Malaysian identity.

• Author: Palmer, Ronald D.

Editor's Note: Malaysia is a majority Muslim country, but ethnic divisions and colonial history complicate the Malaysian identity. The former U.S., ambassador to Malaysia, Ron Palmer, reviews the development of Malaysian characteristics and their relevance to current concerns about Islamist extremism.--JRB

Terrorism is a tactic of identity politics. Identity politics is a strategy to gain power by the humiliated, the dispossessed; those who consider themselves to be oppressed by uncaring, unworthy elites.

They are the "Left Behind.

The point of this study is to attempt to explain how Al Qaeda found a warm reception among some supporters in Malaysia. All indications are that the number of such supporters is small. Malaysia had typically been known for the relaxed approach it seemed to take to Islam. However, this was misleading because there had been a strong current of traditionalism or orthodoxy in political Islam since at least 1951 when Malay communal political parties were formed.

The United Malays National Organization was the party of the modernizing urban-oriented elite. PAS was the party of largely rural Muslim traditionalists who espoused the creation of an Islamic state governed by sharia law.

Religion is only one of the factors that influence Malaysian identity. Others include social class, attitudes toward change, and Malay fear of the Chinese.

"Malayness," that is being a bumiputera (son of the soil, a native, an indigene, not a Chinese immigrant or the descendant of a Chinese), is the over-arching reality. The constitution specifies that a Malay habitually speaks Malay, is a Muslim and practices the Malay culture. Thus, two features of being Malay are cultural. Chinese are excluded from this definition.

Ethnicity is the key to any discussion of identity in Malaysia.

Malays are the product of two waves of migration from Yunnan in China. Stone Age migrants left traces of their culture in Peninsular Malaya and crossed the then land bridge to Borneo. Tribal elements continue to exist in the jungles and mountains of the peninsula, and their descendants were once known collectively as the "Wild Men of Borneo." They are known as the Kadazhan, the Dusun, etc. in Borneo and are bumiputera.

The second wave of migration occurred in the Bronze Age, and their descendants dominate contemporary Malaysia.

The current area of Malaysia was under the authority of the Sumatran-based Buddhist Srivijaya Empire from the 9th to the 14th centuries. The powerful Hindu Java-based Modjopahit Empire ruled the region in the 14th century.

Islam reached the east coast of Malaya in the 14th century and spread to the riverine kingdoms down the east and west coasts. Islam took strong root in Malacca, and contacts with Muslim merchants and scholars from India and the Arabian Peninsula led to the vigorous growth of trade.

Indeed, the fame of Malacca spread to Europe, and a Portuguese armada conquered the city in 1511. The Portuguese held Malacca until 1641 when they were ousted by the Dutch. The British took Malacca in 1824.

Britain had meanwhile established a trading post in Penang in 1786, took Singapore in 1819 and after taking Malacca in 1824 established the Straits Settlements in 1826, which were administered from Calcutta by the East India Company.

British Merchants in the Straits Settlements prospered but were increasingly concerned by anarchic conditions on the peninsula caused by disputes over succession in the princely feudal states. The merchants insisted that Britain take a more direct role in the affairs of the peninsula, and administrative control of the area was transferred from the East India Company to the India Office. Further consolidation took place in 1867 when Malaya was transferred to the Colonial Office. A Malayan Civil Service modeled on the India Civil Service began about this time.

This was a hectic time in both Malaya and China. Manchu China was crushed by Britain in the 1839-1842 and 1856-1860 Anglo-Chinese "Opium" wars and was forced to make humiliating concessions. The Manchu loss of prestige contributed to the outbreak of the 1850-1862 Taiping Rebellion. This civil war was in the south, and an estimated two million people died. Anyone who could flee the violence did so. Many came to the US to work on the transcontinental railroad. Many others were recruited to work in the tin mines of the Malayan kingships of Perak, Ipoh and Selangor.

Tin mine recruiters worked closely with traditional Chinese secret societies. These groups cooperated with Malay chieftains seeking control of customs duties from the quickly expanding and highly profitable tin trade. The 1867-1873 Selangor war was one result. There was war in Perak also Malay leaders began looking to Britain as a possible mediator in these conflicts as well as an adjudicator of succession disputes. Britain responded by convening a meeting of interested parties to Pangkor Island where the so-called Pangkor Engagement was agreed to in January, 1874. It settled the succession in Perak, and the sultan accepted a British Resident advisor. The Resident's advice had to be sought and adhered to in all matters except those pertaining to the religion and customs of the Malays. By 1900 Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan had accepted British Residents and were known collectively as the Federated Malay States (FMS).

By 1916, the four northern states, Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu, formerly under Thai suzerainty, came under British control and Residents were appointed. These states and later Johor were known as the Unfederated Malay States, and their sultans had more freedom of action than the FMS.

British North Borneo (now Sabah) was a privately owned company and a Crown Colony. Sarawak was the fiefdom of the Brooke family.

Britain's motives in its expansion of control in Malaya were economic. The exploitation of tin and later rubber resources guided British policy. Malays and Bornean tribesmen were ill suited for the type of needed labor so Chinese were imported. The tin producing areas of the Malayan west coast were transformed into areas where Malays rapidly became a minority. Chinese became the middlemen in the urbanizing economy. Malays were more than content to remain rural and uninvolved in the economic turmoil.

Britain had no immigration policy other than to import as many Chinese as possible with no regard for political ramifications. Thus, by 1930 over one million Chinese workers had been imported since the 1860s.

The data show a gender shift of immigrants over the years. In contrast to the mainly male 19th century migration, 20th century migration was increasingly female. Before 1900 twice as many males as females immigrated. From 1901 to 1910 the number of female immigrants was almost half the total. The trend continued in the 1911-1920 period, and women were more than half the immigrants in the 1921-1930 period. Women were about 70 percent of Chinese immigrants in the 1931-1935 era and almost 80 percent of immigrants in 1936-1940.

The significance of this was that the Chinese envisioned settling in Malaya and Borneo and forming the communities of a Second Homeland. These communities were based on the dialect groupings of southeast China, namely Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teohchew, Hainanese and Hohchew (Foochow).

The British fostered communalism and facilitated the growth of Chinese schools. Communities developed around such schools and practiced rituals and ceremonies that emphasized their Chineseness. The Chinese tended to settle in urban areas where there was both economic opportunity and access to education.

Chinese Muslims integrated easily in Malayan society. Their children identified as Malays. The present Prime Minster, Dato' Abdullah Admad Badawi, is descended from a Chinese Muslim father and a Malay woman. His predecessor Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's father was an Indian Muslim; his mother was Malay.

There is little intermarriage with Malays except at high social levels. Some Chinese converted to Islam, and those who were wealthy sometimes married into royal...