Published material from a variety of sources shed some light on the continuing controversy over Wanita Gerakan chief Tan Lian Hoe’s Oct 10 speech to the party faithful.

Among others, it was “a reminder of the more recent immigrant origins of the political Malays as distinct from the historical Malays”.

Tan clarified belatedly on Nov 2 at a press conference that her speech, which continues to be politicised by the mainstream Malay media and the extreme Malay right-wing, was “misconstrued”. She offered neither an explanation or an apology to those who are ‘offended’ and are after her blood, if not her head.

As in a similar case involving former MCA deputy head Lee Kim Sai many years ago, they refuse to let the issue go away. The moral of the story, according to observers with a less jaundiced eye: not every immigrant likes to be reminded of his humble origins.

But are some things best left alone? No way, of course, if the issue of ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) continues to be flogged to death. Those who beg to differ say that harping on this and the social contract is like flogging a dead horse.

Supporters of Tan’s speech on the origin of the Malays find comfort in the ‘Out of Africa’ theory which explains the appearance of the first homo sapiens in East Africa and their subsequent migration out of the Dark Continent in three great human waves to the rest of the world.

The first wave brought the Orang Asli - Negrito, Senoi, Melayu Asli - to the shores of Peninsular Malaysia on their way to Australia. The fact that the Melayu Asli is of recent African origin - 40,000 years ago, like all other human beings, is not for a moment in scientific doubt.

The long-held definition of Malay in the federal constitution, as all shades of political opinion agree, not only falls flat given the advent of DNA analysis but continues to remain an exclusive political one which denies the many.

Besides, it fosters the idea of a nation within a nation, a state within a state, compromising the idea of the nation-state Malaysia and pitting a vociferous lunatic fringe, a veritable self-serving sub-culture that masks itself in various holier-than-thou political shades, against the meek and ever-gullible majority.

Jawarhalal Nehru held the premise that “language is no proof of race” in his ‘The Discovery of India’, one of two books he penned while in jail, thanks to the colonial British authorities.

Who speaks Malay?

If the idea of a Malay race raises the idea of a Malay language, Malaysian university textbooks for Bahasa Kebangsaan A , a compulsory subject, comes to the rescue. The Open University of Malaysia (OUM) module has marshaled a body of compelling evidence.

It places the first rudiments of a Malay language in eastern Sumatra with the rise of Srivijaya, a Buddhist empire, which also embraced both the western and eastern coastal stretches of Peninsular Malaysia and the Kra peninsula in southern Thailand right up to the narrow point of the Isthmus of Kra.

The jungle-swathed interior of the peninsula was left to Orang Asli tribes who had been driven there by the influx of the new settlers of the Srivijaya empire looking for land and slaves.

The Malay language drew on the Pali script of southern India and heavily on Sanskrit to help spread the message of Buddhism while being the language of administration and commerce in the Malay archipelago, Nusantara or Samudera (Southern Ocean).

When Parameswara, a Hindu prince fled from Palembang after a failed uprising against Majapahit to Tumasik (Singapura) and later to Malacca to form his kingdom, Malay re-emerged as the language of administration, religion - briefly Hinduism and Buddhism and later Islam - and commerce. Therein lies the seeds of the Federation of Malaysia.

The marauding Bugis warriors (pirates) and their folk who came from faraway Sulawesi (Celebes), according to the OUM module, adopted the ‘Malay identity’ and went on to become rulers in Johor, Selangor and Pahang.

The rest is even more history - not all entirely boring - but the issues are clear to scholars, if not politicians who dislike any disorientation in their comfort zone - who came from where and why?

So who are the Malay speakers, as distinct from the Malays, whether historical or political? The OUM module, not surprisingly, reveals that only 40 million people (one-sixth or 17 percent) of the estimated 240 million people in the Malay archipelago consider Malay as their mother tongue.

Yet Malay, like English at the international level, has emerged as the official language in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia for a variety of reasons: it’s a simple, easy to learn and use, and beautiful in the richness of its borrowed vocabulary.

It eased communication in the spread of various religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity - administration and commerce, all the very same reasons which drove a Greek and Latin-enriched English language from its humble origins as two Germanic dialects to international prominence.

Native Malay speakers are today found in small pockets along the eastern Sumatra coast where they first emerged in history, in Peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand along the coasts of Sarawak, in the Rhio islands near Singapore, along the Kalimantan coast in Indonesian Borneo and Brunei. People in southern Philippines also use Malay to communicate with those in Sabah.

Other scholars point out that all these coastal stretches have always been hotbeds of piracy. These scholars, not cited by the module, see a link between the words Melayu and melanun .

The OUM module quotes from a variety of sources including the Sejarah Melayu . The existence of the Malays was first known through the stories in Sejarah Melayu by Tun Sri Lanang, the Bendahara of Johor, according to the OUM module.

One legend tells of the agreement between Demang Lebar Daun and Sang Sapurba in Palembang, southern Sumatra. According to this legend, the Malays swore loyalty to their kings forever as long as they (the kings) were just. The Malays had a right to break, menderhaka , this agreement if the kings were unjust. Déjà vu ?

Findings of DNA study

Elsewhere, Dimensi which is published by Berita Minggu - a veritable citadel of the Malay right-wingers - redeems itself somewhat when it cites a University Sains Malaysia DNA study in a July 23, 2006 article, ‘Menjejak Melayu’ by Saufi Hamzah and Mona Ahmad.

The DNA study, ‘Analisis DNA Mitokrondria (MtDNA) masyarakat Melayu Moden dan Orang Asli di Semenanjung’, was carried out by 20 scientists headed by Zafarina Zainuddin of the USM Pusat Pengajian Sains Kesihatan.

It found that Malays in Peninsular Malaysia are in fact the Minangkabau in Negri Sembilan from Sumatra; Yunan in Terengganu from Yunan in southern China, Aceh in Perak from northern Sumatra; Riau in Johor from the Rhio islands; Champa in Perak, Kedah and Kelantan from Cambodia; Mandailing in Perak from Sumatra; Jawa in Johor and Selangor from Java, Indonesia; Bugis in Johor and Selangor from Sulawesi, Indonesia; Rawa in Perak; Jambi in Johor, Selangor and Perak from the Jambi islands in Indonesia; Batak in Perak and Penang from southern Sumatra; Banjar in Selangor and Johor from Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo; and Kurinchi in Selangor who first settled in Kampung Kurinchi.

Also established is the discovery among the ‘Malays’ of the peninsula, other mtDNA that is found only in India, “even after allowing for the fact that the Proto Malays had already intermarried with those from India, Arabia, China and Thailand”. This points the finger at India as a stopover for the Malays on their way from Africa before they entered southeast Asia. Strong linkages have been noted between Assam in India and the Malays, according to the OUM module.

The DNA study makes extensive references to the ‘Out of Africa’ theory. It underlines the basic premise in Prof William R Roff’s ‘Origin of Malay Nationalism’ - an Australian National University study - that as late as the 1890s, as many as 85 percent (by a conservative estimate) of the Malay population in Peninsular Malaysia were recent immigrants.

Now, is there someone still out there who wants to deny being an immigrant or being the descendent of immigrants?

JOE FERNANDEZ is an educationist, former newspaper editor, ex-civil servant and one-time senior manager who feels compelled to put pen to paper when something doesn’t quite gell with his weltanschauung (worldview).