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Sabah never an extension of Tanah Melayu
Published on: Sunday, July 30, 2023
By: Raymond Tombung
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Tangau (left), Mahathir and Hadi Awang
Tangau has lately been very much on the issue of what he referred to as “the stoking of racial and religious sentiments in Peninsular Malaysia” by some Malayan leaders, including Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad who Tangau attacked for treating Malaysia as an “expansion of Tanah Melayu”, and Sabah and Sarawak as just “colonial possessions” transferred from London to Kuala Lumpur.
Tangau referred to Tun Mahathir, Tan Sri Hadi Awang and Datuk Seri Mohd Sanusi as “Malayan extremists” who were “trying to revert Malaysia back to the mono-ethnic, pre colonial Tanah Melayu.”
This statement, surprisingly, raised the ire of the former chief minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh who then challenged Tangau to table a motion in parliament to expel Abdul Hadi on grounds of the latter being “an extremist and terrorist”.
Then Tangau took the argument of whether Malaysia was a Malay country by expanding our perspective to a pan-regional scope of the Nusantars, saying “the nation would recognize and celebrate its three valuable elements – the Nusantara heritage, multiculturalism and liberal political system.”
Nusantara, of course, is the Malay name for the Malay Archipelago or Gugusan Pulau-Pulau Melayu, as it was popularly called some decades ago. He assured that “Recognising Malaysia as part of Nusantara, rather than homeland of just the Malays is not at all challenging the Malay’s dominance in Malaysia.”
But the Nusantara perspective does give a more sober tone on the Malay-supremacy leaning.
He went in to look into history of how we came to be today, and cited the “peninsula hope to ‘Malaynise Sabah and Sarawak in[to] the Malayan mould, by converting non-Muslim natives to Islam, and assimilating Muslim natives as Malays… to create different tiers within Bumiputera, thinking the process would strengthen Malaysia and prevent separatism.”
His piece of mind tore through the current conventional thinking of extreme pro-Malay extremists who parade the narrative as a legitimate political battle cry. Not mincing his words, he left with us courageous remarks that should serve as ample food for thought for a long time to come.
Tangau, in fact, has erected a tall milestone on the Malaysian political highway by pointing out the very realities most Sabah politicians had not dared to touch.
Calling the Malayan attitude as condescending (mistyped as condensing) mentality, he said it is counterproductive, and we should be “persevering the liberal political system we inherit from the British – the Federal Constitution, constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, civil and political liberties including religious freedom, judiciary independence, common laws, impartial and professional bureaucracy [which] is at the core of the social contract that produces and maintains Malaysia.
If you tear apart the liberal political system, you also tear apart the moral basis of Malaysia’s existence.”
The issue raised by Tangau is surfacing now in part as a result of the Malay Proclamation campaign, the “12-point document written by Dr Mahathir that purportedly aims to protect the interests of and unite the Malay community to ‘restore the political power of Malays’” which Bersatu chief Muhyiddin Yassin describes as “something we (Bersatu) stand for [and] it is the foundation of our struggles.”
Somehow, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Madani reformation had triggered the opposition to revert to the Malay cause as a lame attempt at reviving a collapsing support base.
And the erroneous knee-jerk reaction from the three ‘extremists’ was to try to reawaken the worn-out pro-Malay rhetoric. How far this approach will go depends on the outcome of the coming six state elections (PRN) next month.
Regardless of the PRN outcome, however, what Tangau described as condescending attitude of many Malayan political leaders will persist as a Malayan-Borneo states’ problem.
The 10th Prime Minister (PMX) should be alerted that this attitude is one of the major obstacles standing in the way of the realization of his Madani visions. For over half a century now, Sabah and Sarawak have been looked down upon as a junior partner within the socioeconomic and political status in the federation.
It is for this reason that the stated “aims to build and maintain a single national identity, based on a combination of shared social characteristics such as culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics (or the government), religion, traditions and belief in a shared singular history, and to promote national unity or solidarity” has not been achieved.
An accepted form of a “combination of shared social characteristics” between the people of the Peninsular and the Borneo states have not been found or formulated.
The non-Malay or non-Malayan cultural character of the Borneo states had always been a main reason to pigeon-hole us into a different class of Malaysians.
The provision in Article 8 (1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia that “every person shall be equal under the law and have equal protection of law” is easy to implement but the rendering of equality in social, cultural and economic status is altogether a different, and more difficult, matter.
Last January 9, the Minister of National Unity, Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang, announced the “Ini Malaysia Kita” (This is our Malaysia) initiative to enhance the spirit of patriotism among Malaysians. The initiative, based on the principles of the Rukunegara, is “aimed at instilling and fostering the spirit of unity in diversity, and a sense of love for the country.”
The decision by PMX to appoint Aaron Ago, a Sarawakian Member of Parliament for Kanowit, to helm this important ministry, was a wise move as Aaron Ago should be infusing the Borneo states’ values and perspective into national unity plan.
His aim should firstly be to break the erroneous Peninsular-centric ideals of unity which is unconsciously swayed by the condescending attitude which manifests in various forms to this day.
After so long, the ministry has failed to achieve even a basic sociocultural understanding between the peoples of the two regions. While Sabahans and Sarawakians know the Peninsula and its people very well, the reverse is very much the opposite.
Despite the decades of television and now the Internet, thousands of teachers and security forces personnel assigned to Sabah and Sarawak, the various unity programs undertaken by the ministry, intermarriages between peoples of the Borneo states and people of the Peninsula, the countless number of Borneons working in the peninsula, the ministry has still failed to achieve an acceptable level of national unity for Malaysia.
There are still the persistent beliefs that may of us on this side of the nation live on trees, are hunters and gatherers traversing jungles in our loin clothes, and we have different money currencies.
The worst insults are when we meet people in Kuala Lumpur, we are asked the ignorant or purposefully condescending questions, “Hi, welcome to Malaysia!”, “Bile you sampai Malaysie?”, and the worst of all, from ignoramouses, “When is Sabah going to join Malaysia?” They even separate themselves from us by saying, “Kami orang Malaysia…” or “Kami di Malaysia…”
It is sad that leaders in both sides of the country have never felt it necessary to address this gross misunderstanding and never mention it as a very serious national unity problem.
But ironically, Malayan political leaders can slide into a perception of equalising Sabahans and Sarawakians with them, and thinking we are Malays or should be converted to Malays to live according to the social patterns of the peninsular Malaysians, or that we can be lumped into their Malay mold for the purpose of political expedient.
PMX should strive to create a much more united Malaysia not by conforming the Borneo non-Muslim and Muslim natives into the Malayan Malay model.
If the much touted united in diversity is not achieved, the all-encompassing Madani objectives “for sustainability, care and compassion, respect, innovation, prosperity, and trust” will end up as another national failure.
Raymond is a political watcher and defender of Sabah rights.
- The views expressed here are the views of the writer Raymond and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express.
- If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
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