Who owns Malaysia?

By MT Webmaster Last updated Sep 28, 2015

I mean, how can we decide who should own Malaysia, or Malaya, when Malaysia and Malaya did not exist, say in 1066 when William because the king of ‘modern’ England? Malaya was not one country. Malaya was many countries. And Kedah, Perlis, Terengganu and Kelantan would have to be given back to Thailand, Negeri Sembilan given back to Selangor, Selangor given back to Perak, Johor given back to Indonesia, Sarawak given back to Brunei, and so on.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have noticed the debate regarding who owns Malaysia still raging on the Internet and in the social media. Actually, this is a non-starter debate because each debater would use different parameters in coming to his or her conclusion.

It is like debating about who owns America. Of course, they will say the native Americans (what we used to call the ‘Red Indians’) own America. But then which Indian tribe are you talking about? There are 562 ‘federally recognised’ Indian tribes. So which tribe are you talking about or are you talking about all 562 tribes that make up the Indian nation?

The Malays, too, actually came from many tribes. And, jointly, they make up the Malay nation (Rumpun Melayu). And, included in this Malay nation, of course, are those we now call the Orang Asli, also broken down into many tribes. And the Malay nation, just like in America, spread out all over the many islands and regions that we now recognise as Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, etc.

In America, each tribe stayed in its own territory because they were in a perpetual state of war with one another. So it is easy to note which tribe came from which part of America. In fact, over hundreds of years more Indians killed Indians than the ‘white man’ did.

In South East Asia, the tribes were a sea-faring people so they moved all over the place to trade and eventually settled down. For more than 1,000 years the ‘Malays’ of South East Asia moved from place to place. Basically, we had the orang laut who never stayed in one place and settled along the coast and river mouth and we had the orang darat who lived in the interior and highlands.

But they were all of Malay or Polynesian stock. And, religion-wise, they were animists, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, etc. (In fact, some Malays and Indonesians who may be Muslims are still to a certain extent animist in behaviour).

Take Singapore as an example. Singapore was an island owned by Johor and Johor, in turn, was owned by Indonesia. So, if we say ‘give Johor back to the original natives’, that would mean Johor has to be given back to Indonesia since Riau is owned by what is known today as Indonesia.

And those people who originally inhabited Singapore were Javanese fishermen and Bugis pirates. So that strengthens the argument that Singapore is owned by Indonesia. So what business do the Chinese have in Singapore?

But it is ridiculous to say that the Chinese should hand Singapore back to Indonesia. In fact, Indonesia is not even claiming Singapore (or Johor). The whole world accepts the fact that Singapore is a republican island-state that was granted independence by Britain. That means Britain and not Johor (or Indonesia) owned Singapore.

So the cut-off date is the date when that territory was given independence and by whom or which colonial master it was given independence. If you go too far back in history then England has to be given back to the Celt Britons and the Druids. The present British government, which was first set up in 1066 by King William, would be considered illegitimate. We would have to go back to 55 BC, before the Romans came to England, to decide who really owns England.

Then the Saud Royal Family would have to hand Mekah back to the Quraish tribe and Medina to the Jews, as what it used to be 1,500 years ago. And the Chinese would have to hand China back to the many tribes of China who really owned China before the date of the conquest.

And the Chinese would also have to hand Taiwan back to those tribes who really owned that island before the Chinese moved in to occupy an island that did not belong to them.

As I said, it all depends on how far back you want to go. If we go back to the time of the Roman Empire then Italy would own half the world. If we go back to the time of the Persian Empire then Iran would own the entire Middle East. If we go back to the time of Alexander the Great then part of India would be owned by Greece. And so on.

The world has accepted that whoever formed the government when that particular country achieved nationhood would, today, be regarded as the legitimate people of that country. In fact, the farther back we go then all these countries that we see today would not even exist.

What a mess the whole world would become if we use 1066 as the date to decide who owns which land in which part of the world.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK