Sri Lanka’s Malays – not dwindling but abandoned
“Ask not what the country has done for you; ask what you have done for the country”! With apologies to whoever said this I must say, ‘Ask not what Malays have done for Sri Lanka, ask what Sri Lanka has done for the Malays?’!
This is the question that Malays in Sri Lanka are forced to ask themselves. Why do we ask this question? I give only a few examples here: The Malays represented by Dr. T.B. Jayah contributed immensely in obtaining Independence for Ceylon from the British and in fact certain actions taken by him accelerated the granting of Independence. Our community led by this great national hero prevented the British dividing the country on ethnic lines by siding with the majority community. According to the census, the Sri Lankan Malay population was around 50,000 and strangely despite their natural increase over the years, the official census showed it dwindled to about 47,000 in 2001 and to 44,000 in 2012, whereas in fact it is estimated there are over 60,000 Malays at present. What is the reason for this huge vari-
ation? 1. Our political leaders have long forgotten to mention the word Malays when naming the ethnic groups of the country as they classed them as Muslims. True, Malays are mostly Muslims, but the Malays form a distinct community with a language and culture of their own. 2. Even the census enumerators are not fully aware that Malays are different from Moors, the reason being that some time ago the Moors represented by Sri Lanka Muslim Congress wanted them to be identified as Muslims rather than as Moors. 3. Only die-hard Malays continue to identify their race as Malay for all official records and even many Muslims do not take this matter seriously specially during census just to make the work of the enumerators easy and get over with it. 4. We are scattered all over the country and do not have a single electorate where a Malay could be elected even to the Provincial Council, leave alone to the Parliament. 5. The governments that came into power since Independence have conveniently forgotten the need to incorporate “Appointment” of a Malay in the Parliament in the country’s constitution, which resulted in the community losing the only seat which was being held by successive Malays. This is how our community has been systematically “played out” by all the governments since Independence. Prior to Independence M. K. Saldin–was a nominated member of the State Council of Ceylon from 1931 to 1935. (a) The prominent Malay freedom fighter and national hero, Dr. T. B. Jayah was State Councillor and later Member of Parliament and Minister in the first Cabinet of independent Sri Lanka. (b) Dr. M. P. Drahman was a nominated MP of Ceylon from 1956 to 1960 and 1960-1963. (c) B. Zahiere Lye was a nominat
ed MP from 1963 to 1965. (d) M.D. Kitchilan was appointed to the Senate by Government from 1965 to 1971. (e) Al Haj M.H. Amit was nominated as Member of Parliament in 1989 when R. Premadasa became President and selected a “cross section” of society leaders to be appointed through the National List as MPs so that the Parliament was well represented. But he was asked to quit his job to give another prominent UNP politician a place. The Malay community has not been given even the basic recogni- tion it deserves and naturally feels abandoned and let down. This is a community which has been with the majority community through thick and thin. The indifferent policies shown by successive governments have retarded their progress and further achievements. Though small, the community engaged in a wide range of professions such as educational service, armed services, judiciary, medical and engineering and excelled in sports at national level, especially in Rugger and Football.
I remember during my childhood, our Sinhala brothers used to fondly address us as “Tuan” and never had any animosity towards the Malay community. Anver Kamiss
Colombo 5