Gerakan’s ‘Wayang’: Who can be labelled as ‘Pendatang’

By admin-s Last updated Oct 23, 2014

Koon Yew Yin, MMO

At Gerakan’s recently concluded national conference, the Malaysian public was treated to a lonely voice of the party in the way of one of its delegates who stated his view with regard to the birth place of the various racial groups in the country. According to Johor delegate Tan Lai Soon, not only were the Chinese and Indians pendatang, but the Malays were also not natives of Malaysia either as they had emigrated from Indonesia.

Tan said he wanted to explain the position of Malaysians in the country, as the original Bumiputeras were the Orang Asli and natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

“Except for the natives of Sabah and Sarawak and the Orang Asli, everyone else in Malaysia is a pendatang,” and Tan also noted that “when Umno members say that the Chinese are pendatang, they obviously forgot that they were also pendatang from Indonesia.”

This view is one which many Malaysians hold — whether in public or privately.

But it is one which Umno, Perkasa, BTN and “ketuanan Melayu” supporters do not like to hear about and are trying to suppress as it delegitimises the special privileges that they are addicted to.

Tan’s statement can be said to be akin to stating that the emperor is not clothed when he is parading around in his fine new clothes.

Damage control or digging a bigger hole

For daring to point out this inconvenient fact of the origins of many Malaysians, Tan’s membership in Gerekan has now been suspended with immediate effect. Attempting to do damage control, deputy president Cheah Soon Hai is now arguing that Tan’s position was not the party’s stand.

According to him Gerakan is a party of all races and that no Malaysian is a pendatang.

Meanwhile, on cue, a coalition of Malay NGOs called Pertubuhan Pembela Islam (Pembela) has lodged a police report at the Dang Wangi police station over the issue and has asked Attorney-General Gani Patail to charge Tan under the Sedition Act 1948. According to Pembela, the “seditious” statement has given rise to a tense situation and triggered anger among Malays as well as indirectly insulted the position of the Malay rulers. Cheah said it was not just Malay NGOs who were upset with Tan’s remarks as party members too had lodged complaints over the remark by Tan in his speech. Finally, he offered a public apology “on behalf of the party to all Malaysians who have been hurt by his remark.”

Gerakan may be trying to sooth Umno’s ruffled feathers by its apology but it is digging a bigger hole for itself. “Spineless party,” “puppet party,” “kowtowing leaders,” “shameless leaders,” “wimpering lap dog” are some of the more polite responses that the Gerakan president and vice-president have obtained from disgusted members of the public.

Tan’s statement may be politically incorrect or insensitive but he was simply saying out loud what many educated members of the public understand to be the history of migration into Malaysia from the neighbouring countries and from afar. This also happens to be the authoritative view among many scholars of Malaysia — whether they may be historians, geographers, demographers or from other discipline.

The origins of the population of colonial Malaya was the subject of much investigation and study by colonial officials and scholars. Almost all books and official records that came out during the colonial period devoted considerable attention to the subject of the origins of the Malays and non-Malays.