I write to answer M Sahaja's call for non-Malays to 'come forward and offer their views to see if they are happy to be where they are now living in Malaysia or if they'd rather emigrate elsewhere'.

I am a 10th generation Chinese in Malaysia and my ancestors and I have known only Malaysia as our home. Malay is our mother tongue, we eat Malay food, we wear 'kain pelekat' at home and we can read and write in Jawi. Some of us like my grandfather even wear the 'semutar' on their head when working at the rice fields.

And yet, everyday, I hear Malays calling me 'pendatang' and unpatriotic. I find this totally unacceptable because I am a law-abiding citizen who pays my taxes diligently. Citizens should not be treated differently based on race. If an ethnic Chinese citizen has committed a crime, he shall be punished accordingly and so must an ethnic Malay in the same situation.

Similarly, if an ethnic Chinese student has performed well, he should be awarded scholarship just as an ethnic Malay student who has performed equally well is awarded one. Is it too difficult to understand that not all Chinese are rich and not all Malays are poor and that there are Chinese who need help as there are Malays?

If a Malay feels that he has the right to call me 'pendatang' and tell me to migrate because he feels his ancestors have been here long enough, by the same logic, I, too, have the same right to do that to him. This brings me to M Sahaja's contention that Malays were never 'pendatang' since those said to be the original inhabitants of this land, the Orang Asli, are in fact Malays.

The two are actually separate and different in terms of ethnicity. Orang Asli is the general name given to different groups of indigenous people of this land. Take the Negrito, for instance. They are definitely not the same as the Malays. The languages of the Senoi and Negrito are related to the indigenous languages of Burma, Thailand and Indochina.

The only group of Orang Asli which shares similarities with those whom we know as the Malays of today are the Proto-Malays, who had arrived at this land much later than the Senoi and Negrito. Those whom we know as Malays today are Deutro-Malays who arrived even later. Thus, Malays are also outsiders who migrated to this land just like the non-Malays. The only difference is the Malays migrated earlier. We are all 'pendatang', the only question is who came first.

On a technical note, whether a person is 'Malay' depends on whether that person fulfils the requirements of the definition of 'Malay' in Article 160 of the Federal Constitution. Hence, many ethnic Indians are today classified as Malays. Chinese, Orang Asli, Irish, Thais and so on can also become 'Malays' according to the constitution if they fulfil the requirements. On this note, I would agree with M Sahaja that an Orang Asli who has converted to Islam, practises the customs of the Malays and habitually speaks the Malay language is one and the same as other Malays.

However, his sweeping statement that all Orang Asli and Malays are one and the same cannot stand since only a minority of Orang Asli have become Muslims and there are even fewer who have fulfilled all three constitutional requirements.

As for the statement that 'the only difference between the Orang Asli and the Malays is that the Malays have modernised with Islam because their forefathers accepted modernisation and development, while the Orang Asli have chosen to continue to live deep in the jungles', this is a great insult to the Orang Asli as it implies that the Orang Asli's religions are backward that they have to embrace Islam to be 'modernised'.

Based on this condescending attitude, government agencies have been known to preach Islam to the Orang Asli, resulting in many Orang Asli feeling suspicious of the Malays and teaching their children to be wary of them. The Orang Asli Affairs Department even set up a 'dakwah' (religious propagation) unit to 'develop' the Orang Asli spiritually. (Endicott & Dentan, 2004)

Finally, I would like to call upon the Orang Asli themselves such as associate professor Dr Juli Edo, as well as those living amongst Orang Asli such as Antares and other experts in Orang Asli affairs, to help M Sahaja understand this issue better.