“Hilang dari dunia ini” - a non-Malay’s beginner’s guide to Ketuanan Melayu.
To begin understanding Ketuanan Melayu, you must first understand why some Malays fear “disappearing from this world”.

1/35

Probably the most famous Malay nationalist slogan is from the Hikayat Hang Tuah: "takkan Melayu hilang dari dunia ini". Many non-Malays, however, do not in the first place, understand why many Malays have this fear of “kehilangan”. 2/35

To these non-Malays, Malays are already the majority. They’re already culturally, religiously, and politically dominant in the country. "What reason do Malays have to be afraid? Apa lagi Melayu mau?" 3/35

To answer this question, you must first understand 2 things:
(1) “Malay” is more than a race. It is a civilisational category .
(2) Malays feel like a minority in their own country, even though they are a majority 4/35

(1) "Malay" as civilisation, rather than as race
Being malay, traditionally, has less to do with lineages and descent, than with cultural practice and social organisation. It has more to do with language, traditions and culture, than bloodlines, descent, and ethnic heritage. 5/35

Historically, as long as you practiced Malay culture and spoke Malay, you could (mostly) be Malay. this is why ethnically diverse individuals—Bugis, Minangkabau, folks with chinese/indian/arab ancestry, Orang Asli who've converted to islam, etc—can all identify as Malay. 6/35

Even the controversial article 160 of the Constitution (technically) only has 3 criteria for being malay: 1. Being Muslim 2. Practicing Malay culture 3. Speaking Malay. This, in turn, reflects a Nusantaran history of racial fluidity that diverges from European conceptions. 7/35

This isn't to say that ethnicity and descent don’t matter at all when it comes to being “Malay”. “Usul” and “salasiah” do matter to an extent: which is why Peranakan Chinese aren't/weren't considered "fully" Malay in spite of adopting much of local culture. 8/35

But reconceptualising “Malayness” as civilisation rather than race makes anxieties of its disappearance much more understandable. After all, while “races” might not easily disappear, civilisations—their social-political institutions, cultures, and languages—can and often do. 9/35

The destruction of rural/village ways of life. The shift from traditional agrarian economies to modern industrialized urban economies; the erosion of adat & local traditions; are only some examples of the challenges that many Malay nationalists perceive in the modern world.10/35

Malay civilisation has been in a state of disruption since colonialism destroyed many local institutions and ways of life. If you understand "hilang" not just as fearing the disappearance of a race, but of a civilisation, this fear becomes much more understandable.11/35

(2) Self minoritization and perceived marginalization
Non-Malays need to understand why many Malays *feel* like a minority in Malaysia, in spite of their socio-political dominance. There are 2 (main) reasons. 12/35

(a) During the colonial era, while Chinese and Indians were concentrated in urban areas that allowed a lucky few to rise to a comfortable existence, Malays were confined to rural areas and traditional occupations that afforded little opportunities for social advancement. 13/35

Because British rule in Malaya was maintained through the consent of the Sultans, radically changing Malay society would have posed a threat to their political power, and by extension, British control. So this immobility was very much by design, rather than incidental. 14/35

This inequality existed post-independence as well: Merdeka did not automatically solve the economic woes of the Malay peasantry. it was only after the implementation of the NEP that there was a nationwide effort to uplift the Malay peasantry from poverty 15/35

Inequality continues to be an important factor. While general academic consensus is that *inter-ethnic* inequality has, largely, been reduced by the NEP, absolute inequality within ethnic groups themselves in Malaysia has increased dramatically over the past few decades. 16/35

Much of the anger at this has been deflected onto racial minorities - stereotypes of “cina/india kaya, melayu miskin” by elites who want to mask their own responsibility in the problem of continuing inequality. This wrong. But it doesn’t make the basic fear itself invalid. 17/35

(b) As Syed Hussein Alatas famously observed, Malay colonial elites like Munshi Abdullah often actively marginalised the Malay masses socially and intellectually, by producing and reproducing racist British stereotypes about the “backwardness” of the Malays. 18/35

This trend continues to the present day. The greatest living Malay politician is also the man who has made numerous disparaging comments about how lazy Malays are, and who wrote the most famously incorrect “study” of Malay inferiority in recent historical memory. 19/35

These factors have combined to create what scholar Tan Zhi Hao called a sense of "self-minoritisation" among the Malay community. In short, in spite of their social, economic, and political dominance in modern Malaysia, many Malays "feel" like a minority. 20/35

Non-Malays who keep bringing up Malay socio-political dominance in Malaysia today are missing the point. The important thing is not that Malays *are* socially, economically, or politically marginalised. the point is that they *feel* that they are. 21/35

Ketuanan Melayu doesn’t come only from ignorance, or a desire to dominate other races - it also comes from the traumas & anxieties of a community who feel, and have been repeatedly told, even by their own leaders, that they are inferior. It comes down, in short, to fear. 22/35

Fear of being displaced. Fear of being reduced again to political and economic subservience. Fear of ending up like Palestinians, Uyghurs, or Kashmiris; or closer to home, like the Patani Malays: having their cultures repressed, and their nation colonised. 23/35

None of this means Malaysia's minorities should simply roll over and accept Malay hegemony. The problems & anxieties of Malaysia's minorities *have* been exacerbated by some of the responses of exclusionist, hegemonic ideologies like Ketuanan Melayu. 24/35

Violent cultural erosion under orthodox islamic-Malay dominance. Socio-economic neglect and lack of relief for non-Malay poor. All these are valid fears faced by Chinese, Indians, Orang Asli, and East Malaysians that have been exacerbated by Ketuanan Melayu. 25/35

But as we wrestle with & communicate our own fears, we cannot simply dismiss the also fears of many Malay nationalists. We have to accept that all our fears can be equally valid, before moving on to finding solutions. Let us strive to understand, as we ask to be understood. 26/35

We can also be frustrated at reactionary and harmful tendencies, without causing further division. Even if it’s coming from genuine frustration, reproducing prejudice and internalised racism hurts the communities around us. And that’s ultimately harmful. 27/35

Non-Malays need to avoid falling back on stereotypes about how “those poor, uneducated Malays are all like that one lah”.

Rich Malays need to stop thinking of themselves as better than their “Melei” cousins simply because of class-based privileges they may have. 28/35

Malaysia’s society is more than “Malays oppressing Chinese/Indians/Orang Asli/East Malaysians”, or “Chinese/Indians oppressing Malays”. All our communities carry social, political, and historical baggage with us, and we have to be understanding of these traumas. 29/35

I know it isn’t easy. it’s hard. It’s hard to unlearn the beliefs you grew up with, even when you know that they’re wrong. I know this from personal, shameful experience. Growing up, I was in many ways the prototypical racist Chinese that many (rightly) complain about. 30/35

It is a continual journey for me to keep moving past that, and I can often fall into old habits of excessive focus on race in my thinking. So believe me when I say: I know how hard it can be to stop being racist, particularly when you feel you have "good" reasons for it. 31/35

But it matters. It matters that we keep working to build a more inclusive national identity that crosses ethnic lines. This isn’t just wishy washing idealism about feel-good nationalism and rhetoric, this is literally life and death for Malaysia and Malaysians. 32/35

The question of whether we can move past prejudiced racism on ALL sides is the key question that will determine whether the next 50 years of Malaysian history can continue without descending into ethnic violence, particularly as inequality and anger continues to build. 33/35

Will Malaysia become the next Rwanda, Myanmar, or Indonesia? Probably not for at least another 20 years. But if we continue leaving these resentments fester, without attempting to understand their root causes and taking collective steps to address them? I don’t know. 34/35

I hope we never have to find out. And I hope we can start with ourselves.

Try to understand our fellow Malaysians. Learn about their hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties. And above all, always be kind.
Semoga Malaysia terus aman, makmur, dan selamat. 35/35

Sources

Anthony Milner, The Malays

A comprehensive historical/anthropological study of the Malay people, from which I “borrowed” the observation about Malayness as a civilisational/practice based, rather than purely racial category

Donna Amoroso, Traditionalism and the Ascendancy of the Malay Ruling Class in Colonial Malaya

A brief history on the history of British colonial policy towards the Malays, how they actively attempted to keep it stagnant through social, economic, and political segregation.

Syed Hussein Alatas, The myth of the lazy native

The seminal work disproving the myth of “melayu malas”: critiques the Malay political elites, both during the colonial and contemporary eras, for their role in the continuing intellectual marginalisation of poorer Malays.

Azhar Ibrahim, Historical Imagination and Cultural Responses to Colonialism and Nationalism: A Critical Malay(sian) Perspective
An excellent text on contemporary Malay political anxiety and nationalism, very much in dialogue with & response to Alatas’ more famous book.

Tan Zhi Hao, Imagined minorities: rethinking race and its appeal in Malaysia

https://www.newmandala.org/imagined-minorities-rethinking-race-appeal-malaysia/

A very comprehensive introduction to Malay political anxiety and self perception, which helped shape my thinking about these issues

Muhammad Abdul Khalid, The Colour of Inequality
A good overview of the continuing state of wealth inequality in Malaysia, and the successes and failures of the NEP, and suggestions for next economic steps.