Disclaimer: This article does not refer to all Malays because there are many Malays who acknowledge true Malaysian history and believe in a Malaysian Malaysia. This article only serves to straighten distorted history and debunk race superiority and inferiority.
Facebook was abuzz with the issue of otte vadai, also known as ulunthu vadai or methu vadai being copyrighted by Sam Deli with the name, ‘Malay Kuih’.
This is not new. I’ve seen Malay copyright issues before. One day, years ago, I was browsing through packed foods sold by a Malay lady and I saw packets of mini athirasam on sale and the label on it was Malay kuih as well. As I inspected the athirasam, the lady gushed at me, saying, “Ini kuih Melayu, India panggil kuih ni athirasam.” I was like, “Ithu yeppo?? Adiyeh, yenekke va??” But of course, in order to avoid confrontation and considering that I was the lone Indian there, I did not question the lady back. It’s the same with murukku. Malays make it and sell murukku as marukku. Even puttu has been made into a lucrative business by the Malays here. Achu murukku is called kuih loyang and is sold by Malays as well. Idi appam has the same fate – it’s sold by the Malays under the name putu mayam.
No issues at all by Malays being resourceful and initiative by making a business out of Indian food. By all means, sell thosai, idli, ponggal, poori, capati, masala thosai, kollukattai, payasam etc. But, call the items with their given names. Acknowledge the food with their originality and their original names.
I am vadai, not Malay kuih sayang oi.. Opocot!
Indians sell nasi lemak and curry puffs but they still call the food items as nasi lemak and curry puffs, not rice uppuma or samosa. Indians did not usurp the names of the Malay food and make it their own ALTHOUGH CURRY PUFF IS VERY SIMILAR TO SAMOSA, AN INDIAN SNACK. Will the Malays keep quiet if Indians here call nasi lemak Indian tengga soru?
Is this apology worth accepting?
I showed my brother this apology and he got pissed off by the words ‘honest mistake’ and ‘was not done intentionally’. Now, all Malaysians know that vadai is not Malay kuih. So, naming vadai as Malay kuih is intentional, not? If a foreign worker was the one who was assigned the task of labeling the vadai, how would he or she precisely put ‘Malay kuih’? This apology should be taken with a pinch of salt and this issue should not be allowed to just blow over because there is a more sinister agenda with this vadai being named as Malay kuih. It’s stealing.
Borrowing someone else’s idea, in this case, recipe and declaring it your own is not only morally wrong, it’s legally wrong too. Copyright suit can be slapped on such idea robbers but thank your stars that the Indians are a minority in Malaysia and are generous and benign hence teaching others how to make Indian authentic food and be insurgent in this vadai name replacement only on Facebook. The Malays were generally generous too because they weren’t possessive on recipes like bingkang, kuih lapis, ondeh-ondeh, kuih keledek, lepat pisang and seri muka. My mother makes all the kuih I mentioned and she calls them by their Malay name, not creating Indian names for them even at personal level.
But, I am sorry to mention that the Malays ‘were’ benevolent and just, protecting the minorities. It was the good old days. Quite a number of Malays Muslims now are not so liberal and just as evidenced in the ‘I want to touch a dog event’, ‘isu peluk artis K-pop’, ‘Allah issue’, ‘the defeaning silence when the Pakistan school was attacked, killing 100 over children, suicide bombing between Sunni and Shia Islamists in the Middle East, etc. Yet, there are many sensible Malays who see the nonsense in such events and make noise when not only the Palestinian conflict arises but when the internecine war in the Muslim brethren as well crops up like Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, the retired Malay civil servants who called for a moderate Malaysia via an open letter, G25, Lyana Khairuddin, and some of my Malay Facebook friends who are very critical about the aforementioned issues and many more.
I do not want to generalise because it is unfair – there are right minded Malays who are outraged at this vadai siege. But, the problem is, they generally did not to voice it out. So, as the directly afflicted Indians, they should make some noise and make sure it reverberates as far as possible, hence me writing this.
If the vadai was named Malaysia kuih then it’s perfectly fine because it comes under Malaysian food. Roti canai originated from India, particularly from Chennai and Kerala where it is known as parota and over the years, roti canai has occupied the frontlines of Malaysian food. In Singapore, roti canai is called roti parota.
The basal of Malay cuisine is Indian. Curry paste, the usage of spices and herbs are the influence of Indian cuisine. Coconut milk, palm sugar, shrimp paste and fermented soy, durian, cincaluk. budu, ulam etc are Malay additives. The incorporation of noodles and soy sauce is due to Chinese influence. But, in India, kari means meat and kai kari means vegetables. They don’t call curry/gravy kari; they call it kulambu. As for dhal/paruppu/yellow or orange lentil curry, in India it’s known as sambar and it’s strictly vegetarian there. Here, Malays add mutton/chicken/beef/anchovies to sambar and call it dalca and in the name fusion food, the Indians here kept mum.
Though, Sam’s Deli has come down with an apology and as Malaysians, all is forgiven and we are cool. Okay, no problem. But, I would like take this opportunity to dismantle all of what the Malays deem as their own and their distinct attributes when most of them are derived from Indians and Chinese way before the Chinese and Indian exodus during the 17th century of British colonization.
The origins of Malay debunked
The reality is, the Chinese and Indians were on the world stage during the Gold Age of Asia, at a time where the West was in the Dark Ages, embroiled in the feudal system, absence of intellect and barbarity being the order of the day. The Malays were not. There wasn’t even a race called Malay back then. The term ‘Melayu’ originated from the Tamil word Malaya or Malaiur which means “hill” or “high ground.”
Inilah dinamakan memulas fakta untuk memartabatkan bangsa sendiri yang sebenarnya kebanyakan daripada budaya dan bahasanya ialah derivatif. Tentu sekali, Bahasa Inggeris telah meminjam perkataan-perkataan Melayu fakta dan derivatif dan menukarnya kepada fact dan derivative.
There’s an active movement going on to distort the history of Malaysia in the school History text books; the stamping out of Indian and Chinese contribution, influence and involvement in the East Indies, also known as the Malay archipelago. Indies covers the whole width and breadth of South Asia and South East Asia:
The Indies or East Indies (or East India) is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and South East Asia, occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, mostly Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, and Malaysia. In a more restricted sense, the Indies can be used to refer to the islands of South East Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago. The name “Indies” is derived from the river Indus and is used to connote parts of Asia that came under Indian cultural influence (except Vietnam which came under Chinese cultural influence.) Source – Wikipedia
So, this one piece of fakta from Wikipedia completely repudiates the fakta stated in the history book in the picture above. The British named their colonizing company East India Company, not East Malay Company. Francois Valentjin worked for the Dutch East India Company. There is no such thing as Dutch Malay East Company. Why? Think about it. One should be able to detect these tiny loopholes if only critical thinking is applied when learning history in school.
India was so eminent and so influential that Columbus set sail to find India. He found America instead and thinking that he found India, he named the natives of America Indians and later on, they became known as Red Indians.
Native American, ie, Red Indian wisdom.
It is indeed a judicious and maybe even the expedient way to imbue compromised Malay archipelago history by hammering into secondary school students to only refer to the school history textbooks because ‘it is most accurate‘ and questions for PT3 and SPM would only be based on the historic facts printed in the textbooks, discouraging students from getting a dose of different historical info from other sources like indie published reference books and the Internet. It doesn’t help with the Malaysian exam orientated education system which involves students memorising all facts and figures then regurgitating them on the exam paper and the rapacious salivate for straight As. Score anything lesser than that and fingers are quick to point that the kid is worthless. Most Malaysian kids nowadays don’t study to learn. They only study to pass exams and they don’t take the initiative to do further research on what they are taught in school. Kids have become Chitti The Robot when it comes to studying.
In school, our children are taught as though Malaysian history suddenly began in 1400 with an Islamic Malacca. The cultural influences of India in particular, and China, in South East Asia which span over 2,000 years, starting perhaps with the arrival from India of the Brahmanical prince/scholar Aji Saka in Java in AD78, through to Vietnam, Cambodia (Indo China), Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Bali, Borneo, Brunei and beyond are all maliciously expunged from the schools’ history textbooks.
The pic above’s claim, “The Persians who were not able to converse in Bahasa Melayu were considered illiterates.” Kekkuruvan keneya iruntha Mark Zuckerberg odeh taata paati ku kude Malay teriyum nu solluvan. Malay/Indonesian language is not a seminal language – it has never been the base of any language. Over a period of two millenia, Malay language was built on from a meager linguistic litany that probably consisted of only 157 original words like ‘batu‘. The Malay language was constructed into the form it is now by the means of ‘loanwords‘. Besides Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, (due to Indian influence as well as Hinduism and Buddhism espousal) Arabic, (due to Islamic influence) Portuguese, Dutch, (due to early colonialism) certain Chinese dialects (due to trade, Islam and intermarriages) the Malay language has Persian loanwords as well. So, how can a populace, whose words were loaned by another populace deem the populace which it owes to for enriching its language as illiterate? One does not need to be a saintis roket to figure that out. You and I know from where the Malay language borrowed the words to refer to scientists and rockets.
I don’t want to even bother listing the Tamil loanwords in Malay language. Just two words are enough. BUMI PUTERA. Yes, the word bumiputera that is used to accord privileges to Malays from womb to tomb does not belong to the Malays in the first place. Remember the term ‘suvarnabhumi‘ we learnt in History subject in school (I did)? Maybe the Tamil term suvarnabhumi which was used by ancient Indians to describe south east Asia has been crossed off from the current secondary school history textbooks. Another term used to describe the east Indies is ‘pon veleyum bhumi’ which means the soil which fruits gold. So, what can we infer from this? By now, you would have known that the word bumi in Malay is derived from the Tamil word bhumi which means earth/land/soil and putera is derived from the Tamil word putran which means son/prince. The word putran is also extensively used in Hindi. Notice in Hindi movies that mothers call their sons puter besides beta.
Notice at 2.46 second of the video above, Draupadi yells, “Putroooonnn!” to refer to her slain sons, the Upapandavas princes. Although the time frame of when Mahabarat is said to have taken place/narrated and written is disputed, it was certainly written way before Abrahamic religions came into being and way before the Malay race existed or rather, proclaimed.
The naming of Malaysian national car, Proton also has Indian attributes to them. Iswara, Wira, Perdana, Satria are all Indian words derivatives. But, HICOM has actively opposed this reality for obvious reasons. Proton, on the other hand, is an atomic term, it’s definition being a stable subatomic particle occurring in all atomic nuclei, with a positive electric charge equal in magnitude to that of an electron.
Foreign influence in Malay culture and music
Malay culture, the adat bersanding, berinai, tepung tawar, hantaran perkahwinan, upacara melenggang perut, sirih junjung, amalan bersirih dengan gambir dan kapur, etc were derived from Indian culture. Malay music instruments like kompang was introduced by Indian Muslims and gong originated from India and China.
Foremost, ghazal is not music – it’s poetry.
“The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in ancient Arabic poem in Arabia long before the birth of Islam. The term Ghazal is of North African and Middle Eastern origin.” Source – Wikipedia
How pathetic to claim that ghazal is a medium to communicate Malay identity to the world as an ethnic with a diverse culture! Ghazal originated in the Middle East, nowhere close to the Malay archipelago. The below is a ghazal which was written by Momin Khan Momin in Devnagri script.
Nampak macam Bahasa Melayu ke?
Ever heard of Rumi? He was a poet and a Sufi mystic who recited ghazal. He was most definitely not Malay.
Maybe ghazal was confused by syair, pantun, seloka etc which is the Malay oral literature recited by penglipur lara. I was very good at syair recital, better than my Malay classmates.
The musical instrument in the picture is tabla, an Indian classical music instrument. I won’t be surprised if the claim that the tabla genius Zakir Hussain, an Indian Muslim is a Malay springs up at any moment now. And, the description about ‘ghazal music’ has it’s grammar lari already.
Albert Einstein also Malay whaaaat…
Mungkin anda pernah mendengar nama Einstein. Beliau terkenal dengan teori E= mc2. Namun, ramai tidak menyangka bahawa beliau adalah seorang Melayu! Isaac Newton pun Melayu gak!
Sarcasm aside, this claim is outrageous. Most Indians have only heard about Bodhidharma after the sensational Tamil movie 7aam Arivu. Bodhidharma, although a Tamil Pallava prince, was a Zen Buddhist from India’s the now sari weaving capital, Kanchipuram. Bodhidharma was born in Kanchipuram, the then Pallava capital in 440 AD.
The Telugu video above claims that Bodhidharma is not a Tamil but a Telugu. The film 7aam Arivu has been dubbed into Telugu under the title 7th Sense and the compere is saying that AR Murugadoss has made a grave mistake by citing that Bodhidharma is Tamil when in fact he is a Telugu.
The video produced scenes from old Chinese movies, scenes from 7aam Arivu, claims by the narrator and compere as well as citation feedback from an unknown old man whose claims are subject to dispute as the proof of Bodhidharma being a Telugu.
No fact/evidence/scripture/origin/map/research/references that point out that Bodhidharma is Telugu were provided. Only word of mouth. The only evidence that purports that Bodhidharma might have been in Andhra Pradesh is this news from the Hindu Times, ‘Bodhidharma portrayal wrong in film’.
The notable points in the news are as follows:
The founder of Sailum Zen Monastery in Bangalore, Babu T. Raghu disputes the ‘historical’ account on ‘Bodhidharma’ in the movie and terms it as ‘completely erroneous’.
“The young Bodhidharma was shown as practicing martial arts in Kanchi town in the movie, whereas my research shows that he practiced at the ‘Sri Parvata’ (Nagarjunakonda) area in Andhra Pradesh. Bodhidharma, who attained the ‘vajra kaya’ status, which means that he was immune to diseases and poisons, had to be away from the bustling metropolis like Kanchi town to attain this state,” the researcher maintained.
Mr. Raghu felt that the director should have exercised caution in declaring his version as authentic.
“While appreciating the freedom of artistic expression, the director should have at least made a disclaimer that this is one of the versions of the available legends, or that he adapted the story to suit the movie. Forgetting or neglecting a history is much better than distorting it,” he felt.
The historical fact cited by Mr Raghu is credible compared to the claim in the video. Note the point that the researcher, Mr Raghu, only mentioned that Bodhidharma practiced martial arts in an area in Andhra Pradesh, not that Bodhidharma is Telugu.
Similarly, there is absolutely no evidence that Bodhidharma was a Malay. There is no single piece of historical, lineage, descent or demographic evidence that link Bodhidharma to the Malays. I reiterate Mr Raghu’s opinion that forgetting or neglecting history is much better than distorting it.
“According to Southeast Asian folklore, Bodhidharma travelled from Jambudvipa by sea to Palembang, Indonesia. Passing through Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Malaysia, he eventually entered China through Nanyue. In his travels through the region, Bodhidharma is said to have transmitted his knowledge of the Mahayana doctrine and the martial arts. Malay legend holds that he introduced forms to silat.” Source – Wikipedia.
Yet, at least the person who said Bodhidharma is Malay unknowingly admitted that the Malays were once Buddhists and Hindus who embraced Islam much, much later which was brought to the East Indies by Indian Muslim and Arabic merchants who came to South East Asia to trade hence so much Indian and Chinese as well as other foreign influence in Malay history, culture and language.
Alexander the Great was said to be Malay and was accorded the name Iskandar Zulkarnain though some claim that it doesn’t refer to the Macedonian emperor and conqueror but refers to Cyrus Agung, who’s a Muslim and Persian, not Malay. I tried searching a reliable source that corroborates the claim but only found blogs on it and blogs don’t account as facts. According to Wikipedia though, Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain is a Malay epic describing fictional exploits of Iskandar Zulkarnain, a character based on Alexander the Great. The claim that Iskandar Zulkarnain is Malay is as fallacious as the claim that Parameswara was a Malay prince when in fact he was a Hindu Indian prince. His name, Parameswara is another name for Lord Shiva, Ishvar, Iswara, Proton Iswara.
History books in secondary schools refer to Parameswara as a Malay prince and claim that the Malaysian sultanate lineage is Malay when it is actually Indian, the lineage of the Sri Vijaya Hindu prince who founded Malacca and later converted to Islam after his marriage to the princess of Pasai and thus adopting the name Iskandar Shah, a Persian name. So, the inference made by Azly Rahman that Parameswara could have been responsible for the present day UMNO’s Malay supremacy is a vile attempt to adulterate history and a blatant lie. To think a columnist is content to distort history or maybe not do any research before coming up with a statement is the lesser evil of a political ploy trying to undermine the vast Indian influence in everything the Malay proudly call their own, like this vadai. Still, there is another version that states that Parameswara never converted to Islam, that he was an Indian Hindu or an Indian/Malay/Aboriginal Malay mixed Hindu who fled Palembang in Sumatra and eventually founded Malacca circa 1400 AD.
Parameswara’s conversion to Islam was unclear so far with no evidence as to whether he had actually converted. It was generally believed that in the year 1409 he married a princess of Pasai and adopted the Persian title Iskandar Shah after his conversion to the faith.
However, the 16th-century Portuguese writer Tomé Pires explicitly mentioned that Parameswara was succeeded by his son, Megat Iskandar Shah, and that only the latter converted to Islam at the age 72.
My friend did an extensive research on whether Parameswara really converted to Islam and came to the conclusion that the fleeing Hindu prince did not convert to Islam after all. And he was most definitely not Malay. On why mass conversion to Islam was possible in the Malay archipelago was not only because the people followed their rulers’ act of becoming a new born Muslim, it was also to escape the discriminating caste system and because Hinduism reserves zero penalty for conversion.
Currently, there is an undercurrent movement in India urging the Christians and Muslims there to return to their ‘original religion’ and RSS is aiming for a 100% Hindu India. A godman from India released a statement that Hindus must produce 10 children so that Modi would become PM again and also so that Hindus don’t go ‘extinct’. India is already over populated and now this. Want more people just so the religion would grow – it’s an insult to human rights. India is secular and it’s best if she stays secular. Quality over quantity should be the priority. It’s also kinda selfish & insulting to ask all parents to produce children just so that one individual can stay in power. As though this is not enough, an India Indian MP vows death sentence for Hindus who convert which goes against the very grain of Hinduism that doesn’t penalize conversion. Sometimes when we read this kind of articles it reflects the same thing happening in Malaysia but its vice versa since majority here is Muslims and the politicians are using the same modus operandi. 2 x 5 jer..
Many Malays have Indian and Chinese DNA and our 4th prime minister is the prime example. When he applied for his medical course at the King Edward VII College in Singapore, he wrote his race as Indian in the application form, his father’s name being Mohd Iskandar Kutty. Kerala Kutty ano?
And, Hang Tuah being proclaimed as pahlawan Melayu Melaka. His origin is still subject for scholarly debate. Why the literal disappearance of Hang Tuah from school history textbooks, from pages about him to one liner? In previous history textbooks, the story of Hang Tuah and his friends was given great prominence. In the current Form One History textbook, however, Hang Tuah is mentioned only in passing as a Laksamana (Admiral) and a brave warrior. There is no mention of Hang Li Po and the other Malacca warriors. Why did the govt downplay Hang Tuah’s influence and contributions? What is the government hiding?
Although the Indians and Chinese in Indonesia have assimilated, Indonesia airs the Starplus Mahabarat series on national TV, the Hindi serial, being dubbed in Bahasa Indonesia. Is it possible to do so in Malaysia without PERKASA and ISMA screaming, “Hindu proselytism via Mahabarat on RTM!!”? Well, might as well ban wayang kulit which is an Indian theatrics art recounting Ramayana and Mahabarat in the east coast right which ironically has the highest concentration of Muslims who shockingly did not convert to Hinduism despite hearing the stories of Rama and Krisna for ages right? Fun Fact – The Mahabarat serial has an Indian Muslim, Shaheer Sheikh essaying the role of Pandava prince Arjuna. Dia tak masuk agama Hindu pon.. Mainstream TV airs Spanish and Korean soaps in the good intention to make Malaysians learn Spanish and Korean of course.
Shaheer Sheikh, an Indian Muslim, playing the role of Pandava prince Arjuna in Mahabarat serial
A lost city found in Johor in the year 2005 has completely disappeared from the news. After all, this was an extremely important archeological find that pointed to one of the greatest empires in history, the Raja Cholan empire that ruled from the Maldives through India, Sri Lanka and right down to South East Asia. The term Raja Chulan, without an iota of doubt, is the reference to Raja Chulan/Cholan of the Chola Dynasty (7-13 century AD) of South India. The most famous of these Indian Hindu Kings were Rajaraja Chola, Tamil, Rajaraja Cholan and his son Rajendra Chola who invaded Southern Thailand, Kedah, Perak, Johor and Sumatra at about 1000 AD.
It is now as clear as day that the naysaying of Indian influence in every Malay establishment is a political game played by the you know who to cling on power by cultivating a twisted sense of pride under the name Malay supremacy. While other South East Asian nations are busy preserving their yesteryear Hindu, Buddhist, Indian and Chinese influenced heritage like Angkor Wat, the biggest temple in the world, Borobudur, Bali, etc, Malaysia is vociferously claiming that all of it as pseudo history and is butchering history to create ‘half truths’ and ‘whole lies’ that would give political mileage to the you know who.
Why deny the influence and the past superiority of the Indians and Chinese in the Malay archipelago so fervently? The ultimate aim is to make Malaysians believe that the Indians and Chinese first arrived on the shores of Malaysia in about 1850 as desperate indentured labourers, farmers and miners and thus mere immigrants whose place in Malaysia was only obtained due to the mercy and generosity of the Malays. That’s why sedap-sedap cakap ‘Balik India’, ‘Balik Tongsan’ apabila ketidakadilan disebat ke atas lesser Malaysians. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Actually, if only the Malays were industrious and unflinching when it comes to toil and self progression, the Indians and the Chinese won’t be here. Think back, why did the British bring the Chinese and Indians to Malaya? For a field trip? No, they were brought here to do work that exacts as travail because the Malays won’t work. How did the Chinese and Indians overtook the Malays economy wise? By laying about? No, by sheer hard work in a foreign land which the NEP, Social Contract and Article 153 stole from them. In other words, it’s legal robbery. That is the bitter truth that the non Malays quietly accepted and survived through. Now, their history and vadai are being stolen and how to expect them to just ‘accept it’? They stole our hard work now they are stealing our history and vadai and if we speak up against it, we are racists. If it wasn’t for the Indians who built railways, laid roads, erected buildings and cleared dense rainforest, sacrificing their lives to make way for agriculture commodity such as rubber, coconut, cocoa, coffee and tea, Malaysia would not have been the way it is now.
The back cover of the book ‘The Malaysian Indian Dilemma’. A book every Malaysian should read to fully understand the sacrifice of Indians in making Malaya a nation.
History is one of my strongest subject and I cannot keep quiet when history is rewritten to suit the vested interests of those who want to remain in power at any cost ergo resorting to any despicable low level. What race ruled or did not rule is besides the point. What is important is not butchering history to create your own truths. Those of us who are not racists are angry that we are forced to sound like one in defending the truth.
Look around, India has sent an orbiter to Mars at the first attempt and we are still debating who came here first. I’d like to quote Mr Raghu again, forgetting or neglecting history is better than distorting history. Now, if only we can just forget history and focus on the present as Malaysians, there is nothing we cannot achieve but sadly, even the achievements of non Malays are underplayed in order to give Malays a specious sense of superiority.
India has successfully launched an orbiter to Mars’ atmosphere at the first attempt, the first country in the world to do so.
Zahara Sulaiman, a so-called historian affiliated with the Malaysian Archaeological Association presented an argument that the Malay race (a category in which she included Mons, Khmers and Chams) has for thousands of years been the target of a deliberate southbound invasion from the Northern peoples (namely, the Chinese) who have been allegedly jealous of the superiority of Malay civilisation and innovation.
In late November 2013, a video showing Zahara expounding the findings of the new research at a seminar began circulating on YouTube. In her introduction, she states that the Malay race “is the most-envied race”, envied, indeed, “by the entire world”.
Zahara’s syiok sendiri claim has zero evidence, zero international peer reviewed research, zero internationally acclaimed history back up to support her claim, zero international anthropological findings and mostly, illogical.
“Neither scientific nor anthropological research seem to have been taken seriously in the development of Malaysia’s latest racial origin theory. While this pseudo-theory was presented as an important contribution to ‘scholarship’, it bears, alas, little trace of academic rigour,” is the response from peer reviewed historians, geneticists, anthropology and demographic specialists to Zahara’s findings that include ‘ground-breaking’ new findings that trace the origins of the Malay race all the way to the Middle East.
If the Malay race is the most ‘envied race’ in the world, why did Malay language borrow English words to keep up with the scientific world? If the Malay race is the most envied and why not add on, the most developed race, surpassing the Jews, the most innovative and civilised race and self sustainable race, why did Mahathir decide to teach science and math in English in schools? If Malay civilisation was famed, why did Columbus set sail to find India and not the so called Malay civilisation? Why is there overwhelming evidence that most of Malay attributes are derived from foreign influence namely India and China?
Our reaction to Puan Zahara’s ‘research findings’.
Malay innovation and civilisation? Show one Malay innovation that had been recognized globally. Malay civilisation surpassed Mesopotamian, Indus and Egyptian civilisation? Where are the vestiges of Malay civilisation? Puts foot down that Malay is the most envied race then two year later names an Indian food Malay kuih. This is the Malay civilisation Zahara talked about? I’m already envious. Vitta Sahara desert Zahara peru le irunthu tha vechangge nu solluvangge..
Why the calling of Malay kuih of vadai should not be dismissed
My friend who’s Indian and a doctor told me how a Malay professor from University Malaya has argued with her that Tamil is not an oldest language and Malays were the first in peninsula. She was unable to refute it because he quoted some facts from a Malay archaeologist. If this goes on, imagine what identity our younger generations will have. How are they going to survive here? What that does got to do with vadai? Well,as much as we tend to ignore it, after all, it’s just a vadai. It all starts from a simple thing.
And, not many Malays are liberal like my friends, one day possibly ,this country will be unmerciful to the non Malay younger generation and at that moment, I don’t want them to have the regrets I do like why our ancestors didn’t stand firm on our rights? The Malays did not simply give Malayan citizenship to non Malays. The non Malays worked for it.
My doctor friend lamented at me via Facebook chat:
In text books, it’s written that the youngest Malaysians to reach Everest are two Malays, snubbing the two Indians who risked their life to do it and the first Malaysians who conquered the summit of Mount Everest, suffering from frostbite. Aren’t they Malaysian? Don’t they deserve the due recognition? Many Indians who deserve proper loans and better chances are denied the opportunities. A Malaysian Indian had been awarded as the best scientist of the year, how many of us know about it? Malaysian mainstream media only carries the stories of achievement of the Malays, keeping the achievements of non Malays bar sports at the sidelines, even spurning them. Ambiga Sreenevasan received the US International Women of Courage Award in 2009 from Hillary Clinton but it did not make it into the news in mainstream media. A Malay musical and a football prodigy got to showcase their talent on mainstream media, on RTM Channel 2 and TV3 but the non Malay Malaysian child prodigies did not get to strut their stuff on mainstream media. Why such blatant discrimination? Both the Malay and non Malay international child prodigies represent Malaysia but the latter is undermined and even shunned by the government controlled media.
This Malay kid got coverage from TV3 but Titus James Palani did not get the recognition this kid did.
If our generation doesn’t talk back or retaliate, they won’t survive. We’re not living in a developed nation like England which gives credits to the the immigrants. Now, that’s a civilised country. Is Malaysia civilised on terms of human rights? Malaysia is still suppressing the minorities and judging from the number of children the non Malay people are giving birth to, I don’t think there’ll be any Indians left to argue, and they’ll be robbed of their identities and will live as what? Which type of Malaysian? Maybe when the country becomes more liberal in the distant future, we won’t get upset by a vadai issue for at that point, they themselves would say that it’s a vadai and it’s an Indian food. But that is long time coming and might not come at all if we don’t speak up.
Once I saw a Malay Girl giving a very degenerative statement about the Indians and when an Indian guy tried to defend Indians, quoting from the journals, to my surprise, the Malays came to defend their culture and religion so quickly and I was reminded of me not correcting the Malay lady selling athirasam as Malay kuih which is why I wrote this piece. The Malay people wouldn’t let us tell them that the there’s a lot of Indian influence in their culture. Though they know it’s the truth.That’s when I realized that you can never touch the topics of their race. But, if we keep quiet, our very future in this country is at stake.
Every Friday afternoon the Malays park their vehicles anyhow to attend the Friday noon prayers and the non Malays don’t make an issue of the inconvenience because it’s just once a week. But, when the Indians, Hindu Indians park their vehicles in a not orderly fashion and roads blocked due to Thaipusam festivities which happens once a year, there is an increasing number of Malays complaining that the Indians are such a nuisance. It is public knowledge about what Ridhuan Tee, Zul Nordin and Man Namblast said about the Indians, such denigration. While Alvivi were detained for their bah kut teh post, no legal action was taken on the trio.
And then there are Indian Muslims here who are Malay Muslim wannabees so they openly declare that they are Malays by following Malay culture and badmouthing Hinduism at the Malays like Shah Krit. I don’t know why they don’t extend Malay pride by bringing forth the ‘Malay innovation’ and ‘Malay civilisation’ that are envied by the whole world like mentioned by our Mak Cik Zahara Sulaiman into public knowledge but belittle, threat and say that other ‘stuff’ and ‘people’ are threats and violations for Malays and Islam instead. Maybe because there are no such things as ‘Malay innovation’ and ‘Malay civilisation’. Word of mouth doesn’t count as proof. I can say that I founded Apple Inc but in order to make others believe my word of mouth, I need to put forth proof. No palpable proof so far on the ‘Malay innovation’ and ‘Malay civilisation’, just oral promulgation. When I say innovation, I don’t mean Malay food and culture add on. I mean original Malay invention preferably in ancient technology and it should not be confused with Islamic invention.
Adi Putra Abdul Ghani though invented 234 new math formulas, wrote a book titled Seni Matematik Islam, lectured in universities when he was only 10, earning RM 6000 an hour, became the CEO of two companies and was invited to the parliament to dumbfound ministers and parliament speaker with his math prowess. I truly appreciate and only have admiration for Adi. What a brilliant and prodigious boy!
Adi Putra with his book, Seni Matematik Islam.
Ironically, the non Malays, especially the extremely sidelined and plundered yet uncomplaining indigenous people of the Sabah Sarawak states are needed when tourism Malaysia is advertised and cultural shows that attract foreign tourists like Citrawarna are held. Thaipusam, Barathanatyam, Pesta Gawai Keamatan, Chinese Lion and Dragon dance, Chingay, Odissi, etc are featured and we tell the world proudly about our multicultural diversity with the tagline Malaysia Truly Asia. The non Malays are treated like curry leaves, speaking figuratively.
Added in cooking to impart a heavenly aroma and wonderful taste but sidelined and thrown away after the food they gave flavour to is consumed. Curry leaves has a whole lot of beneficial properties and if they, in the equation of non Malays are given due recognition and value and consumed together, the more the body, in the equation of Malaysia, will benefit.
The non Malays are not given level playing field in tertiary education, work opportunities, loan, business and contracts and their international achievements go unrecognized. The NEP was scheduled to be ended in 1990 but it is still being perpetuated 24 years later on the pretext that the Malays are still not solid enough in economy. So much for the most ‘envied race by the entire world’. Don’t even have confidence to compete with the Chinese and Indians but never ceasing to be vainglorious.
In other countries, the minorities are protected and here, the majority is protected. Maybe they feel that they should protect themselves from becoming like South Africa but the non Malays don’t want to oppress the Malays – they played a huge role in the development of Malaysia dating back from 2000 years ago and they are fighting to defend it and cannot miss on the tiniest distortion of history and vadai being called Malay kuih because we don’t want our posterity to curse us for not standing up for what is rightful. Until the day comes when every Malaysian recognizes everyone else with Malaysian citizenship as Malaysian equally without double standards, we have to keep our culture. No other way. Yet, I am pessimistic. It is only in rhetoric, not reality. The day will never come i’m afraid. More and more non Malays are leaving Malaysia on the simple logic, “Why stay in my country which treats me like a 2nd class citizen when the world welcomes me with arms wide open?” We have lost many home grown talent to 1st world countries, including talented Malays. If they had stayed on and were given equal opportunities based on merit alone, Vision 2020 would have been realized by now.
Why Malay people can so easily copyright Indians’ stuff?
We are easily invaded due to internal dissonance within our community. We lack solidarity and are weak as a community ergo easily marginalised and capitalized on.
As though it is not enough that we as Malaysians are divided by race, we Indians divide ourselves further by sub race – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, etc and break it down further into caste in the name of preserving heritage which is partly a cock and bull story as I would elaborate on later.
We are internally not united – unlike the Chinese, so, it makes it difficult for us to put a strong foot as a community here. Jaathi sangam, Telugu Association – all want separate recognition and the rise of Tamil nationalism in Malaysia.
There are Tamil nationalists saying that I should not write for Tamil online portals because I am Telugu. Most of my posts are English. I am not an English woman so I should not write in English? See how stupid you sound when you make such demarcations? See, the disunity? That’s why we are easily invaded and our Indian leaders take full advantage of our ethnic active separation.
I wrote against Telugu provision column in IC on Facebook and a dude messaged me and stated the following:
“Telugu recognition is crucial to have some statistics on the number of Telugus so that we receive proper funding from the government.“
My response:
“There is separate funding from government for TELUGU people? I find this hard TO BELIEVE – as Indians we have been screwed in all directions as a single community and govt gives separate funding for Telugu people? There are Indians (including Telugu people) who are stateless – having only red IC and you want me to believe that the govt has funding for Telugu exclusively? I want statistics from the govt on this one and what are the funds that are exclusive for Telugu people under the purview of Telugu Association Malaysia and I want it from 1957, black and white proof please. and if the TAM has been spending the fund for public (define public) I need statistics and accounts- your assurance is not enough. Then is there such funding under the brackets of other ethnicity here as well?”
The guy did not provide any statistics or accounts to corroborate the Telugu funding thus far. His reply was ‘a skirting around the issue’ one.
And, why invite BN politicians who are Malays to such separate Indian ethnicity and caste associations’ functions? There are so many inspiring Malaysians who can be invited to be honoured in such functions like Pak Samad, Robert Kwok or Pandalela Rinong. This opens a dubious dimension that I can foresee – such Indian associations and NGOs pledging loyalty to the ruling gov – pledging that all the caste and ethnicity the associations represent’s votes will go to it in the next GE and ask for some allocation – the powerful few and we, the trusting non questioning Indians are made the sacrificial goats because we are duped that the associations are the guardians of culture and heritage, hence should not be disputed.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a PR supporter – PR is not much different than BN. PR is just the lesser evil. But after 50 odd years of BN continuously screwing Indians, we need to teach it a lesson it never forgets and breathe life to bipartisan politics and true democracy and it will only happen if we boo