M.Krishnamoorthy
A media coach, adjunct professor and author
It is disturbing and strange for Dr Mahathir Mohamad to force non-Malays to assimilate and become “Malay”.
According to Ranjit Singh Malhi, an independent historian who has written 19 books on Malaysian, Asian, and world history, it is also ultra vires the Federal Constitution.
“Article 11 of the Federal Constitution stipulates that every person has the right to profess and practise his religion. It does appear that Mahathir himself “mudah lupa” (forgetful), a term he had used while lamenting about the so-called shortcomings of the Malay community. On occasions in the past, Mahathir has recognised the nation’s diverse ethnic and cultural makeup.
For example, in none other than his autobiography ‘A Doctor in the House: The Memoirs of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’, he stated: “We were all, without reservation or limitation, part of a Bangsa Malaysia – a single Malaysian people, unified yet diverse”.
“If ours was to become a mature society, we had to accept that Malaysians of different creeds and colours had to be free to practise their religions, customs, and cultures,” Ranjit commented in his article in Malaysiakini.
Finally, Ranjit said Mahathir had the cheek to deny his South Indian descent. During the television interview, he made the following remarks: “I don’t know anything about my Indian roots” and “I am now 100% Malay.”
Ranjit is highly committed to writing an inclusive and truthful history of Malaysia based on authoritative sources.
Ranjit said, as stated by Barry Wain in his book ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’ (2012), Mahathir’s father was Mohamad Iskandar – a Jawi Peranakan (a locally-born Muslim with Indian blood).
Similarly, RS Milne and Diane K Mauzy's book ‘Malaysian Politics under Mahathir’ (1999) states that Mahathir’s father was half-Indian and half-Malay. Mahathir’s father was born in Penang, and his mother was a Kedah-Malay, Wan Tempawan Wan Hanapi. Again, by his own account, Mahathir has acknowledged his Indian roots in the past.
In his autobiography ‘A Doctor in the House’, he writes: “My father was a Penang Malay. Almost all Malays of the island of Penang have some Indian blood,” and “I admit that some Indian, or more accurately South Asian blood flows in my veins, but from which part of the Indian subcontinent my ancestors came I do not know.” Additionally, during a press conference with the Japanese and international media at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo in June 2018, Mahathir acknowledged that he had a few spoonfuls of Indian blood left in his body, but otherwise, he is a Malay. About Mahathir’s name, a question often asked is why he dropped “Iskandar” from his patronymic. In an editorial of Darulaman, the magazine of Sultan Abdul Hamid College, Alor Setar, which he wrote in December 1945, his name was written as “MAHATHIR BIN MD. ISKANDAR”.
Ranjit traced: “Similarly, in the 1952 MBBS examination results, his name was listed as “Mahathir b. Md. Iskandar”. According to Sven Schottmann in his book ‘Mahathir’s Islam: Mahathir Mohamad on Religion and Modernity in Malaysia’, Mahathir probably did so because “Mohamad Iskandar” “simply sounded too south Indian to most Malays of the time.” But this is one author’s view. I only mention it because of what Mahathir had said in the television interview.
Make no mistake about it, Ranjit said. Malaysia belongs to all Malaysians, and not just the Malays. Equally important, just as the Malays, the non-Malays are proud citizens of Malaysia, whose forebears have contributed significantly towards nation-building. Incidentally, Mahathir had himself reportedly acknowledged that “the Malay community contributed the least” to the nation’s development, which has been “built on the hard work of the other races.” (Philip Bowring, The New York Times, April 12, 2006).
Freelance Writer M. Krishnamoorthy (www.imkrishna.net) is a media coach, adjunct professor and undercover journalist. He has freelanced with Bernama, NST, The Star, and Malaysiakini. He also freelances as a fixer/coordinator for CNN, BBC, German and Australian Television networks and the New York Times. As an undercover journalist, he has highlighted society's concerns.
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