Why The Baba Nyonyas Prove Mahathir Wrong

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 A mahaguru (master) manipulator of racial emotions recently claimed that Indian Malaysians are not “completely loyal” to the country as they still identify with India and don't speak Malay as their “home language” but instead speak Tamil.
This fellow, known as former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed, added that “immigrants” (Indians and Chinese) should “totally assimilate” and become Malays to have the “right” to call the country their own, just as Indian, Pakistani and Arab migrants have done.
These provocative remarks were made in an interview with the Indian satellite channel Thanthi TV.
So, is speaking Malay and practising Malay customs the only acceptable way to be considered “loyal” to the country?
The best rebuttal to Mahathir’s latest racist attack is to look at the mixed Peranakan people of Malacca.
The most famous of these is the Baba Nyonyas, a Chinese community that historically intermarried with the Malays, starting from the time when Princess Hang Li Po was sent from China to marry the Malacca sultan over 500 years ago.
The Babas Nyonyas speak Malay at home, wear sarong kebayas and cook spicy dishes with strong Malay influence like asam pedas. The same goes for the Chitty Indians of Malacca, a mix of Hindu Indians and Malays.
Despite being so well assimilated into Malay culture, both of these Peranakan groups have never been accepted as bumiputera who are entitled to extra benefits. Why? Is it because they are not Muslims?
Muslim migrants OK?
Whereas, as Mahathir pointed out, if Muslim migrants from India came to this country and married Malays, their children would be regarded as bumiputera.
It doesn't matter if these migrants didn't arrive several hundred years ago (like in Malacca), but are johnny-come-lately to this land.
Not just that, one particular Muslim Indian descendant would be seen as “so Malay” that he could even become both president of Umno and the country’s prime minister for 22 years!
Yes, I am referring to Mahathir himself. But when asked about this in the Thanthi TV interview, the oily politician slithered his way out, saying, "No, I'm not an Indian. I'm a Malay because I do not know the Indian language, and that was a long, long time ago.”
It was Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who publicly questioned Mahathir's “loyalty” in 2017.
Zahid, who was home minister at the time, “revealed” he had seen a copy of the old man's identity card (IC), which supposedly stated his name as “Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty”.
Ahmad Zahid HamidiThe a/l or “anak lelaki” is clearly an Indian way of writing a name while Kutty means “child” in the language of Kerala, India, where Mahathir's paternal family originated.
Zahid added: ”This is the person who fought for the Malay agenda to use Malays.”
Chinese Indonesian example
Mahathir is actually what may be described as an Indian Peranakan. Or to use an older phrase, Jawi Peranakan, which is a unique culture created by the intermarriage of Arab and Indian Muslim men with Malay women.
But why were Muslim Peranakans eventually accepted as Malays while non-Muslim Peranakans were not?
Sadly, the message is that no matter how well non-Malay migrants speak the language, wear sarong kebayas or cook Malay-influenced dishes, they can never be accepted as “completely loyal” citizens, to use Mahathir's words, as long as they are not Muslim.
This also happened in Indonesia, where former president Suharto banned Chinese schools, newspapers and even signboards in the late 1960s. The younger generation spoke only Bahasa Indonesia.
It was a classic example of forced cultural assimilation, except for religion. But even that did not protect them from the anti-Chinese riots of 1998, as they became scapegoats of the economic crisis then.
A Malay, as defined in Article 160 of our Federal Constitution, must be a Muslim. So tough luck to the Christian natives of East Malaysia. They may be Malay by blood (the Malayo-Polynesian ethnic group that includes Filipinos) but they cannot be legally Malay in this country. What an irony.
And if they speak Iban, Bidayuh, Kelabit or Kadazan at home, perhaps they too are not really “loyal” in Mahathir's eyes.
Islamophobia in Europe
So is the bitter old man saying that non-Muslims must convert or be mistrusted as second-class citizens? But that is against our Constitution which guarantees religious freedom.
On the flip side, are Muslims “loyal” even though some engage in the cancer of corruption that is slowly destroying this country? Even contracts involving our military defence may have been affected.
This reminds me of what the Christians did to the Muslims after the Reconquista (reconquest) of Spain from the Moors (Arabs). At first, they promised freedom of religion. But later they demanded that the Moors convert, or else…
Some Muslims chose to leave while others became “new Christians” or moriscos. But even then they were marginalised and persecuted for over 100 years before the Spanish state eventually decided they could never really be “good and faithful” Christians. The moriscos were then harshly forced into exile and “dumped on the beaches of North Africa”.
Similar aspersions are now being cast by some European countries against their Muslim minorities as Islamophobia grows.
Following Mahathir's twisted logic, the Arabs living in Europe must stop speaking Arabic “at home” and yes, become Christians too, to be seen as “completely loyal”. And even that may not be enough.
The best example is the African Americans in the US who only speak English. Many are also Christians. But they still face discrimination and even killings by police, as the “Black Lives Matter” movement has highlighted.
I sincerely hope that racial relations in Malaysia will never deteriorate as what happened in Spain. But it is worrying that the seeds of suspicion against non-Malays are again being planted by Mahathir.
When will they ripen into full-grown Sino-phobia and Indian-phobia? Will Molotov cocktails then be thrown into their homes?
The sour old man is not the only one. The two biggest opposition parties are busy doing it too. PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang accuses non-Malays as the “biggest group of plunderers” who “give and receive bribes”. Really? When they lack the power to demand bribes?
Meanwhile, Bersatu chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin claimed that Pakatan Harapan was an agent of Jews and Christians who wanted to “Christianise” Malaysia.
The question is, does all this slander - plus long-standing discrimination - make non-Malays feel more or less loyal towards Malaysia?
What if we love our country but our country doesn't love us back? - Mkini
ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at [email protected].
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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