A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (8 page)

History has in this instance proven to be a true teacher but its students have been inattentive. In the early twentieth century, the Malay Rulers did not get the revenue due to them because their Malay tax collectors pocketed much of what they collected. Along came a Chinese 
towkay
 who offered to guarantee a lot more tax for the Ruler if he was given the right to collect taxes for the royal house. That was common practice in those days. Gradually, opium monopolies, clove monopolies, tax collection and so on were farmed out to Chinese 
towkays
 because they guaranteed higher returns to the Rulers. Over time, the need for Malay administrators diminished and they became less skilled in administration, less powerful and poorer while the Chinese became richer and more influential. These lessons still need to be heeded, even today. Unless the Malays work hard, they may wake up one day to find that this country is no longer theirs, that they are dispossessed in their own land. This scenario is not farfetched. If Malays become corrupt they may be financially persuaded to elect governments that may be prepared to sell their birthright to the highest bidders, who are unlikely to be Malays.

In making disparaging remarks and offering critical analyses about the Malays, I wanted not to insult them but to encourage a habit of self-scrutiny, which I hoped might lead to self-improvement. The Malay people have notable weaknesses and defects. But they also display many attributes in which they can take pride. Among them is the fact that Malaysia is what it is today because of how well and generously the Malays have accommodated those who have made this country their home. Many non-Malay Malaysian citizens have emigrated but there is no rancour. Those who remain are still regarded as loyal fellow citizens.

When I became Prime Minister in 1981, Malaysia had a population of 13 million, of whom seven million were Malays. Today the population is 25 million, nearly twice the number in 1981. The proportion of Malays has increased somewhat but their contribution is not commensurate with their number. They have responded to my appeal to play a bigger role in the development of this country but they need to do more. People in developing countries all over the world speak highly of the rate of Malaysia’s progress. I am proud, but it is a pride tinged with sadness. We can do better. The Malays can do better. I know they can. In retirement, apart from appealing to them, I can do very little. I pray, but I know that Allah will not change the fate of any people unless they seriously attempt to change it themselves.

I worry about the Malays and fear for their future, but that does not change the fact that I am proud to be a Malay. I would not want to be anything else. In earlier times a Roman, wherever he went in the world, was always proud to declare himself a Roman citizen. For my part I wanted to be able to go anywhere in the world and say with equal pride, “I am a Malay”.

ENDNOTES

[
1
] I introduced the Bangsa Malaysia (or Malaysian nation) policy to create an inclusive national identity for all Malaysians. It meant that we could identify ourselves with the country, speak the Malay language and accept the Malaysian Constitution.
 

[
2
] As stipulated in Article 89(6) of the Federal Constitution, Malay reserve land can only be owned or transferred to a Malay. There are currently some 4.5 million hectares of Malay reserve land.
 

[
3
] A state in the central region of the Peninsula.
 

[
4
] Datuk Naning, whose real name was Datuk Abdul Said, was the ninth ruler of Naning, a district in Malacca.
 

[
5
] A state in the East Coast region of the Peninsula.
 

[
6
] A state in the northeast region of the Peninsula.
 

[
7
] Born Mat Hassan Panglima Munas, Tok Janggut led a rebellion against the British over the taxes they had imposed on agricultural goods in Kelantan. He was killed by the British on 24 May 1915. His body was paraded around Kota Baru and then hung upside down in front of the palace.
 

[
8
] A state in East Malaysia.
 

[
9
] James Brooke, Charles Brooke, and Vyner Brooke—the three White Rajahs of Sarawak—ruled the state from 1841 until it became a British colony in 1946. During their reign, they protected the rights of the indigenous people, earning their trust and loyalty.
 

[
10
] Malays have a complicated system of honorifics that convey esteem or respect.
 

[
11
] This policy sought to model Malaysia’s growth on the development of East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.
 

To understand the Malays we need first to examine their origins and the journey they have taken to reach where they are today. I began my study early, knowing that if I was to champion their cause, I would need to know them more intimately.

What I had been taught in school was very sketchy. Apart from text books, I read books on Malayan history by British administrators such as Sir Richard Winstedt, Sir Frank Swettenham and many academics. I also read the 
Sejarah Melayu
 or 
Malay Annals
, the 
Hikayat Hang Tuah
 and 
Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
. In world history, the Malays are mentioned in documents going as far back as the time of Alexander the Great. Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer and mathematician of the first century of the Common Era, referred to the Peninsula as the “Golden Chersonese”. To the Indians it was 
Suvarnadvipa
, “the Golden Peninsula”. The Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires wrote that Malacca was of such importance and profit that it had no equal in the world. The Peninsula had a reputation for being rich in gold.

From these readings I discovered that the Malay people who inhabited the Peninsula from ancient times were believed to have made their way there from southern China. To this day there are people of the same hysiognomy in the Yunnan Province of China. They apparently emigrated down to the Peninsula, which formed the southernmost part of the Asian land mass. Some even crossed the seas to the islands of the huge archipelago, which has today become the Republic of Indonesia and the Philippines. Others apparently traversed vast oceans to settle in the Easter Islands, Hawaii and Madagascar.

Eventually, the Malay peoples developed a complex and distinctive civilisation based upon the institution of hereditary rulers who set up principalities. Apart from indigenous animism, the inhabitants were also influenced by the Hindu and Buddhist religions and cultures of India. Indian merchants had voyaged to the Peninsula from as early as 1,700 years ago, and they brought with them the ideas of Hindu-Buddhist teachings. These elevated the princely rulers to the status of god-like kings who commanded the complete obedience of their subjects. Life centred upon the courts of the Raja, the hereditary ruler. His god-like status was enhanced by elaborate rituals and ceremonies. His subjects—even the most senior members of court—literally had to crawl on all fours to make obeisance to him.

This remained the situation until the arrival of Islam in the region. Islam did not so much replace the Hindu-Buddhist cultural world as graft itself upon that older social order. But it also introduced changes. Far from subscribing to the caste system which had become common practice, Islam preached equality before God. It must have been difficult for the Malay Rajas in the Peninsula and the archipelago to accept this egalitarian principle, but the Muslim traders from the Arabian Peninsula and India who introduced Islam into the region were rich, successful and intelligent, and therefore very influential. The Rajas could not help but be impressed by them, especially since the goods they brought were highly sought after by the Malays. With certain exceptions, they were willing to accept Islam’s moral egalitarianism, even while maintaining much of their old ways.

The Rajas traded jungle produce gathered by their subjects for the silk, lacquer ware, brassware, gold and so on that the traders brought. Personal relationships must have developed (as they do even today) between the rich traders and the Malay Rajas. Eventually most of the Rajas converted to Islam, interpreted in a way that maintained their high positions and most of the old court practices. But they ceased to claim that they were gods and accepted that like everyone else, they were “
hamba Allah
”, the “slaves of Allah”. While it was a big step down for them, they remained the anointed group.

The Malay states of the archipelago and the Peninsula flourished through trade. Situated on the sea routes between east and west, they benefited from the passage of trading vessels calling at their ports to replenish supplies and water. The region produced spices, scented wood and various gums from forest trees, which were much in demand by the foreigners. Trade with the merchants of China, India and Arabia developed, bringing prosperity to the numerous principalities on the sea coast.

The first of these entrepôt ports was Fu-Nan in the Gulf of Siam. It was already a thriving commercial centre in the second century CE. Strategically located, it was accessible by land to ports on the west coast of the Isthmus of Kra, where goods from India, Arabia and even the Mediterranean countries landed. The overland route to Fu-Nan was preferred because the voyage down the coast of the Malay Peninsula was very long and the sea there was infested with pirates. Because of this, the exchange and sale of goods from China, India, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Southeast Asian islands took place in Fu-Nan. From there, Chinese ships would carry goods back to China, while the Malay ships took theirs to the budding entrepôt ports in Southeast Asia. Later the ethnic Malay traders from the archipelago bypassed Fu-Nan and sailed straight on to China. According to European records their ships weighed more than 200 tonnes, clearly the creation of master shipbuilders. Chinese traders did the same and sailed to ports in Southeast Asia. Fu-Nan went into decline and in its place, the great entrepôt ports of Java, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula developed.

All these trading ships, and later those that came to Southeast Asia from Europe, sailed with the help of the monsoonal or “trade” winds.
[1]
 They were dependent upon these biannual wind patterns because naval architecture of the time did not allow the traders to build ships capable of “tacking into”, or sailing against, the prevailing wind. So the ships from China, India, Arabia and the outlying Southeast Asian islands had to remain in port at their destination for almost half a year, waiting for the winds to change and blow them back to their homelands.
 

The enforced stay of traders of many nationalities gave these ports an international or cosmopolitan flavour. Their human diversity enriched the culture of the region’s states and cities. In its heyday, Malacca had a population of 100,000—at a time when the population of London was about 200,000. Sometimes the rulers of these port cities also involved themselves in trading activities, naturally giving themselves various privileges above those of their own subjects. This was not unusual in those days, when European royalty in the same era also used to invest in the trading expeditions of their merchants. A taste or inclination for trade has remained characteristic of a number of the ruling families of the region. In modern Malaysia, for example, the royal family of Negeri Sembilan has become one of the nation’s major corporate and entrepreneurial forces.

The commercial life and success of these maritime trading ports required great administrative and negotiating skills among their local ruling classes. Competition was keen as new ports emerged, always seeking to attract canny traders through better security, efficiency and the fairness of the Rulers of the states. In the administration of entrepôt ports, some foreigners played functional roles in governing foreign merchant communities and overseeing port activities. But the life of the maritime port city remained under the overall supervision of the local Ruler, together with his close family and associates. They had to maintain the success of the city as a trading centre, or else other Rulers would seize the opportunity to build their own ports. Taxes and dues were levied by the Ruler’s administration, but care was taken that they did not become excessive and drive the traders away. The same approach is evident in Malaysia today; far from new, the business-friendly attitude of the Malaysian Government has deep cultural origins and historical precedent. The competing entrepôt ports of Southeast Asia set out to be attractive to foreigners long before modern Malaysia was ever imagined.

In the early fifteenth century CE, the new entrepôt port of Malacca was founded on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. There were already ports in Kedah and Perak, and in Terengganu on the east coast. But these were small and not as successful or as well administered as Malacca. The Hindu prince Parameswara, who founded Malacca, and his successors were far more astute. Parameswara built an entrepôt port at the mouth of the Malacca River. Coming from Palembang, part of the powerful Sri Vijaya empire, he saw how wealth had been created through providing port facilities and the exchange of goods at entrepôt ports. The Malays of Malacca adapted easily as they were an urban people. The city was surrounded by forest and there was little cultivated land. Evidently, the Malays in those days thrived in a trade-based urban economy. It was only later that they were driven into the countryside as peasants.

Beginning with Parameswara, who founded Malacca in 1400, the Rulers of Malacca built up a sound administration, providing laws for both land and sea. The Ruler managed the city’s affairs through his high officers headed by a
bendahara
(Prime Minister or Chief Minister), a
shahbandar
(harbour master), and various
panglima
(generals or commanders) and
laksamana
(admirals). In Malacca, as in Sri Vijaya, success was due to Malay nautical skills and organising abilities. Location also played a role, as it did later with Singapore. But without the right human talent and abilities—or social infrastructure as we would now say—location by itself was no guarantee of commercial success.