Were The Indians And Chinese Imported To Dispossess Malays Of Their ‘Birthright’?

by | May 8, 2014 | Misc

The article: www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/indians-chinese-imported-to-dispossess-malays-of-birthright-isma-claims

“Indians and Chinese were brought into Malaysia to weaken the Malay identity and undermine the community’s birthright to peninsular Malaysia on the pretext of multiculturalism.” This could not be further from the truth. Anyone who has studied our colourful history knows that the Chinese were brought in as tin miners while the Indians were brought in as estate workers

It was the Industrial Revolution at that time. As far as the British colonizers were concerned, they only wanted workers to help them achieve their economic agendas. Nothing in our history textbooks suggest that the British wanted to “weaken the Malay identity” using the Chinese and Indians as ISMA absurdly claims

“Abdul Rahman claimed that the entry of the Chinese and Indians had been a “cunning and evil” conspiracy by the British to weaken the Malays who were opposed to its occupation.” In all fairness to the British, some Malay rulers welcomed the Brits with open arms

1. In Perak, Raja Abdullah and Raja Ismail fought for the throne and the former requested the Brits to acknowledge him as the ruler of the state. That led to the “Perjanjian Pangkor 1874”

2. In Negeri Sembilan, Dato Kelana and Dato Bandar fought over Sungai Ujong. The former got the British to help strengthen his position. In exchange, the Brits got full authority to collect taxes at Sungai Linggi

So many chapters in the high school history textbooks talk about how the British wanted Tanah Melayu for its riches in natural resources. Nothing indicates that the British brought in foreign labour to weaken the position of the Malays.

The textbooks do say that the Brits brought in their own people to take up positions of power in order to strengthen their position in Tanah Melayu. Whoops. Been blaming the wrong people all this while?

At the end of the day, it depends on how you want to see things. Through the lenses of racial bigots, historical facts not in favour of their opinion counts for nothing

Things that happened in the past should be left in the past. Does it matter more how I got here or what I have done since I got here? After 56 years of independence (approaching 57 this year), we still have certain groups harping over how the Chinese and Indians were brought in

Every race has contributed to the development of the nation. Because of the blood and sweat of our forefathers, we are where we are now. No one race deserves to be here (in Malaysia) more than another!