By ES Chua
The Malay peoples were once the definitive people of South East Asia who founded Malaysia, in the form of the Selangor (Sri Vijaya Empire based in Klang and Palembang, Sumatra) Empire and its successors, Melaka and Pahang-Johor-Riau.
But first, let us define ‘Malay’ both in the contemporary and historical sense .The law defines ‘Malay’ as Muslim indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Indigenous people whose mother tongue is the language known as Malay, which is the national language of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.
In other words, ‘Malay’ refers to all indigenous people of Malaya and Singapore who are descended from the Temuan Aborigines whose language is the taproot of modern Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia.
The number of Temuan descendants is pretty small. While I don't have figures offhand, it is easy to see that in an increasingly globalized world, the people labelled ‘Malay’ will not survive the tide, unlike the numerically strong Chinese, Indians and British {Celtics and Germanics}.
The Temuan descendants (who also include the Minangkabaus of Sumatra and Negeri Sembilan) have lost most, if not all, of their original culture. Over centuries of civilisational decline, they have undergone cultural deterioration.
How can they re-discover their original culture? The answer is through the re-definition of the term ‘Malay’. P. Ramlee, the father of modern Malay entertainment, used to speak of re-defining ‘Malay’ to include all peoples of the Austronesian Mongoloid stock.
This is what ‘Malay’ should be today. Only a broad and all-encompassing ‘Malay’ can withstand the menacing tsunami of globalisation. We should thus re-define ‘Malay’ to include:
All indigenous peoples of Malaysia and South East Asia, whether Muslim or otherwise;
All indigenous peoples of Polynesia and Micronesia;
All indigenous peoples of the Americas and
The indigenous peoples of Madagascar in Africa.
If ‘Malay’ becomes a diverse and global race, then the weak, ‘official Malay’ or Temuan Tribe stands a good chance of surviving globalisation. The positive values of the stronger tribes within the global Malay race can be tapped to enhance the Temuan tribe.
The question asked by many of my fellow Chinese is this: ‘Why can't you just tell the Malay peoples to adopt Chinese culture which is superior? My answer is: ‘Nobody listens to you if you insist that you have a superior culture to them’.
While I'm fully supportive of efforts to get the Malaysian Malays to learn positive values from my fellow Malaysian Chinese, this has to be done via examination of other tribes that form the global Malay race.
By examining the positive values of the other tribes that form the global Malay race, the Temuan descendants of Malaya and Singapore will realise that the very values which made the Chinese peoples successful are exactly the same values that made their fellow Malay tribes successful.
After all, the Chinese, Tibetan and Malay {Austronesian} races all hark back to the Tibetan Highlands, where the mighty Huang Ho and Yangzi Kiang were born. And the Chinese (Huaren) peoples absorbed a lot of cultural influences from the Thai peoples, who are themselves of Malay stock.
Don't forget, the Chinese Empire was built by both Huaren and Yueh, and Yueh are the Thais.
In conclusion, the Malay race has to be rebuilt by redefinition and expansion of its narrow concept. Rebuilding it is the responsibility of all Malaysians, whether Malay, Chinese or Indian. After all, we are one family, the Malaysian family, and we should always help one another. (March 4th, 2005)
Source: MalaysiaKini.com
