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Debates on immigrants to this land called Malaysia are still raging on with the latest DAP anger towards one of the Malay dailies for calling non-Malays immigrants. I want to have my say as well on this subject even though it will only be limited to the cyberspace.

What is actually the origin of this race called Malays or more correctly “Melayu”? I myself am an offspring of a Bugis father and a Patani mother and I am being called a Malay man. I want to put forward this hypothesis or if at the end of my argument it is convincing enough, maybe it will become a theory. Professor Khoo Kay Khim may perhaps land his expertise on history to validate my accidental finding.

I was in a car on my way to a dinner with two friends who were both happened to be of Javanese descent. One hailed from Olak Lempit and that makes him a Jawa Banting and the other from Sungai Besar that qualifies him as a Jawa Sabak Bernam. Here we were in Pattaya calling ourselves Malays and Muslims and were heading for a Secret Recipe outlet for some halal food.

The Jawa Sabak Bernam joked about how Melayu and Jawa got into a quarrel, a tale told frequently amongst the Javanese community in Malaysia. The story was about a bunch of Melayu and Jawa boys sitting in a clearing just beside some bushes. Out of nowhere a pig jolted in front of them and ran across the clearing, apparently an escapee from a farm perhaps and was scared of something. The Jawa boys spotted it first and in unison shouted the words “Babi Melayu, Babi Melayu, Babi Melayu!”. On hearing this scuffle broke out between the Jawa and Melayu boys. The pig’s commotion was met met with a spontaneous remark from the Jawa boys and hence in their mother tongues. What they meant was “a pig running” or literally “babi lari”. In Javanese, the word “melayu” means “lari” in Malay or simply run in English!

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Comments (18)

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written by hiiijack, June 02, 2009 14:35:54

haha,good one.to the racist malay(umno)'CATTLE CALLING THE POT BLACK'or 2 kali lima,or lima kali dua.....

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written by Admiral Tojo, June 02, 2009 14:38:30

I am a Javanese/bugis/Chinese hybrid with an Arab name. Confusing is it not? There is only one race and that is the human race. When we learn how to appreciate and enjoy our diversity without prejudice, then we would have evolved into a higher level of existence. Most, however have not progressed from the day they started worshipping the sun.

Shalom

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written by Rolling Stone, June 02, 2009 14:51:28

Oh my god...does this mean that we all are "melayu"s ?

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written by coolandy, June 02, 2009 14:53:14

My Indonesian friend told me that Melayu means people who wanders from place to place....orang yang merantau-rantau, gitu........

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written by beijing, June 02, 2009 14:54:54

love our own human race. love our own human kind. One world one race. Create better world.

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written by Tompios, June 02, 2009 15:48:57

Don't ever call those Javanese as Melayu in Java. They will un-skin you alive.

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written by utuhganal, June 02, 2009 15:56:53

Anyone out there (orang asli excluded)who can claim and substantiate that his ancestors were born in Malaysia. One in a million, perhaps.

The Malays (I am included) are actually immigrants themselves. Look at the faces of the so called Malays around us...some are dark, some are 'sawo matang' and some are fair. Why the Malay features differ so much from one to the other? It's because our ancestors are migrants from different parts of the world.

So what's the purpose of calling other races as migrants if we ourselves are rojak?

Remember, if you point a finger at others, there are three (or is it four) other fingers that point towards yourself.

Actually, politics are getting worse and politicians are using the media to spin fairy tales which I am afraid someday it might spin out of control.

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written by marbl3s, June 02, 2009 15:59:27

You can call me immigrant all you want. At the end of the day, i still go back home with a bigger pay cheque than many of you guys anyway.

I am still able to provide more than enough for my family and loved ones. I will not die nor suffer when times are bad and best of all, I can migrate to anywhere in this world without fear due to my race nor religion.

What about you malays in the malay mail? Do you feel the same?

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written by Liberian, June 02, 2009 16:03:58

A UMNO Dato (a Dato given by the Melaka CM after he become VP in UMNO election) from Cheras, told me that there no Melayu asli in Malaysia. After talking to my uncle, my uncle is the original Melayu, the rest are all cross blood. Like Penang 99.9 keturunan Mamak.

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written by zviivz, June 02, 2009 16:30:20

well well .. isn't mamak kutty an immigrant then?? what a disgrace to his ancestors from Kerala.

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written by Fuminari, June 02, 2009 16:40:29

could it be parameswara,according to history;was taking refuge with his followers running away(melayu) from palembang when there was a 'contract' on his head then n subsequently started the malacca sultanate n thus, the jawanese named them as such????

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written by temenggong, June 02, 2009 17:08:15

If melayu means emigrants, exiles and refugees, then chinese and indians in Malaysia are also orang melayu!

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written by ABU SAYAB, June 02, 2009 17:14:25

The Orang Asli are the first people here. Malays migrated from Sumatra some say from southern Yunan. Whatever it is the over the centuries these group have many mixed marriages.

Lets look at these equation, it's only A B
(it could also be A B C i.e Melayu Arab Indian)

Melayu Thai = Melayu
Melayu Indian = Melayu
Melayu Kampuchea = Melayu
Melayu Bangla = Melayu
Melayu Pakistani Melayu
Melayu Phillipinas = Melayu
Melayu Arabs = Melayu
Melayu Chinese = Melayu
Melayu European Melayu
Melayu Jawa = Melayu
Melayu Bugis = Melayu
Melayu orang Nusantara = Melayu and the list goes on....

To all UMNO members and many of our Ministers please check your roots 85% of you are from these category.Stop creating disunity among Malaysians. Before you bark ask yourselves, siapa Pendatang??

Let's learn a new word maybe these people should be called...
"MELAYU-celup" or "Melayu-rojak"
FULLSTOP!!

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written by vinnie, June 02, 2009 17:24:50

I'm residing in Indonesia and just check with few of my Javanese friends and all confirm that in Javanese run is call MLAYU or MBLAYU. So if we pronounce it as Melayu means run in Javanese. To ALL MELAYU in Malaysia u guys are also Pendatang Ha Ha HA padan muka

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written by bodohland_citizen, June 02, 2009 18:24:10

Dr Khir Toyol should have a better answer, i guess

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written by jstom98, June 02, 2009 22:33:04

So Kaum Pelarian (Melayu) calling others Kaum Pendatang! So thats proof that Kaum Pelarian (Melayu) are as much alien to Malaysia as Kaum Pendatang!! LOL !

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written by Braino, June 02, 2009 22:47:09

Now the truth is out...so the "Melayu" are the people on the run. So who are the pendatangs? hahaha!...finally history has revealed its secret!

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written by gorshan, June 03, 2009 08:45:34

why melayu calls other migrant? simple,because they wants to keep all the goodies to themselves.they know that they are migrant too,just that being the earliest of all groups of migrant gives them this idea of legitimacy and rights over other later waves of migrants.all non melayu should therefore breed like crazy,change the demography,when melayu becomes minority then maybe the less they talk big, no?

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