I refer to the letter Three questions on Malay history . Firstly, when you want to go back into history to find out about the origins of the Malays, you must remove the political boundaries that have existed because of the colonisation of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines by the British, Dutch and Spanish respectively. You must also remove the political boundaries that have existed prior to the Western colonisation.

Once you have removed these boundaries, then it would be very clear that when we talk about the Malays or those who belong to the Malay stock, we are talking about an area that covers the Malay Peninsula including southern Thailand, the Phillippines islands, Borneo, the Indonesian islands and even parts of Madagascar. According to ancient history, the original Malays belong to the Austranesian group of people. They populated the area of southern Yunan in China including Taiwan.

About 5,000 years ago, these brown-skinned, straight-hair people migrated southwards following constant harassment by the Hans. Some migrated by boats to islands now known as the Phillippines. While part of the group stayed on permanently there, others moved on to Borneo and the islands of Indonesia. Some reached Peninsular Malaysia. Others migrated further southwards by land through present-day Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and reached Peninsular Malaysia too.

There are still remnants of these people belonging to the Malay stock residing in Kompong (kampung) Chom in Cambodia. The ancient Cambodian kingdom called Champa was established by these Malays. There is also a very small community of the Malay stock in Taiwan now.

Other descendants of these original Malays are the present various sub-Malay stocks (tribes) of the Illocos, Moros and others in the Phillippines, the Bajaus, the Kadazans, the Dusuns, the Melanaus, the Muruts, the Ibans and what have you in Borneo, the Bugis, the Javanese, the Madurese, the Sundas, the Bataks, the Mendailings, the Rawas, the Telus, the Minangs, the Achinese, and others in Indonesia, the Kelantanese-speaking Malays, the Perak-speaking Malays, the Kedah-speaking Malays, the Baweans, the Jakuns, the Temuans and the Kanaks.

Of course, over time there were a lot of inter-marriages as well as intra-marriages with the Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Thais, Europeans and others contributing to the many faces of the Malay today. Now where do the Orang Asli fit in?

When the original Malays arrived in Peninsular Malaysia 3,000-4,000 years ago, they came across people who were very dark-skinned with short, rounded faces and wooly or curly hair. These actually were descendants of people who have settled in Peninsular Malaysia 40,000 years ago but who had since moved on southwards and finally settled in Timor, Papua-New Guinea and Australia.

Some of the ancient Malays married these locals and their descendants became the modern-day Senoi tribes such as the Semais and the Temiars. Those who did not go into mixed marriages remained so and become the modern day Negrito tribes such as the Bateks and the Kensius.

The bottom line of my elaboration here is that when we talk about the modern (15th to 20th centuries) migration of Achinese, Javanese, Bugis, Mendailings, Minangs, Rawas, Telus and so on to Peninsular Malaysia, it is not the same kind of migration as of the Indians and Chinese to this country.

To the Malays, all these lands that I mentioned above are their lands called the Malay Archipelago. They just move from one room to another in the same house. It is the colonialists who have divided them, making the rooms into separate houses. And just for the writer's information, the legendary Hang Tuah was actually a Jakun (source: RO Winstetd: The History of the Malays ).