Political and Social Reforms in Malaysia

Malaysians, especially the Malays have had tasted many memories - good, bad and ugly - during the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British rules in this beloved homeland called Malaysia at the start of the 15th century until we achieved independence in 1957. Before these events, the Malays were the masters in the Malay Archipelago (called Nusantara) with their own traditions, customs and political set up. In fact, they had their own religion before the coming of Hinduism and later Islam. However, as it is located in the strategic location between India and China, it became the focal point of trade and residence among the Indian and the Chinese. The Malays accepted the presence of these traders and their dependence due to their accommodating characters as embodied in the nature of pure Malays.

The above scenario changed when the imperialist powers colonized this region. First the Indian missionaries to spread Hinduism and Buddhism in the early of the first millenium. By the middle of thirteenth century, the Malays were subjected to a new religion called Islam. As a practice, when the ruler embraced a new faith, it was followed by the subjects - whether by force or otherwise. Later, the Western powers such as the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British came to this region first as traders and then as colonialists. They spread Christianity among the Malays but not many of them accepted this religion.

At that time the Malay Empire spread across the present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Southern Thailand, Southern Philippine and Kampuchea. The Malay Language (now changed to Bahasa Malaysia) was the lingua franca of this region. With the coming of the colonialists, the Malay Empire was broken into countries by emulating divide and rule principles. The also groomed the Malay elites to become the rulers of these countries once they them granted independence. That is why the present rulers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei are Western trained technocrats and aristocrats. With these divide and rule policies, the West had succeeded to divide about 300 million Malays into smaller regions and eradicating their comradeshipman, social and political fabrics. The wealth of the nation was diverted to the selected few rulers and their cronies. The majority of the Malays live in subsistence and many of them are considered as poor people although their countries are rich in natural resources and other products. We can observe these traits in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Therefore the Malays have to rethink their survival in these Malay countries which are economically dominated by the non-Malays with the cooperation of the ruling Malay elites. They have to reform and reengineer their mindset so that they can think rationally without prejudice to their present set up and status quo.