The diversity of Malay-ness 25 November 2008

I have a confession: I find it highly amusing when some people talk of ketuanan Melayu.

Case in point: UMNO Deputy Youth Chief aspirant, Datuk Reezal Merican Naina Merican is always in the forefront when ‘defending’ Malay rights. He is the president of the Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS), an unashamedly UMNO-supporting outfit. He constantly talks about ketuanan Melayu and telling non-Malays not to cabar orang Melayu.

However, Datuk Reezal is a Malay who is ethnnically not Malay (or my short form: “MENM”).

The term Melayu or Malays in Malaysia differs from the anthropological understanding of what constitutes an ethnic Malay. This has been largely due to Article 160(2) of the Federal Constitution, which defines a Malay as someone who:

professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom and -

(a) was before Merdeka Day born in the Federation or in Singapore or born of parents one of whom was born in the Federation or in Singapore, or is on that day domiciled in the Federation or in Singapore; or

(b) is the issue of such a person;

This definition is wide enough to cover people from many different ethnic backgrounds, not merely people who would ‘traditionally’ be an ‘ethnic Malay’.

Thus, even though ethnically Datuk Reezal is a MENM, Article 160 of the Constitution defines him as Malay.

Of course, Datuk Reezal is not alone in this. There are many who MENMs who qualify as Malays by virtue of the Constitution. Malaysian Malays hail their ancestries from all over the world.

There are Malays, like Datuk Reezal, with Indian ethnicity. There are those with Pakistani blood, those tracing their lineage to Arabia, those who are ethnically Javanese, Cham, Chinese, Minangkabau, Bugis and many others.

Of course, these days, Malays of various ancestries are beginning to share a common culture, in line with the ethno-religious identity created by the Constitution. This has been helped by the fact that Malay culture has always been very open and very inclusive: it allows for the seamless assimilation of non-Malay elements. Similarly, the Malays themselves do not find it a problem to embrace non-Malays as one of their own. I have seen this most prominently in the case of Chinese-Muslim converts, who most of the time will start to adopt Malay culture and soon accepted as a Malay. So they become MENMs.

That is why it is very amusing to see people like Datuk Reezal ranting and raving about defending the Malays from ‘the others’.

Both my grandfathers were ethnic Bugis. Both my grandmothers were ethnic Malays. As such, I have  a mixed ancestry. In Indonesia, I might be considered a Bugis or a Melayu (and of course, more importantly, an Indonesian). Yet in Malaysia, I am officially a Malay. I am a Muslim, I speak bahasa Melayu (Malaysia?) and I conform to Malay custom. Thus, I am Malay.

See my point? Officially, my Bugis blood is of little relevance in Malaysia. I am most definitely a Malay because of the Constitutional definition.

Similarly MENMs legally become Malay by virtue of the Constitution. MENMs socially become Malay by virtue of the inclusiveness of the culture and the people.  MENMs become Malay when the line ’separating’ the Malays and non-Malays were widened to include them.

As such, it is simply hypocritical for people like Datuk Reezal Merican keep harping on that line of separation between ‘us’ and ‘them’.