The Social Contract

I was excited about the article on the social contract by our beloved Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, it was a good article and very informative. We can intrepret it in many ways as how we feel like because it was a loose contract therefore there are many debatable points and that's why we are still arguing and discussing about it. We should move ahead and think how to overcome the obstacles and improve on our future.

This is part of our history and Tun explained about what happen 50 years ago but let me go back further in history to discuss about how Malaya and Malay’s come about. This information is from various sources and it will be helpful for us to identify our roots. This is just for the purpose of discussions only….

Prehistoric Malaysia may be traced back as far as 200,000 years ago from stone tools found at Kota Tampan, an archaeological site in Lenggong, Perak. The earliest human skeleton, Perak Man, dating back 11,000 years and Perak Woman aged 8000 years, were also discovered in Lenggong. The Niah Caves, in Sarawak had evidence of the oldest human remains in Malaysia, dating back some 40,000 years.

60,000-35,000 years ago- Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)
Paleolithic Malaya had no defined border or countries, no known government, religion, money, etc. Descendants of these early inhabitants still live in the hills of Malaysia, they are known as Orang Asli or aborigines.

35,000-10,000 years ago - Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
Anthropologists traced a group of newcomers Proto Malay seafarers who migrated from Yunnan to Malaysia. Negrito and other Aborigines were forced by them into the hills. In this period, people learnt to dress, to cook, to hunt with advanced stone weapons. Communication techniques also improved. Proto Malay also known as Melayu Asli or Melayu Purba.

10,000-5,000 years ago- Neolithic (New Stone Age)
People learnt to build simple houses and to have families. Simple moral and simple society concept germinated.

2,500 years ago - Bronze Age
More people arrived, including new tribes and seafarers. The Malay Peninsula became the crossroads in maritime trades of the ancient age. Seafarers who came to Malaysia's shore included Indians, Egyptians, Javanese and Chinese. The great Ptolemy (Mathematician, Astronomer, Geographer) named the Malay Peninsula the Golden Chersonese (During the Roman time, the Malay Peninsula developed an international reputation as a source of gold, hence the name was given).

Mekong River Migration

Mekong River, approximately 4180km in length, originated from Tibet and runs through Yunnan province of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. Anthropologists traced the migration of Proto Malays, who were seafarers, to some 10,000 years ago when they sailed by boat (canoe or perahu) along the Mekong River from Yunnan to the South China Sea and eventually settled down at various places.
The Proto Malay (Melayu asli) who first arrived possessed agricultural skills while the second wave Deutero Malay (mixed blood) who joined in around 1500 BC and dwelled along the coastlines have advanced fishery skills. During the migration, both groups intermarried with peoples of the southern islands, such as those from Java and aboriginal peoples of Australoid, Negrito and Melanesoid origin.

Oldest Malay text

The Kedukan Bukit Inscription of 682 CE found at Palembang and the modern Yunnan Dai minority's traditional writings were of the same language family of Pallava, also known as Pallava Grantha. Dai ethnic of Yunnan is one of the aboriginal inhabitants of modern Yunnan province of China.

Malay & Cham languages.

The similarity of the Cambodian Cham language and the Malay language can be found in names of places such as Kampong Cham, Kambujadesa, Kampong Chhnang, etc and Sejarah Melayu clearly mentioned a Cham community in Parameswara's Malacca around 1400s. Cham is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and the Philippines. In mid 1400s, when Cham was heavily defeated by the Vietnamese, some 120,000 were killed and in the 1600s the Champa king converted to Islam. In 1700s the last Champa Muslim king Po Chien gathered his people and migrated south to Cambodia while those along the coastline migrated to the nearest peninsula state Terengganu and Kelantan, approximately 500km or less by boat. Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status.

History

The Malay people are believed to have originated in Borneo and then expanded outwards into Sumatra and later into the Malay Peninsula] these people were descendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the Philippines and originally from Taiwan. The main foundation of this school of thought lies in the fact that the oldest Malay settlements have been discovered in Sumatra and not in the Malay Peninsula. This suggests an upward - south to north - migratory route. Malay culture reached its golden age during Srivijayan times. Malays practiced Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.
Meaning of the word Melayu

1. According to the History of Jambi, the word Melayu originated from a river with name Sungai Melayu near to Sungai Batang Hari of today's Muara Jambi, Sumatra.
2. The founder of Malacca, Parameswara was a prince of Palembang which was once owned by a nation called "Malayu" back in the seventh century.
3. The word "Malay" was adopted into English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from Portuguese "Malaio", which originates from the Malay word "Melayu".
4. According to one popular theory, the word Melayu means "migrating" or "fleeing", which might refer to the high mobility of these people across the region
5. Javanese verb 'mlayu' means to run
6. In Tagalog, 'malayo' with the root word 'layo', which means 'distance' or 'far'
7. Another theory holds that the name refers to the Tamil word Malai Yur which means "Land of Mountains" (malai means mountain and yur means land), a reference to the hilly nature of the Malay Archipelago.
The term Melayu, in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, refers to a person who professes Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom and who has at least one ancestor from the Malay Peninsula or Singapore.

In Malaysia, the majority of the population is made up of ethnic Malays while the minorities consist of southern Chinese (e.g. Hokkien and Cantonese), southern Indians (mainly Tamils), non-ethnic Malay indigenous peoples (e.g. Iban and Kadazan), as well as Eurasians.
The influential Srivijaya kingdom (3rd-13th centuries) had unified the various ethnic groups in Southeast Asia into a convergent cultural sphere for almost a millennium. It was during that time that vast borrowing of Sanskrit words and concepts facilitated the advanced linguistic development of Malay as a language. Malay was the regional lingua franca, and Malay-based Creole languages existed in most trading ports in Indonesia


The social contract in Malaysia refers to the agreement made by the country's founding fathers in the Constitution. The social contract usually refers to Articles 14–18 of the Constitution, pertaining to the granting of citizenship to the non-Malay people of Malaysia, and article 153, which grants the Malays special rights and privileges. The term has also been used occasionally to refer to other portions of the Constitution, such as the Article stating that Malaysia is a secular state.

A higher education Malaysian studies textbook conforming to the government syllabus states: "Since the Malay leaders agreed to relax the conditions for citizenship, the leaders of the Chinese and Indian communities accepted the special position of the Malays as indigenous people of Malaya. With the establishment of Malaysia, the special position status was extended to include the indigenous communities of Sabah and Sarawak.

The Reid’s Commission

The Reid Commission which prepared the framework for the Constitution stated in its report that Article 153, the backbone of the social contract, would be temporary only, and recommended that it be reviewed 15 years after independence. The Commission also said that the article and its provisions would only be necessary to avoid sudden unfair disadvantage to the Malays in competing with other members of Malaysian society, and that the privileges accorded the Malays by the article should be gradually reduced and eventually eliminated. Due to the May 13 Incident, after which a state of emergency was declared, however, 1972, the year that Article 153 was due to be reviewed, passed without incident.

Members of Reid Commission

Lord William Reid - Chairman
Sir Ivor Jennings - Britain
Sir William McKell - Australia
Hakim B. Malik - India
Hakim Abdul Hamid - Pakistan

Tunku Abdul Rahman spoke:

When he assumed the Presidency of UMNO, Tunku Abdul Rahman (later the first Prime Minister of Malaysia) stated that "...when we (the Malays) fought against the Malayan Union(which upset the position of the Malays' rights) the others took no part in it because they said this is purely a Malay concern, and not theirs. They also indicate that they owe their loyalty to their countries of origin, and for that reason they oppose the Barnes Report to make Malay the national language. If we were to hand over the Malays to these so-called Malayans when their nationality has not been defined there will be a lot of problems ahead of us." However, he continued that "For those who love and feel they owe undivided loyalty to this country, we will welcome them as Malayans. They must truly be Malayans, and they will have the same rights and privileges as the Malays.

I agree with the statement by Tunku Abdul Rahman, those days most of the ‘immigrants’ came to Malaya to work and earn a living. They save all their money and send back to their country with the intention to go back when they saved enough. There is no loyalty to this country and granting them citizenship is definitely not acceptable.

Many of the ‘Immigrants” went back to their native country but there were significant amount of them decided to stay back and becomes Malaysian Citizens. Most of us are 2nd and 3rd generation citizen in Malaysia and our love and loyalty is to this country, we don’t even know from which town or cities our grandfather’s came from, we lived, studied, socialized, worked and probably die here. Are we still not the true Malaysian that the constitution wanted, what else can we do to prove our loyalty to this country.

I am not questioning the bumiputra rights, please don’t take my statements as racist, I am not a racist, I love my country, my best friends are Malay’s, i have traveled to many places around the world and Malaysia is still the best country to live in and I will defend the sovereignty of my country at any cost but will the government help and care for us as much as we care for them. We are not asking to be spoon fed, give us equal opportunities and we are willing to work and earn a decent living and rights as sons of Malaysia.


Captain…..