Now, we have seen that Art. 153 talks about 'special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak' (see earlier post).
The Federal Constitution defines Malay in Article 160(2) as follows:-
- see also earlier post 'Today a Malay....""Malay" means a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom and -
(a) was before Merdeka Day born in the Federation or in Singapore or born of parents one of whom was born in the Federation or in Singapore, or is on that day domiciled in the Federation or in Singapore; or
(b) is the issue of such a person;
Now, does the term 'Bumiputra' or 'Bumiputera' refer to '...the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak' or does this term include other persons.
Note, that there can be no 'new' Malay - i.e. someone cannot be brought from some other country, given a citizenship and made a Malay.
A Malay has to be a person
- born before 31/8/1957 born in the Federation of Malaya or in Singapore,
- domiciled in the Federation of Malaya or in Singapore on 31/8/1957
- born of a parent born before 31/8/1957 born in the Federation of Malaya or in Singapore,
OR children of such persons.
The definition, as it stands today, there can be no Malay from Sabah or Sarawak or any other place. That makes one wonder who the members of the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) - surely they are not Malay, as defined by our Federal Constitution.
Does the term 'Bumiputra' or 'Bumiputera' include the Orang Asli of Semenanjung Malaysia (or the 'aborigine of the Malay Peninsula' as the Federal Constitution describes them)?
Does the term 'Bumiputra' or 'Bumiputera' include persons who are NOT 'Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak'? And if these other persons are also benefiting from the special rights and privileges provided for 'Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak' - then it is wrong.
Do we become Malay when we join UMNO? Do we start enjoying 'Bumiputra status' when we join UMNO?
Does the term 'Bumiputra' or 'Bumiputera' include persons who are NOT 'Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak'? And if these other persons are also benefiting from the special rights and privileges provided for 'Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak' - then it is wrong.
Do we become Malay when we join UMNO? Do we start enjoying 'Bumiputra status' when we join UMNO?
I have not been able to find any legal definition of the term 'Bumiputra' or 'Bumiputera'... it would be good if anyone out there could help...
I believe we should move away from this term 'Bumiputra' or 'Bumiputera', which, I believe, is a term that was created by the UMNO led - BN government.
We should revert and talk only about 'Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak'.
We should revert and talk only about 'Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak'.
I personally believe that the 'aborigine of the Malay Peninsula' (or the Orang Asli) should also be accorded special rights and privileges...but this will require a constitutional amendment.
WHY do you think this UMNO led-BN government prefers to use the term 'Bumiputra' rather than the correct term ''Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak'? I will share more on this in some later post....maybe.
I hope to listen to some comments...
I think in Malaysia, bumiputra is divided into two classes: all muslim citizens are first class bumiputra (regardless of their race or background) and non-muslim indigenous people are second class bumpitras. Non-muslim non-bumiptras of course are third class.
ReplyDeleteWhat constitution says carry no weight. All affirmative actions and policies are bestowed on muslims in general, any leftover will be given to non-muslim bumiputras.
I see the expression 'Malay' appears in 3 separate provisions.
ReplyDeletea) Article 153 : Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak.
b) Article 160 : Interpretation
:" Malay " means a person who..
c)161A (7) :definition of "native" in clause (6) as indigenous to Sarawak are the Bukitans, ...
, Malays, Melanos,...
The expression " Aborigine " in name only appear in Article 160 : under Interpretation.
'Bumiputra' did not appear in the Federal Constitution at all.
It get more interesting when I read the Hard copy of the Federal Constitution .
All your 3 articles are explicit and clearly good discussion topics.
My salute to all Peacemakers.
Sure raised my eyebrows when u raised that issue and that makes lots of brand new Malays overnight into Non Malays/Bumi. However, in the back of my mind "surely someone would have noticed it?" then again maybe not. Good one.
ReplyDeleteAnyway in regards to your Bumi question, try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumiputra
Vague remembered the term Bumi was as usual, manipulated by UMNO to ensure it is sufficient to create their objectives of divide and rule. First it included Peranakans and then excluded ....
ON "ORANG ASLI":
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the term above has its separate meaning as defined in Article 160:
"Orang asli" ertinya orang asli Semenanjung Tanah Melayu;(Aborigine means "Aborigine of the Malay Penisula").
It also appears that "Orang Asli" are not grouped together with the "Malays & natives of Sabah & Sarawak"; they have their own "Orang Asli Department" to look after their welfare etc.
What brader Joseph said is certainly inaccurate.There are some non-Muslim bumiputras and/or non-Muslim non-bumiputras who enjoy far more rights/special privileges than the ordinary Malays/Muslim bumiputras.
It depends on your cable, contact, hardwork, fate, rezeki, luck, 'ong' etc.
In the final analysis, the problems in Malaysia are not racial in nature; we have actually entered in to the era of class struggle. The rich vs the poor -- poor Malays vs rich Malays; poor Chinese vs rich Chinese; poor Indians vs rich Indians;poor Kadazan vs rich Kadazan and so on....
We should stop looking along racial lines.We ( and the urge the ruling party ) must assist the poor people.
HIDUP MALAYSIA.
back to the history, malay originated from malay archipelango...somehow non malay in malaysia want to create unplesure condition here...what else they want, the non malay have control the economic of malaysia, the malay people still poor.....the malay just wait and see, if the non malay are too over, then they we see blood that will be flooded in this country...they wont make any profit any more....see and wait...
ReplyDeleteAnoymous 11/02/2008 3:26 PM
ReplyDeleteI really2 don't agree about your comment..It's to racial..But for others, I also not agree, that all of you can't even look at another country..For example,is Thai have Chinese school or Indian school? Nope..so, I think that don't be too emotional..You can raise the needed your race, but lastly you should consider about the others...
Anonymous 11/02/2008 3.26 PM comments are really disturbing and pathetic. With no evidence to support those malicious claims/lies, the next thing is to blame the chinese, indians, others. Eat your idiotic lying comments as I, non malay, is driving Proton compared to thousands of 'poor' malays driving Benz & BMW. Never ending plunder (NEP)had created ungrateful, greedy and demonic people! Belief in God & Speaking the truth!
ReplyDeletei dunno. I find it hard to define. Well, The portuguese are defined bumis even though the earliest they were here would be 1511. The Thais are also but i have no qualms on bot. I do get my agitation when anyone who converts to Islam are given the 'bumi' tag. I believe that there should be some principle enforced, for example following a lineage. I think the motivation here is conversion.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Orang asli, since they are in special Para, dun you think that they should get better treatment? JHEOA needs to be headed by an orang asli and more money.
here is an answer to Anonymous 11/02/2008 3.26 who is actually keeping the malay down. its not the other races its the umnoputras, kalau kurang matang, belajarlah sikit, pakai ah otak sotong awak sikit.
ReplyDeleteHere is an example of Ketuanan Melayu, let me explain first what it means, it is an excuse to rape,pillage,collect under-table money by UMNO CRONIES in positions of power for grants, scholarships, loans, contracts, etc.
What is the purpose of Mara, its purpose is to help out the Ketuanan malay agenda, in other words, it is a special purpose vehicle to disburse funds, but even then it is subjected to abuses. An e.g. from personal experience, I worked for a Bumiputra company with a ratio of 96% of the staff being malays, the company applied for a grant under the prosper scheme for eexpansion, this is a fund set up to help bumi SMI’s, well the working paper and the company’s profile with a solid progress track record with following the rules and not depending on handouts, when shown to bankers for funding was approved without any questions asked, in fact the bankers said we were very conservative with our projections, whereas the reality was business was booming. Now we were recomended to Mara for grant status, after all the meetings held and the top management of Mara wanting to help out the bumi company, as a shining example and a showcase to other bumi companies to follow. The bottom line the funding eventhough approved by the top management was approved was rejected by the funding committee. We were informally contacted by a third party and when I met this third party, it turns out He was the lobbiest and runner for certain influental members from the Mara financial committee, What did he want? HE TOLD US IF YOU WANT THE FUNDING, YOU WILL PAY US 15% OF THE GRANT AMOUNT AS OUR COMMISSION, So I asked him so how does this work, payment by check not acceptable, our grant request was for rm500,000.00, so the payment to this runner/lobbiest/ shark was Rm 45,000. to be paid in cash the moment the letter of approval is issued, but go back on your word and it gets cancelled on a technicality. When we contacted the person from Mara he acknowledged the third parties existence and acknowledged the deal. When I informed the directors in the board meeting, they were so incensed and disgusted they cancelled the whole thing but not before informing the top management of Mara, WELL GUESS WHAT, the people involved, nothing happened to them.
What am I trying to say, there are Bumi businessmen out there whocarry on doing their business, who don’t want to be part and parcel of this corruption, so they stay away from all these snake pits of ‘KETUANAN MELAYU’, but the pressure put on your company can at times kill the business, they have tentacles everuwhere, when pressure was put on the company for reporting the incident to the higher ups, the bchairman of the board gave an ultimation which I delivered to the third party concerned, leave us alone or we will file charges with the ACA, ALL OUR PHONE CONVERSATIONS WERE RECORDED, so everything was on tape, the pressure stopped within2 days. THATS HOW THINGS WORK, either you are with us, or if you are against us STFU, or we make life very difficult for you. Our advantage was we did not depend on the local markets whose doors were shut to us in retaliation but on exports. SO who says ketuanan Melayu helps the Malay businessmen, IN reality it doesn’t. This is a collusses of corruption which runs through every GOVT. backed machinery. Thats the KETUANAN MELAYU THAT THEY ARE HARPING ABOUT, to rape, pilage and line their pockets in the name of KETUANAN.