I'm a citizen of this goddamn country.

This woman has lived in Spain for two years and she agrees with me that whatever they may be, the Spaniards aren't racist.

My friend Tim, has a very apt saying, which could be used to describe the Spanish Olympic basketball team.

'Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity'.

Exploring Each Others' Cultures

Malaysia is a land of confusion.

We cannot decide if we want to tikam some dude on the street with a keris for supposedly infringing on special rights or if we want to explore his culture further.

Evidently, the folks I bumped into yesterday preferred the amicably docile celebration of each others' cultures.

It was an odissi dance performed by 3 men - Ramli Ibrahim, Ajit Das and Rahul Varshney. Odissi originated around 200BC in India.

The cultural scions of Malaysian society will probably know that Ramli Ibrahim is no Indian. He doesn't remotely look like one. But he puts up a mean display of Indian dance.

I looked around at my fellow audience. It was then that it occured to me - the Chinese, Malays and Caucasians outnumbered the Indians by 4 to 1.

All the female volunteers, regardless of race (and there was quite a mixed bunch), were dressed in a saree.

I didn't know whether to be stunned or pleased. Or confused.

But I finally decided on contentment. Malaysia is coming of age.

About P. Ramlee.

In my personal opinion, P. Ramlee is the BEST ever asset to Malaysian entertainment.

Some dispute that it is the Malaysian government that deserves the (in their case) dubious honour, but indulge me when I insist the rightful honour still belongs to P. Ramlee.

P. Ramlee The Musical is all about his life and is currently playing at Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur, until November 3. Jeff Ooi has the photos and the review.

In spite of our ongoing racial conflicts, the only thing that can bring us together is probably P. Ramlee movies. Though sometimes slapstick, they were always hilarious!

Jonathan Kent of BBC agrees with me.

One of the reasons I look forward to the holidays here is because the local TV stations always screen a good selection of his movies.

P Ramlee was an actor, singer, comedian, songwriter, screenwriter and film director

My favourite is the comedy Madu Tiga - or Three Honies - made in 1964.

P Ramlee plays a married man who decides to take a second and then a third bride, all with the collusion of his first wife's mischievous father.

But despite his best efforts to keep the three from finding out about one another, inevitably they meet, become friends and finally gang up on him.

It is a cautionary tale.

But what is most striking about P Ramlee's films from the 1950s and 1960s is their depiction of Malay life.

His movies are gentle and sensual, the people relaxed, fun-loving and charming. There are even jokes about gin.

Read why Kent realises that films like these could not be made today. And why it would have broken P Ramlee's heart.

A crying shame.

Due to the influence of wackos like Harussani Zakaria and his ilk, we are losing our true culture and heritage.

Contesting Malayness

Interesting reading.

By Michael Chick

It's been interesting to read such free-flowing comments on an all "Malaysian" free for all. While we are on the subject, how many of you have read the book entitled Contesting Malayness by Timothy Barnard?

It's written by a Professor of National University of Singapore and costs about S$32. It reflects anthropologists' views that there is no such race as the "Malays" to begin with. If we follow the original migration of the Southern Chinese of 6,000 yrs ago, they moved into Taiwan, (now the Alisan), then into the Phillipines (now the Aeta) and then into Borneo about 4,500 yrs ago (Dayaks).

They also split into Sulawesi and progressed into Jawa, and Sumatera. The final migration was to the Malayan Peninsular 3,000 yrs ago. A sub-group from Borneo also moved to Champa in Cambodia around 4,500 yrs ago.

Interestingly, the Champa deviant group moved back to present day Kelantan. There are also traces of the Dong Song and Hoa Binh migration from Vietnam and Cambodia.

To confuse matters, there was also the Southern Thai migration, from what we know as Pattani today. (see also "Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsular")

Of course, we also have the Minangkabau's which come from the descendants of Alexander the Great and a West Indian Princess. (Sejarah Melayu page 1-3)

So the million Dollar Question. Is there really a race called the "Malays"? All anthropologists DO NOT SEEM TO THINK SO.

Neither do the "Malays" who live on the West Coast of Johor. They'd rather be called Javanese. What about the west coast Kedah inhabitants who prefer to be known as "Achenese"? Or the Ibans who simply want to be known as IBANS. Try calling a Kelabit a "Malay" and see what response you get.

Damn, but you'll be so glad that their Head-Hunting days are over.

The definition of "Malay" is therefore simply a collection of people who speak a similar type of language. With what is meant by a similar type of language does not mean that the words are similar. Linguists call this the "Lego-type" language, where words are added on to the root word to make meaning and give tenses and such.

Somehow, the Indonesians disagree with this classification. They refuse to be called Malay.. Anyhow you may define it. Watch "Malays in Africa "; a Museum Negara produced DVD. Also, the "Champa Malays" by the same.

With this classification, they MUST also include the Phillipinos, the Papua New Guineans, the Australian Aboroginies, as well as the Polynesian Aborigines. These are of the Australo Melanesians who migrated out of Africa about 60,000 yrs ago.

Getting interesting? Read on.

"Malay" should also include the Taiwanese singer "Ah Mei" who is Alisan as her tribe are the anscestors of the "Malays". And finally, you will need to define the Southern Chinese ( FunanProvince) as Malay also, since they are from the same stock 6,000 yrs ago.

Try calling the Bugis a "Malay". Interestingly, the Bugis, who predominantly live on Sulawesi are not even Indonesians. Neither do they fall into the same group as the migrating Southern Chinese of 6,000yrs ago nor the Australo Melanesian group from Africa .

Ready for this?

The Bugis are the cross-breed between the Chinese and the Arabs. (FYI, a runaway Ming Dynasty official whom Cheng Ho was sent to hunt down)

Interestingly, the Bugis were career Pirates in the Johor-Riau island areas.

Now the nephew of Daeng Kemboja was appointed the First Sultan of Selangor. That makes the entire Selangor Sultanate part Arab, part Chinese! Try talking to the Bugis Museum curator near Kukup in Johor. Kukup is located near the most south-western tip of Johor. (Due south of Pontian Kechil)

Let's not even get into the Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekiu, and Hang Lekir, who shared the same family last name as the other super famous "Hang" family member. Hang Li Poh. And who was she?

The princess of a Ming Dynasty Emperor who was sent to marry the Sultan of Malacca. Won't that make the entire Malacca Sultanate downline "Baba"?

Since the older son of the collapsed Malaccan Sultanate got killed in Johor, (the current Sultanate is the downline of the then, Bendahara) the only other son became the Sultan of Perak. Do we see any Chinese-ness in Raja Azlan? Is he the descendant of Hang Li Poh?

Next question. If the Baba's are part Malay, why have they been marginalized by NOT BEING BUMIPUTERA? Which part of "Malay" are they not?

Whatever the answer, why then are the Portugese of Malacca BUMIPUTERA? Did they not come 100yrs AFTER the arrival of the first Baba's? Parameswara founded Malacca in 1411. The Portugese came in 1511, and the Dutch in the 1600's.

Strangely, the Baba's were in fact once classed as Bumiputera, but they were strangely "declassed" in the 1960s. WHY?

The Sultan of Kelantan had similar roots to the Pattani Kingdom, making him of Thai origin.

And what is this "coffee table book" by the Sultan of Perlis claiming to be the direct descendant of the prophet Muhammed? Somehow we see Prof Khoo Khay Khim's signature name on the book. I'll pay good money to own a copy of it myself. Anyone has a spare?

So, how many of you have met with orang Asli's? The more northern you go, the more African they look.

Why are they called Negrito's? It is a Spanish word, from which directly translates "mini Negros ". The more southern you go, the more "Indonesian" they look. And the ones who live at Cameron Highlands kinda look 50-50.

You can see the Batek at Taman Negara, who really look like Eddie Murphy to a certain degree. Or the Negritos who live at the Thai border near Temenggor Lake(north Perak). The Mah Meri in Carrie Island look almost like the Jakuns in Endau Rompin. Half African, half Indonesian.

By definition, (this is super eye-opening) there was a Hindu Malay Empire in Kedah. Yes, I said right. The Malays were Hindu. It was, by the old name Langkasuka. Today known as Lembah Bujang.

This Hindu Malay Empire was 2,000 yrs old. Pre-dating Borrobudor AND Angkor Watt. Who came about around 500-600 yrs later. Lembah Bujang was THE mighty trading empire, and its biggest influence was by the Indians who were here to help start it.

By definition, this should make the Indians BUMIPUTERAS too since they were here 2,000 yrs ago! Why are they marginalized?

So, in a nutshell, the "Malays" (anthropologists will disagree with this "race" definition) are TRULY ASIA !!! (main continent and West Asia included)

Knowledge Of Our Roots

A friend sent me a scanned copy of this article in my email and I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Star still has an electronic copy in its archives.

It's about a month old and upon further surfing on the net, I found out that Lim Kit Siang has also posted it on his blog in Corruption of our history books.

The comments which follow are controversial (as most of Kit Siang's commenters have been in the past) but in all honesty, they pose some legitimate questions as well.

Reproduced in its entirety: Knowledge of our roots will benefit us by Johami Abdullah, Seremban, Negri Sembilan.

IN very recent times, the starting date for the study of Malaysian history in the schools has been conveniently fixed around 1400 C.E. It probably coincides with the founding of the Sultanate of Malacca by Parameswara.

Today, Malaysian school children only learn a little bit about the early Proto Malays and then are conveniently taken on a historical quantum leap to the founding of Malacca.

Early Indian works speak of a fantastically wealthy place called Savarnadvipa, which meant “land of gold.” This mystical place was said to lie far away, and legend holds that this was probably the most valid reason why the first Indians ventured across the Bay of Bengal and arrived in Kedah around 100 B.C.

Apart from trade, the early Indians brought a pervasive culture, with Hinduism and Buddhism sweeping through the Indo-Chinese and Malay archipelago lands bringing temples and Indian cultural traditions. The local chiefs began to refer to themselves as “rajahs” and also integrated what they considered the best of Indian governmental traditions with the existing structure.

I learnt Malayan history in the 1950s and taught it in the 1960s and 1970s in secondary schools. All the history textbooks at the time had the early Indian connection specifically mentioned in them. Teachers of that period taught about the early Indianised kingdoms of Langkasuka, Sri Vijaya and Majapahit that existed from as early as 100 C.E.

Anyone can see that Parameswara, the founder of Malacca, has a clearly give-away name that points to the Indian/Hindu influence. No one can deny this, and all our children need to know about this. They have the fundamental right to learn about this aspect of our history too.

Why don’t our children learn about these early Indian connections today? It needs mention here that this early Indian connection has nothing to do with the much later cheap Indian “coolie” labour influx that the British brought over to man the railways and plantations of Malaya from the late 19th century onwards.

The Malay language as we know it today is already fully impregnated and enriched with many foreign words. This is good. Malay, therefore, has been a bahasa rojak from early times itself.

Rojak itself (and also cendul) is a Malaysian food developed by an Indian Malayalee Muslim community known as the Malabaris who hailed from Kerala. They were also referred to as kakas. We now wrongly credit the Penang mamaks for this great food.

The only other bahasa rojak that can beat the Malay language in the matter of foreign word assimilation is the English language because it has “polluted” itself with words from just about every civilisation that exists or existed in this world.

The very word “Melayu” itself is most probably of Indian origin from the words “Malai Ur,” which means land of mountains in Tamil. Singapur, Nagapur and Indrapur are very common Indian names that have similar backgrounds.

The early Indians were probably inspired by the main mountain range that looks like a backbone for the Malay peninsula and thus named it Malaiur. The word “malai” is undoubtedly Indian in origin as is the case with the word Himalayas and we all know where it is situated.

The English word “Malaya” is a further corruption of the word by the British who themselves are very good at corrupting the pronunciation and spelling of and changing the names of indigenous places worldwide to suit their tongue’s capability. The Malay word “Melayu” with the missing “r “ is closer to the original name “Malaiur”.

To my knowledge, the hundreds of Malay words of Indian origin have not been catalogued by anyone except perhaps the noted Malay scholar Zaaba. Even if such an effort has been made, it is definitely not widely known or ever published.

Many Malay words, from describing Malay royalty (Raja, Putera, Puteri, Maha, Mulia, Seri, etc) and common everyday terms (bakti, suami, cuma, dunia, bumi, jendela, serpu, kerana), all have Indian connections. The undeniable Indian connection in the word “Indonesia” is also reflected in the name itself.

The Indian factor that influences even the prevailing Malay culture in terms of music, food, dress and certain other everyday practices like betel chewing and bersanding is another thing over which a loud hush prevails. Why?

Such knowledge of the roots of this great country, be they Indian, Chinese, Arab or whatever, can indeed very strongly facilitate the ongoing efforts of the Government to make our children think of themselves as Bangsa Malaysia more easily and more readily.

Dressing Like A Malaysian

Spare my soul.

It's about dressing again.

Or rather the appropriate outfit that Malaysian women should wear when they may be said to represent the country overseas.

I wonder why we Malaysians obsess to death over our culture. You'd think we'd have better things on our hands.

Honestly, are we THAT inferior?? Are we THAT insecure that we constantly need to remind ourselves to dress Malaysian in order to promote Malaysia?

Give me a fricking break!

To begin with, why do we need to promote Malaysia? Are we all kutu-infested that no one in their right mind would want to come within a 5 mile radius of us?

Heck, if we were truly interested in our culture we'd be preserving our buildings, not destroying them like Bok House. Of course, Bok House was more of a racial issue than cultural, wasn't it?

And if it's racial, then we don't need the government to dictate what I wear. If I am non-Malay, then expecting me to wear a baju kurung or kebaya is tantamount to forcing an alien culture down my throat.

For goodness sake. MAS flight attendants wear a kebaya. Why should Air Asia follow suit? They already have a uniform. A very bright red one.

I would be very disappointed if Tony Fernandes actually gives consideration to the stupid suggestion of changing the Air Asia uniform to look more 'Malaysian'.

I've flown Emirates a couple of times. Their uniform is rather unusual - a blend of Middle Eastern and Western attire.

Which is acceptable as most of their flight attendants aren't exactly all Arabs. I see a fair amount of Scandinavians, Africans and Orientals.

In spite of their uniform, I doubt they are in any way representative of the United Arab Emirates as a country.

Related:
Heavy-duty dressing - Sun2Surf