This is written in view of Perkasa calling some quarters ‘pendatang’. There is no such word in the Oxford Dictionary.

You see, everybody is a ‘pendatang’ if you really look at where we all come from and how we settled down say hundreds of years ago.

Is it a matter who comes first? This includes the aborigines, the birds and the bees as well as animals, plants and flora and fauna.

In ancient times, all countries were believed linked as one massive land and so one can actually walk on foot from one point to the other. That means even aborigines are ‘pendatang’, too.

It was written in history that nomads had walked long distances overland and made homes along the way as some of them had dropped off from the group, while the rest continued on their way to find greener pastures

Perhaps this brings to mind that aborigines are also ‘pendatang’ because like nomads, they too could be moving homes as they tracked along the open land, in this case in South-East Asia.

This Earth does not belong to anybody, hypothetically speaking. And there is no eternal life for all humans, let alone sentient beings, plants, flora and fauna.

Exactly, it is wrong to call a human being a ‘pendatang’. There is no such thing or rather word like ‘pendatang’ in the Oxford Dictionary, albeit man-made.

As we are here on borrowed time, passing through this world, that is when time is up, we will leave behind everything and return to where we came in our ‘birthday suit’.

Inevitably, humans consider life is short and also only a few live up to 100 years old.

Yes, everything you have are temporary and have to be given away or simply left behind, when it is your turn to go.

There you go, every living being in this world, including Malaysia, is a ‘pendatang’ because we have to go back where we came from at the end of the day.

Now, if you insist calling a citizen living in the country a ‘pendatang’, then that should include you, too.

For your information, all Malaysians’ foreparents came from either Indonesia or China or India and, of course some from neighbouring nations hundreds of years ago.

And so it is not appropriate or right to call a citizen of Malaysia a ‘pendatang’.

We are all Malaysians!

LAU BING is a community activist and writer in Subang Jaya.