Defending Native Customary Rights (NCRs) and Malay Reserve Land (TRMs) should be a concern of all natives and non-natives in the country.

By native I mean Malays, Senois, Negritos, Asli Malays, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Melanaus, Orang Ulus, Bruneians, Kedayans, Kadazan-Dusuns, Muruts, Orang Sungais, Bajaus, Sulus and Bugis. That is, all natives of Malay stock indigenous to Malaysia (which includes the whole of South-East Asia, a large region of Malay-stock peoples). By non-native I mean Chinese, Indians and those whose ancestors came from outside South-East Asia.

Why we must non-natives also defend NCRs and TRMs? While the natives lack the initiative, determination and resourcefulness to better their lives in a rags-to-riches struggle, unlike the Chinese and Indian immigrants of yesteryears, they are the original land-owners of Malaysia who do not deserve to be deprived of their communal lands.

Many natives have been pampered rotten by the government of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and they have developed a subsidy mentality which even the outgoing leader has criticised.

Nevertheless, it is against natural justice to take away NCR and TRM which have belonged to the natives' for ages - long before the Chinese and Indians arrived in Malaysia as traders and workers.

While NCRs and TRMs were only legislated during British colonial rule, their existence has long been recognised by the sultans and yang di-pertuan besars of the region. There is nothing wrong for non-natives to develop land designated as NCR and TRM, but sufficient annual compensation must be paid back to the native community.

This also applies to rich native capitalists and state-backed capitalist bodies such as the State Economic Development Corporations (SEDCs). It is sad that the Barisan Nasional has progressively eroded NCR and TRM.

What is happening in Malaysia is not natives oppressing non-natives or vice-versa. It is people with power and money oppressing people without power and money.

Powerful natives in Umno, PBB and PBDS, to name just three, oppress low-income non-natives, while powerful non-native parties like MCA and MIC, to name just two, oppress low-income natives by allowing ' tai ko ' (elder brother) Umno to appropriate TRM and NCR for their cronies.

An example of the rich oppressing the poor would be the recent case of a Sarawak native NGO's attempt to claim NCR rights and to oppose Melanau chief minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud's pro-rich policies.

An example of powerful non-natives oppressing low-income non-natives would be the case where MCA, during Tan Koon Swan's presidency, stole money from low-income Chinese Malaysians using the cooperative movement.

Oppression is something all Malaysians, native and non-native, have to oppose, even if it is not happening to you directly. Oppression against one is oppression against all Malaysians, as we are one country.