In recent years there have not only been diplomatic rows between Malaysia and Thailand (due to Militant activity’s by Malay’s in the South of the latter country), but also with the Philippines. In the case of the Philippines this started to came to a head when that time  President Joseph Estrada (suggesting also other underlying difficulties) protested the arrest of former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Malaysia in turn, cancelled its defense cooperation and a meeting on joint border patrols. This had been scheduled due to increased guerilla activities by rebel groups in the southern Philippines who following the Malay cancelation, quickly intensified  its operations).The Philippines two years later thus opted for a U.S.-Filipino "Balikatan" training exercise, apparently aimed at the Islamic Abu Sayyaf militant group near the border of Malaysia, and so on.

Ethnic identity in modem-day Malaysia as we shall see, however largely originated under British imperial rule. The process was driven by an imperial policy that established separate lives and spheres for each of Malaya's various, ethnic groups.

Thus in the case of British Malaya and modem-day Malaysia, we face a similar example as we already have described in the case of Belgium and most recently Kosovo on this website, of two major ethnic groups of nearly equal size sharing membership in an evolving "national community."We thus will look in this particular case now, how it shaped people's perception of a nation-to-be and their place within it.

British rule in fact  brought both a greater degree of integration, and separation to the ethnic communities. Groups on the move throughout the area, such as the Minangkabau for example , were integrated into the existing Malays society or formed new groups within it. It was under British rule that exclusivity became a feature of ethnic identity in Malaya. This was a forceful change. An artificial and rigid construct was imposed upon Malaya's society from the outside.1

Before briefly mentioning some aspects of  source material, one problem of terminology, was posed by the Emergency. British officials and politicians nearly always referred to it as the Emergency; while soldiers, British and otherwise, involved in the military campaigns on the Peninsula, typically described it as a war. Interestingly, the communist insurgents referred to it not as a revolution, but as a "shooting war," which was considered necessary to spark the revolution. This thus  will use the term Emergency with a capital "E", following the convention set by the civil servants in Britain and Malaya.

Furthermore, whyle we refer to many different original documents in the footnotes, another few sources that deserve to be mentioned at the outset is for example Victor Purcell, a member of the Malayan Civil Service from 1921-1946. Within the colonial administration he held a number of appointments, including Protector of Chinese and Director-General of Information, which allowed him great insight into developments vital to understanding the Emergency.

After 1949, Purcell became a lecturer at Cambridge University. He published a number of books dealing with different aspects of Malaya's history. One of his works, The Chinese in Malaya is entirely dedicated to the Chinese community and its experience.2

There are also several accounts from people who were on the front lines of World War II and the Emergency. Probably the most interesting personal account of the World War II period is The Jungle is Neutral,3 Spencer Chapman's story of his life with the guerrillas of the Malayan Peoples Anti Japanese Army (MP AJA).4 It provides valuable information concerning the structure of the organisation from which the insurgent groups of the Emergency developed. Chapman's observations were very much concerned with the nature of the people he observed. While he occasionally made fun of communist indoctrination rituals, he accurately observed that the majority of the MP AJA members did not have a strong inclination to become communists or to stay in the force once the Japanese were defeated; however, some of the group's core remained to form the Malayan Peoples Anti British Army (MP ABA).5 Chapman travelled through the jungle with the help of the Orang Asli, and helps one to comprehend their role as guides for the communists during the Emergecy.

Donald MacKay, who was a planter and soldier in Malaya, published his account of the Emergency in 1997. The Malayan Emergency 1948-1960. The Domino that Stood provides insight into the perspective of the soldier, and it includes descriptions of events where official documentation remains under lock and key in the British archives.7 Another soldier in the Emergency was Anthony Short.8 He was born in Singapore and completed his military service in Malaya. Later he became a historian in England, but he also taught at the University of Malaya for six years. His works help one to understand both the guerrilla war and the problems that developed from it.

A good example of another approach was written by Edgar O'Ballance. He was a colonel in the British Army until 1948 and then became a military journalist. His book Malaya: the Communist Insurgent War, 1948-1960 was published in 1966.9 While his work was researched quite thoroughly, one cannot help but notice his Cold War tendency to provide a formula intended to be transposed onto other Asian countries in similar situations. The perceived threat of communism at the time, and the notion that communism was the same phenomenon wherever it manifested itself, created the rather curious idea that it could be dealt with in exactly the same way, regardless of which part of the world it occurred in and what the local history and background of the people advocating it might have been.

Important  secondary writings on Malaya is among other available trhogh William Roffs The Origins of Malay Nationalism and Philip Loh Fook Seng's work Seeds of Separatism. 10 To this one also should ad Charles Hirschman's sociological studies of ethnicity in Malaya, such as his article "The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya“ providing  a helpful  analysis on the origins of ethnic awareness. 11 Fujio Hara, a Japanese scholar, researched his book, Malayan Chinese and China. Conversion in Identity Consciousness, 1945-1957, from 1987-1989 during his time at the University of Malaya. His analysis is based on a wealth of useful primary sources such as Chinese newspapers, reports about public gatherings, and consular reports and activities.12 His analysis is based on a wealth of useful primary sources such as Chinese newspapers, reports about public gatherings, and consular reports and activities.And the work by Cheah Boon Kheng a historian from Singapore is valuable for anyone trying to understand how and why the Emergency developed. 13

Finally but not least, there is Kernial Singh Sandhu is an Indian historian who wrote a comprehensive work entitled Indians in Malaya. Some Aspects of Their Immigration and Settlement (1786-1957) dealing with Indian labour emigration into Malaya and other parts of Southeast Asia. He addressed the situation of these emigrants in the context of their life in Malaya, the policies of the colonial government and eventually the Indian government.14
 
 

Malayasia Then

Ethnic diversity had always been a part of life in Malaya. The peninsula's geographic location has made it both a stopover point and destination for trade from China and India for centuries. Self-conscious distinctions between ethnic groups were always there; they did not arise with British rule. However, prior to European colonisation, ethnic boundaries appear to have been more fluid in the sense that intermarriage and gradual integration blurred or even erased clear distinctions. Hence it is essential to understand the composition and interactions of pre-colonial society before any conclusion can be drawn regarding ethnicity in colonial or modern day Malaysia. In his essay Towards Defining Southeast Asian History, O.W. Wolters emphasised a process of localisation in Southeast Asia, meaning that it was the people of Southeast Asia who played an active role in the adaptation and assimilation of foreign practices into their own culture. 15 A similar principle applied to the people who brought these practices with them. They were integrated into the local social structure, and it was seldom newcomers who spread and interpreted these traditions; this was done by Southeast Asianmthemselves. This was also a theme in Anthony Reid's Land Below the Winds, in which he stressed that although many Indians and Chinese were active as traders in Southeast Asia, Malay was the main language of trade, and the trading classes in centres across the region were classified as Malays, who shared a common language and religion.16

In pre-colonial times, the label of being Malay was much more than an ethnic distinction. Anthony Milner tells us that a Malay was a person who conformed to Malay custom, spoke Malay, and had adopted Islam as his religion. "Malayness" was not defined by birth, skin colour or other physical features. Similarly the Malay world was not restricted to the peninsula: Malays were found allover the archipelago, from Sumatra to the Sulu islands in the southern Philippines. 17

The Malay world was made up of many kerajaan - small kingdom. The settlement patterns of the kerajaan were rather flexible, since they allowed subjects to relocate to different regions if a local overlord became abusive. S. J. Tambiah analysed the concept of centre and periphery in Southeast Asian life. He used Negri Sembilan on the Malay peninsula as a geographic example to demonstrate the phenomenon of power radiating from the centre and becoming weaker towards the peripheries. It was in those peripheral zones that one would fmd a variety of ethnic groups that were not necessarily represented at the centre; here ethnic lines were just as blurred as the borders of the kerajaan themselves. 18

The Malay kerajaan were organised around their respective raja; indeed, a state was considered dislocated without a raja. Men were little more than their title or nama; there was not much consideration of individual personality, or distinction between the private and the public. Therefore, issues that may have seemed superficial to the Western eye such as seating order at court receptions, were at the centre of importance for Malays. The raja was the one who distributed titles and communicated with Allah.

Interestingly, this practice stemmed from earlier exposure to the Hindu Bakti and Bodhisattva cults, which stressed the importance of manners and devotion. In his monograph Kerajaan, Anthony Milner points out that the Malays did not have an understanding of "nationhood" in the modern sense; they described themselves as subjects of a certain raja and not as members of a specific ethnic group or race. However, there was an awareness of cultural unity that manifested itself in an attitude of superiority over the Bataks, Dayaks, and Orang Asli who were seen as distinct and inferior. He argues that the resilience of Malay tradition implied an inner coherence. 19

"Malay" similarities were found in literature, language and customs. Their stories often included tales from a world beyond theirs; there were elements of the Ramayana, genealogies with connexions to Alexander the Great, and other references that indicated lively exchange with other cultures. Malay culture placed great importance on the concept of nama -literally one's name, but also including one's titles and one's genealogy, which for the ruling families was preserved in the hikayats - story or history.

Milner described the importance and also the flexibility of hikayats in his analysis of the Hikayat Deli. Deli was located on Sumatra's east coast, bordering large areas inhabited by the Batak. What set the Hikayat Deli apart from other hikayats was that it was intended as a teaching manual on how to become Malay. Milner believes it was specifically created for the assimilation of outsiders into the Malay community. Those changes were intended to be gradual, through exposure, and emphasis of shared customs. The Malay and the Batak world were displayed as distinct, one an object of admiration, the other inferior but easy to change. The Hikayat Deli was aimed at the periphery rather than the older established Malay regions such as Kedah or Melaka.

Conversion to Islam was usually the last step after a tim~ of adjustment to the Malay lifestyle. The forms oflslam practised did not pose much of a change to most local people since they included many mystic elements that were essentially -borrowed from local culture and custom and were therefore familiar to all. 20

Hendrik Maier analysed a different form of hikayat. The focus of his study was the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa, which was used to legitimise the position of Kedah within the Malay world and its relationship to Siam, but it also played an important part of oral tradition in the sense that it helped to educate subjects on what it meant to be a Malay to reaffirm their faith, and to entertain during festivities. This form of hikayat was more common and was generally aimed at the centre rather than the periphery .21

Within the Malay kerajaan, rich men of one's own ethnic group were considered a threat, and their property was thus often confiscated or mysteriously fell victim to repeated pirate attacks. Both of these methods were used by the rulers and their subordinates. This led to a long tradition of "keeping a low profile" among Malays or, alternatively, trading in foreign ports. Most traders in the Malay ports were foreigners themselves since their trade activity was encouraged and valued as a sign of prosperity
 and stability of the kerajaan.22

Local Malays mixed easily with incoming Arab traders. Although Islam as it was practiced by the Malays was largely based on Sufism, shared religion and custom bridged most gaps. The Malays were well aware of the advantages of being a Muslim trader. As a Muslim trader, one was part of an international network and had access to many restricted places such as Alexandria, where after the end of Ottoman over-lordship the Caliph only allowed Muslim shipping. Arabs were generally welcomed warmly because they were the people of the Prophet. This made them a popular choice for marriage within the higher classes. Another group that was integrated into Malay culture were the Minangkabau, whose homeland was in the mountains and highland plains of West Sumatra, but who were found across most of island Southeast Asia due to their tradition of merantau. This tradition encouraged young men, who otherwise would have had trouble fmding work in their communities, to go abroad as traders. The Malay peninsula had traditionally been a destination for the merantau, and many had married Malay women and settled there permanently. A similar development had taken place with the Bugis, who originated from south-western Sulawesi. However, while there were conflicts between those groups and the Malays, the extent to which intermarriage had been practiced meant that most of these scuffles were between relatives over power and influence rather than over the predominance of one ethnic group or another.23

 Indians were the first foreigners who sought frequent exchange with the people of the Malay peninsula. They came as traders, priests, and adventurers. Kernial Singh Sandhu stated that Indian influence on the peninsula could be traced back over a thousand years.24 Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Andaya pointed out, however, that while one could be relatively certain that Indians had arrived on the peninsula before the Chinese, the sources relating to this period were rather sparse. Little is known about the products that were traded aside from a few references to gold. The depth of Indian influence is hard to determine due to this lack of sources, aside from a number of inscriptions in Kedah. They found no compelling evidence for a formal conversion to Hinduism or Buddhism; rather, elements of these great traditions seem over time to have been integrated into local practices.25

Sandhu presented a comprehensive, if somewhat Indo-centric, picture of the early interactions between Indians and the people of the peninsula. He emphasised an Indianisation of the local way of life, but at the same time presented trade as a mutual enterprise with similar numbers of Malayan traders travelling to India. This two-way traffic was maintained through intermarriage and cultural assimilation. Many Indian traders established second homes in Malaya, since the winds only allowed sea traffic for certain parts of the year, leaving Indian traders stranded in Malaya for several months.26

The focus of trade from India was the isthmian sector in the North of the peninsula. During the first millennium CE small kingdoms were founded there based on Hindu and Buddhist principles of life and government. Religion, customs, and language were influenced by Indian tradition. By the end of the thirteenth century, the power of the isthmian region declined and the focus of international trade shifted from the north to the Straits of Melaka with the establishment of Melaka and Temasik (what today is Singapore). This coincided with the gradual degeneration of Hindu and Buddhist influence in India. Sandhu described ancient Indian society as tolerant and able to absorb new elements, but with the Brahmans' rise to power during the eleventh and twelfth century CE, political, economic, and social organisation became more hierarchical, and the caste system became more rigid. He argued that that caused a decline of trade since foreign contact was considered a risk of pollution. Sandhu also suggested a possible link between the rise of Muslim power in India and the decline of the Hindu states on the peninsula, where in the early fifteenth century Melaka officially converted to Islam.

Despite the spread of Islam on the peninsula, many Sanskrit phrases and ceremonies that had been integrated into local culture remaineded Islam had come to Malaya across the Bay of Bengal, since traders were often accompanied by Arab teachers of Islam. This was facilitated by the fact that most Indian trade was conducted with "low bulk - high value" items. The Madras area was homethe Hindu Tamil (KeUng) merchants, who played a significant role in the trade with Malaya. They had collaborated with the Portugese in Malaya against the Muslim traders and rulers, who fought them. By the sixteenth century, a large percentage of Hindu shipping from India had passed into Muslim hands. Muslim Indians had gained favour locally through strategic intermarriage, building of mosques, and involvement at court.They became very successful both in trade and politics. Sandhu points out that those Indians who interacted with pre-colonial Malaya were an entirely different class of Indians from those who were to come to Malaya under British rule28

Contact between China and the Malay peninsula was established several centuries ago. Chinese sources from the third century CE refer to active Indian trading ports on the peninsula. Malaya provided access to the highly valued "Persian trade" via the maritime route, after the land route had been cut Off.29 It was an additional advantage that becouse according to Chinese sources the Straits were considered easy to navigate. Over time, Malaya's jungle products were drawn into the trade with China, and Malaya started to export to the Chinese market. Eventually Melaka's ruler even travelled to China to see the emperor. Melaka was considered a great success; it was open to foreigners and provided them with more than the necessary infrastructure for their trade. At the same time, Srivijaya and other entrepots in the area were also competing for the favour of the Chinese court. 30

Although it was the Malays who were reaching out to China, there was a resident community of Chinese, who during the Melaka period had settled locally and had married Malay women. Those Chinese were mainly of Hokkien descent and they created a culturally distinct Baba-society. Their number increased as economic opportunities multiplied in Melaka. Few of them were born in China. They were usually governed by the Kapitan China, a respected member of their own community, who was given extensive leeway by the local ruler to maintain law and order among the Chinese population.31 It is important to remember that despite this legal separation there was a frequent exchange between the Baba Chinese and the Malay through business and intermarriage, a phenomenon which largely disappeared under British rule.

In the decades before the British takeover, the number of Chinese immigrants started to increase notably. They took up occupations such as mining and commercial agriculture for pepper and gambier. In this the Chinese were often encouraged by local rulers, who obtained their share of the profit through taxation. Naturally, they were only too happy when Chinese miners introduced new techniques that increased the profit margin and pushed others out of the market.

On the eve of British colonial rule, changes in Malaya's Chinese community started to become apparent. The pre-colonial community of Chinese differed greatly from the one of the colonial era. The Baba Chinese were wealthy and influential merchants, who had little in common with the masses of coolies who started to arrive in Malaya as cheap labour for mines and plantations. Ironically, when during the early years of British influence the economic power of Chinese traders increased, it led to a cooperation of Malaya's oldest ethnic groups when some enterprising Malay headmen arranged trade monopolies with Orang Asli tribes to combat constant Chinese competition. Unfortunately, the situation escalated into violent outbursts, which led to intervention by the British colonial government. 32

Malaya's oldest indigenous peoples are the Orang Ash - "original people". This modem, self-chosen name, includes all of the peninsula's indigenous tribes.33 The Orang Ash differed from other indigenous populations in Southeast Asia in their experiences with the outside world. Most of Southeast Asia's tribal peoples lived a very secluded life until population growth and industrialisation of the mid-twentieth century forced them int frequent interactions with the outside world. Malaya's Orang Ash, however, played a far more active and involved role in Malaya's history than was credited to them.Sources indicate that the native tribes on the Malay peninsula had been involved in frequent exchanges with outsiders, including Europeans, since before the 15th century.

A Malay source even claimed that some of the Portuguese who were defeated at Melaka joined the people of the jungle and lived with them to escape pursuit by the Malay soldiers.34 Most of these contacts were stimulated by trade and several of them evolved into permanent relationships. Before the arrival of European traders and colonisers, most of the different Orang Ash groups interacted with the lowland Malays. Several groups, which do not today have an existence distinct from the Malays, began to assimilate themselves during the pre-colonial and colonial period. The best known example are the Orang Laut - men of the sea - who were fishermen living along most of the coastal stretches of the peninsula.

Through trade of their sea products they were widely exposed to Malay culture, and many of them saw advantages in assimilation. The Orang Laut also found employment as pirates and raiding parties in local sultanates because of their knowledge of the coastal stretches and their skills as seafarers.35

The concept of "Malayness" allowed for a relatively smooth integration process since those who dressed and behaved like Malays and who eventually adopted the Malay religion were considered to be Malay. The Malay religion was a locally modified and adapted form ofIslam, which included several rituals and practices that were familiar to the Orang Laut and other indigenous people. 36

Interactions between the various Orang Asli groups of the forest with the Malay and other traders were more episodic. The forest was considered spiritually dangerous by many lowlanders; they feared to enter it, and to some extent were fearful of those who did. However, the products of the forest trade were valuable and in high regard, both in the lowlands and overseas. This included items such as tree resin, honey, blowpipes, and gold. The trade of blowpipes and salt across the main range was documented from very early on.37

While most Orang Ash tribes of the forest, especially the Temiar-Senoi, remained distinct from other Malay or indigenous groups, there was a mixture of populations at trade route crossing points. This occurred mainly between Malay or Chinese traders and women of the Semai group. The practices of the Temiar-Senoi did not lend themselves to cross-ethnic relationships; there are a few documented cases from the colonial period of outsiders being killed for intimate relations, including marriage with Senoi women.(Ironically, the man who documented this aspect of Senoi culture best, the anthropologist Pat Noone, was killed with a blowpipe in 1943 in a dispute over his Senoi wife.38)

These cases allow the assumption that such reaction must have been based on older traditions.The necessity for trade led to a partial adoption of the Malay language, and many Orang AsH-mestizo groups attempted to combine the advantages of settled life and garden agriculture with the search for and trade of forest products. Often these groups became middlemen between those who remained in the forest permanently and the lowland traders. Such middlemen were preferred by the Orang Asli since they had come to harbour distrust against the Malay after the occurrence of several slave raids.39

The first Europeans to arrive in force on the Malay peninsula were the Portuguese who took Melaka in 1511. Before that Europeans mainly came as traders or adventurers such as Marco Polo in the early thirteenth century. With the Portuguese came missionaries, whereas the Dutch and English envoys that started to arrive a century later were simply interested in trade. This created a curious local distinction between southern Europeans such as the Portuguese or Spanish who were seen as a problem because of their missionising activities, and the northern Europeans who were considered new trading partners or competitors. In the early days of European presence, categorisation of the local population followed the indigenous model, rather than the colonial one. The Portuguese, for example, distinguished between Hindu Indians and Muslim Indians, but saw the latter largely as a part of the local Melaka court and society. 40

By the time the British arrived in force, the Malay peninsula was home to many different ethnic groups. To borrow Milner's phrase, there was an "awareness of cultural unity“41 within ethnic groups such as the Malay, which was necessarily accompanied by an awareness of distinction of one's own group from others, but this was not a hindrance for social or economic exchange. These distinctions were not without judgement about value and hierarchy, but they were based on outward behaviour and custom that could be changed if one so desired, rather than on inherent qualities as emphasised by the British colonisers. There was a considerable overlap between most groups, be it through religion, trade, or cultural similarities. This longstanding pattern, in which trade served as a vehicle for cultural exchange was curtailed by European trading restrictions, and by the change in immigration patterns from a minor influx of wealthy traders to a flood of poor labourers.

Visiting Malaysia Then and Now P.2.

Visiting Malaysia Then and Now P.3.

Visiting Malaysia Then and Now P.4.

1 O. W. Wolters "Towards Defming Southeast Asian History" in History, Culture and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives, (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1982.) 41-57.

2 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Malaya (London: Oxford University Press, 1948).

3 Spencer Chapman The Jungle is Neutral (New York: Norton, 1949).

4 They were a group of mainly Chinese guerrillas who decided to take up arms against the occupying Japanese force. A number of them were British trained, others were members of the Chinese dominated Malayan Communist Party (MCP).

5 They were the guerrillas who did not disband after the end of the war, and who maintained a communist guerrilla force until most of them joined the newly founded MRLA (Malayan Races Liberation Army) during the Emergency.

6 Orang Ash, meaning "original people", is the modem term used to describe Malaya's indigenous tribes, the two tribes that were most relevant during this time were the Senoi and the Semai, since they had knowledge of paths through Malaya's main mountain range which was considered impassable without an indigenous guide.

7 Donald MacKay, The Malayan Emergency 1948-60. The Domino that Stood. (London: Brassey's,1997).

8 Anthony Short, In Pursuit of Mountain Rats: The Communist Insurrection in Malaya. (Singapore: Cultured Lotus, 2000).

9 Edgar O'Ballance Malaya: The Communist Insurgent War, 1948-60. (Harnden: Archon Books, 1966).

10 William R. Roff The Origins of Malay Nationalism. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967) and Philip Loh Fook Seng, Seeds of Separatism: Educational Policy in Malaya, 1874-1940 (Kuala LumpurlNew York: Oxford University Press, 1975).

11 Charles Hirschman, "The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology." Sociological Forum I, no. 2 (Spring 1986).

12 Fujio Hara Malayan Chinese and China. (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003).

13 See for example Cheah Boon Kheng The Masked Comrades: A Study of the Communist United Front in Malaya, 1945-1948. (Singapore: Times Books International, 1979), Cheah Boon Kheng The Social 1mpact of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya (/942-1945). (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980), and Cheah Boon Kheng Red Star over Malaya: Resistance and Social Conflict During and After the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941-1946. (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1983).

14 Sandhu, Kernial Singh. Indians in Malaya. Some Aspects of Their Immigration and Settlement (1786-1957). (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969).

15 Wolters, "Southeast Asian History", 41-57.

16Anthony Reid Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680. Volume One: The Land Be/ow the Winds. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988),3-10.

17 A. C Milner Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982), 1-14.

18 S. J Tambiah. "The Galactic Polity in Southeast Asia." in Culture, Thought and Social Action:
An Anthropological Perspective. (Cambridge: MA: Harvard University Press, 1985),252-286.

19 A. C Milner Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982), 1-14,53-71.

20 Ibid., 72-93.

21 Hendrik Maier In the Center of Authority. The Malay Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988), 7-31. 22 Milner, Kerajaan, 14-28.

23 Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Andaya. A History of Malaysia (London: Macmillan, 1978), 54-57.

24 Sandhu, Indians, 21-22.

25 Andaya, Malaysia, 7-11

26 Sandhu, Indians, 21-30.

27 Ibid., 21-30.

28 Ibid., 21-30.

29 Persian Irade refers to highly valued good brought overland from western Asia to northern China. With the rise of the Liu Song dynasty in southern China, which did not have access to the overland route, demands for luxury goods from western Asia were fulfilIed via maritime routes.

30 Andaya, Malaysia, 17-20,44.

31 Andaya, Malaysia, 96-100.

32 Harper, Forest Politics, 3-4.

33 For a detailed breakdown of Malaya's tribal population see Appendix A.

34 Milner, Kerajaan, 89-90.

35 T.N. Harper, "The Politics of the Forest in Colonial Malaya." in: Modern Asian Studies 3,1997, p.3.

36 Milner, Kerajaan. 87-93.

37 Andaya, Malaysia, 10-14.

38 John D. Leary Violence and the Dream People (Athens: Ohio University, Center for International Sudies, 1995),5

39 Kirk Endicott and Robert Knox Dentan. "Into the Mainstream or into the Backwater? Malaysian Assimilation of Orang AsH." in: Duncan, Christopher, ed., Civilizing the Margins. Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004), 26-27.

40 Andaya, Malaysia. 39-60.

41 Milner, Kerajaan, 9.