Malay Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) has come out saying that the historic migration of ethnic Chinese into what was then called Tanah Melayu during British colonial times was “a mistake” which must be rectified, but stopped short of actually laying out how to rectify it.
According to ISMA president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman, ethnic Chinese were considered intruders into the Malay heartland upon their arrival, and had been brought to Tanah Melayu by the British to oppress the Malays.
“The Chinese entered this country together with the British invaders as intruders. Who gave them citizenship and wealth until their intrusion is protected until today?” asked Abdullah, as reported on the organization’s own ISMAWeb portal.
“No one has the right to pawn the sovereignty of Islam and the Malays in these Tanah Melayu,” he added.
Abdullah said this in reponse to criticism of his recent statements lambasting non-Muslims who opposed the proposed implementation of Hudud law in Malaysia. He termed Hudud detractors as forgetting their place, and were not right to interfere in the dealings of the Muslims.
Abdullah continued to say that should non-Muslim and non-Malay Malaysians want to remain Malaysian citizens, they should be obedient and loyal to the Malay kings, accept Islam as the national religion and respect Malay sovereign rights.
The ISMAWeb report adds that trying to hamper the aspirations and to deny the special rights of the Malays would be tantamount to an act of aggression and provocation by “foreign” races.
Abdullah also refuted DAP leader Lim Kit Siang’s assertation that ISMA had been sowing seeds of racist hostility, and said instead that it was Lim who was doing so, by propogating the idea of a Malaysian Malaysia, which he said ran counter to the Malaysian Constitution.
“He (Lim) is the one who’s been stoking Chinese discontent by urging them to demand more than what they’ve already received all this while.
“The special rights of the Malays have already been enshrined in the Constitution for a long time,” he asserted.
