Review of CTU553 Class on February 15th, 2007
We concluded our CTU553 class at 5pm. If I knew I wouldn’t have rush just to attend. What’s CTU553? It’s the UiTM code for the ever popular & controversial subject, Ethnic Relations. In my view, I prefer to call it Islamic studies. After class, I knew that I wanted to write an entry here about the class. I came up with one theme: 3 main races in Malaya cannot live in harmony, 40 races & ethnic groups in Sarawak there’s unity.
A group from FSG’s AS220 presented on the background and effects of ethnic relations in Malaysia - which was basically in Malaya. They spent a over 40 minutes discussing Sino-Malayan relations, Arab-Malayan relations, India-Malayan relations and of Islam’s impact on the Malay World. The lecturer stopped them as they were about to discuss the background and history of ethnic relations in Sabah & Sarawak. I must point out several errors of fact before I proceed namely:
- Sarawak has over 40 races & ethnic groups (Sarawak, 2007). They did not include the 45 different languages and dialects we have;
- The one of the rivers where my ancestors, the Ibans, settled is the Saribas, not Sarikas.
Moving on to the issue at hand: ethnic relations. To quote the lecturer “recent events have prompt the government to include ethnic relations subject in the education system”. I must admit that the deterioration of ethnic relations is evident and significant here in Malaya. I’m thinking of how to save my “Borneo a**” if racial violence erupts. Racial violence is inevitable here. They talked about interactions with the Chinese, Indians, Europeans and Arabs during the era of the Malacca Sultanate (c. 15th Century AD). They deliberately ignore the situation in Sarawak. As mentioned before, I dare not represent Sabah as I have no idea of things there.
Sarawak has seen racial harmony since before the Brooke Raj (created in 1841). Save a few uprisings, there have never been an interracial war yet. Even in the uprisings, e.g. Sharif Masahor led a band of Malays, Melanaus & Ibans against the Brooke Raj, a collage of warriors were assembled.
Remember the statistics: Malaya has 3 major races, but Sarawak has over races 40. Why don’t they ever learn from us?
The thing in, in my opinion, when Sarawakians mix, we don’t emphasize religion or race like those in the West. We don’t impose our religion on others nor act that our race is superior. I don’t deny that there are a small number of us who take race and religion as criteria, but generally speaking, we don’t care.
Yeah, unfortunately you’re right. Admittedly and even as a Malayan myself, I admire the unity you guys have there in Sarawak and it is surely something we Malayans have to emulate.
The thing is, even the situation here in the “West” was not always this way. Before the centuries of colonisation by the Portuguese, Dutch and especially the British, traders from all over the world did indeed come to Malacca to trade in peace, and even settled and intermarried with the locals. Racism here only arrived from the time the British came to Malaya (and indeed, even other parts of Asia and Africa with other European powers!) and introduced the divide and rule policy, as well as importing labour from China and India (without asking the permission of Malays as the natives) on the pretext that Malays were too lazy to work. The Malays never gave their assent for them to come and settle over here however the Malay, being polite, accepted it (Refer Mahathir Mohamed’s book, The Malay Dilemma). The Chinese settled in towns to engage in commerce while the Indians, having an almost natural ability to learn and comprehend the English language quickly, helped the colonial administration as government servants. Both never had the opportunity to get to know Malays who mostly lived in rural areas. So basically neither of the major races is to be blamed for this situation we have. The blame lies squarely on the British (and with respect to other colonised places in the world, them and other European powers), for all the hate they sowed with their equally racist divide and rule policy and setting bad examples with racist notions of dominance such as the “white man’s burden” and “duty to spread civilisation”.
I also agree with you that we here, whist in all our squabbling between ourselves, forget there is another half of Malaysia to the East where peoples have retained their traditionally Asian sense of living in peace and harmony (something that West Malaysians have lost) and ought to indeed pay attention to how you guys handle race relations. While most of the time the situation in Sabah and Sarawak is ignored, this is not to say that they are never noticed; they are, occasionally, as can be grasped from papers and even online forums. The thing that must be done is to focus on East Malaysia more, and perhaps even enhance East-West relations.
Ferman
2 Mar 07 at 6:09 pm
Thanks Ferman. If you didn’t mention it, I wouldn’t have noticed that interracial relations in West Malaysia was never as bad as it currently is prior to the arrival of the Western Powers.
Aldric
5 Mar 07 at 12:28 am