Mamaks explored (History 101 in lesson. Chapter Two: Mamak Explored)

[mohamed amiruddin amran]

Who is a Mamak - Who
are they living Among Us Malaysians


The history of the Mamaks in Malaysia
...Kimma, Kurma and Karma


BY Sheikh Moinudeen Chisti Syed Abdul Kadir

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Kurma is an excellent Indian Muslim dish. The difference between a kurma
and a curry is in  the chilli.

A curry is reddish because it uses dried red chillies and also dried chilli
powder. A kurma does not use dried red chillies or dry chilli powder. Instead a
kurma is cooked with fresh green chillies. The taste and the colour are
therefore different. Both are excellent methods for cookingpoultry, mutton,
beef, duck and even fish.

Kimma is of coursethe Kongres Indian Muslim Malaysia, which is the 'mamak'
version of the Kongres India Malaysia or Malaysian Indian Congress or MIC which
itself is a namesake of the Congress Party of India. The MIC was founded by Mr
John Thivy of Ipoh in the 1940s as the Malaysian chapter of Nehru's Congress Party of India.

It is really ignorant of the KIMMA members to claim that they are Malays when
their party is still named after the Congress Party of India.

This is a case of extremely serious mamak confusion.

An Indian Muslim can be anyone of Indian ancestry who is a Muslim. Tamils,
Keralas, Punjabis,Sindhis, Mahrattas, Hydrabadis etc are all Indian Muslims.
But in Malaysia a large majority of Indian Muslims are Tamil speaking. Hence the term Indian
Muslim is generally applied to the Tamil speaking Indian Muslims.
In Malaysia, Indian Muslims are also known as mamaks, DKK (darah keturunan keling), Kelings
and Jawi Peranakan.

The last one Jawi Peranakan is a strange misnomer. There is even a recent book
written about the Jawi Peranakan which actually talks about the Indian Muslims.

In contemporary Malaysia Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhari, Zainuddin Mydin, Siti
Nurhaliza binti 'Thaarudeen', Justice Haidar Mohd Noor, Ahmad Nawab, Akbar
Nawab, P Ramlee, Man Bhai, Tan Sri Elyas Omar, Tan Sri Ali Abul Hassan are all
Indian Muslims or descended from Indian Muslims.

Malaysia's first Speaker of Parliament Tan Sri CM Yusuf was a mamak. So was the permanent
Chairman of UMNO Tan Sri Sulaiman 'Ninam' Shah. 'Ninam' is actually truncated
Tamil for 'Naina Mohamed'. Former Sabah Chief Minister Dato Harris Salleh and
present Chief Minister Musa Aman are all mamaks. They are not Pushtuns,
Pakistanis orYemenis.

Among our Prime Ministers Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the son of an Indian
Muslim. Abdullah Badawi has mamak blood from his father's side. Toh Puan
Sharifah Radziah Syed AlwiBarakbah, the wife of our first PM Tunku Abdul
Rahman, had mamak ancestry. The Tunku himself was of mixed Thai and mamak
parentage. Ex  DPM Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim's father is a mamak. The intellectuals Kassim Ahmadand Farish Noor have
Indian Muslim fathers while the late Tan Sri Muhammad Noordin Sopiee had a mamak
grandfather. Munir Majid is a Tamil speaking mamak and Tengku Adnan Tengku
Mansor is a mamak too.

Here it is pertinent to note the 'Syed' and 'Sheikh' name. Among Indian Muslims
the name Syed or Sheikh is common, its no big deal. The names 'Shah' and 'Khan'
are also very common mamak names. Other 'Malay' names like 'Chik', 'Tamby Chik'
and 'Keling' are definitely of mamak origins too.

The name 'Shah' is not common among the Malays but strangely enough it is very
common among the Malay sultans, for example Sultan Azlan Shah and Raja Nazrin
Shah. Shah is NOT anArabic name. It originates from Persia and comes to Malaysia from India through
the Indian Muslim influence. This is just more indication of the mamak ancestry
of our Malay rulers.

But among kampong Malays the name Syed and Sheikh are supposed to indicate Arab
ancestry, the name Syed being associated with 'keturunan nabi' or lineage from
the Prophet. To the kampong Malays these names are a really big deal. This is
the furthest thing from the truth.

Another common mamak name is 'Maricar'. Actually it is 'Marikiyaar'. This has
evolved into 'Merican'. Hence the thousands of Malays who bear the 'Merican'
name today are also of mamak ancestry. They call themselves Jawi Peranakan.
They are actually mamak!!

Many smart Indian Muslims realized very early on this Malay liking for Arabic
names and Arab ancestry. So they started passing themselves off, (or did not
object if they were referred to) as Arabs, usually of Yemeni descent.

In Malaysia too many Syeds and Sheikhs from among the Malays today are actually recycled
mamaks!! One good example is Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhari. Among the Malay
elite Tan Sri Syed Mukhtar Bukhari passes off as being of Yemeni descent. His
family actually comes from India.

The former mayor of  KL Tan Sri Elyas Omaris also of Tamil mamak origins from Penang.
Among the Malays it is also 'ok' if a mamak is from Pakistani descent. Perhaps Pakistan is closer to Bollywood.

So some clever mamaks claim to be from Pakistan. The former Sabah Chief
Minister Harris Salleh and present Chief Minister Musa Aman are said
to be 'of Pakistan origins' but in actual fact they are of Indian mamak ancestry, and usually
Tamil speaking.

Mamaks come in all colours and complexions from the dark skinned to the light
skinned, green eyed and brown eyed types. A visit to the Masjid Kapitan Keling
in Pitt Street in Penang or Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur on a Friday will witness all varieties of mamak.

The Indian Muslims in Malaysia today can be classified as
follows :

a) Those mamaks who have inter married with Malays for generations and have
actually become Malays. You can only know their mamak ancestry by
their mamak sounding names like Merican, Shah, Syed, Sheikh etc, by their 'Indian' appearances -
prominent nose, rounder eyes etc.

b) Those mamaks who have not inter married with Malays but who have assimilated
closely into the Malay culture. They can only speak Malay and have cut off
almost all their links with India.These would include thousands of
mamaks in Penang, Kedah, Melaka and other parts of the country.
Only their DNA remains Indian. But practically, for all intents and purposes
they are Malay.

c) Those mamaks who are still very much Tamil and who can only speak pasar
Malay.They may not have links with India but they watch Tamil movies
and do not read the Malay papers or know much about the Malays. Despite being
born in Malaysia they still would not know a 'kuih talam' from an 'otak-otak'. Many KIMMA
members fall in this category. That is why they still call themselves Kongres
Indian Muslim Malaysia after the Indian Congress Party of Panditji Jawaharlal
Nehru.

d) Those mamaks who are still very much Tamil and who cannot even speak pasar
Malay despite being born in Malaysia. They will not know 'nasi lemak' from a hole in the ground. They will have

strong family ties to India. They watch Tamil movies and know more about Tamil Nadu politics than Malaysia
politics. They read Tamil Nisan and Malaysian Nanban religiously everyday to
find out what is happening in Tamil Nadu and India. Again many KIMMA members
also fall intothis category.

Before 1970 the last two classes of Indian Muslims above (no.c & d) were
usually overtly prejudiced against the Malays. Before 1970 many of them were
not even citizens of the country.Their slang term for Malays was
'valayan-katti'. This is a term invented by Tamil estate workers but which
became widely used by most Tamils including Indian Muslims to describe Malays.

A 'valayan' means wire. 'Katti' means to tie something. So 'valayan-katti' meansa 'person who ties a wire'. What does this
mean? In the early days of the rubber industry, the British tried to get the
Malays to tap the rubber trees. However the native Malays had problems tapping
the rubber tree in the proper manner and ended up injuring the tree, reducing
the output of rubber. The British had better luck getting the trees properly
tapped with the Tamils from India.
Malays were then delegated the simpler job of using wire (valayan) to tie
(katti) the little latex cups to the rubber tree. Hence the name
'valayan-katti'.

Another Tamil term used for Malays is 'naattu kaaran' or 'naattan' which
means'native'.

Before 1970 the type c and d mamaks above and everyone else did not see much in
the Malays. But post 1970 and the New Economic Policy the mamaks realized that
they suddenly depended on the Malay for everything, especially the ever
precious 'Entry Permit' to get Permanent Resident status in Malaysia. Until
then few mamaks got married in Malaysia.
They always went back to India to get married. After 1970 and the NEP, the trend disappeared in a hurry. The
Malays refused to give Entry Permits for mamak brides and grooms from
India. All of a sudden mamaks realized that they were short of wives and husbands. Hence the
rate of inter marriage between mamaks and Malays increased tremendously after
1970. After 38 years of the NEP, the mamaks are even more assimilated now
through marriage than ever before.Today there is rarely a mamak
family which does not have a Malay son or daughter in law.

Post 1970, the mamaks realized that real political power and with it economic
largesse had shifted to the Malays. But many mamaks included in class a and b
above had no problem with this shift in power because often they were the ones
holding high office. For example the first Speaker of Parliament CM Yusuf, a
mamak, was his own power in his day. It was only the class c and d mamaks
described above who were (and still are) slow in assimilating into becoming
Malaysians. The KIMMA represents many of these people.

Hence the present scramble among them to be recognized as bumiputras, to get
Malay classification in the Birth Certificate, BIN in the IC etc.

But it is a fact that the Indian Muslims are heavily intermarried with
Malays.This trend started over 600 years ago and continues until today. They
and their offspring have played major roles in the history of this country.
Sang Nila Utama, Parameswara, Tun Ali, Hang Kasthuri, HangTuah, Mani Purindan,
Tun Teja, Abdullah Munshi and ALL the Malay Sultans are descended from Indian
Muslims.The Perlis Royal family is almost certainly of mamak/Thai mix.

It is also true beyond any single doubt that from their earliest history
here,the mamaks have had extreme affection which the Indian Muslims have had
for the Malays throughout history.This could be attributed to the similarities
in religion but there are also other Muslims in the country(including from
India) like Pakistanis, Punjabi Muslims, Patans and also others like the Chinese
Muslims.

Although the Indian Muslims are generally friendly with all races there is not
as much intermarriage between Indian Muslims and other Muslims compared to the
heavy intermixing and intermarriages between Indian Muslims and the Malays.


And it is an established fact (evidenced by all the names mentioned above) that
throughout history the Indian Muslims have always stepped forward to defend the
rights of the Malays.In the process many of the Indian Muslims have lost their
identity almost completely to the Malays.Who are the descendants of the Tamil
educated Munshi Abdullah today? No one knows. A DNA test will reveal Indian DNA
among all our Malay rulers but which Sultan can or wants to retrace his Indian
ancestry? These are the mamaks who assimilated into the Malay community from
generations ago.

Fast forward to today : in UMNO there are thousands of mamaks fighting for
Malay rights. In PAS there are mamaks fighting for Islam (aka Malay) rights.
PAS stalwart Hanipa Mydin is a pure mamak while Deputy MB of
Kelantan Dato Husam Musa may have mamak blood. In the old Keadilan 'brother'
Abdul Rahman Othman, another mamak tulen, became party secretary general and
then quit later - tojo in PAS. In the Civil Service and in the Melayu korporat
sector there are thousands of mamaks helping the NEP'social engineering' come
true.

In Penang pure Malays are a rarity. As late as the80s, they could only be found in Sungai Ara, Balik Pulau and other places
where there were no roads. In all other places in Penang, mamak blood is almost  a certainty. Hence
words like 'chacha' and 'nana' are a part of Penang Malay. In Kedah and Melaka the
mamak 'penetration' of the Malay populace is much more earlier than in
Penang. Which means the mamaks in Kedah and Melaka have
diluted their DNA into the Malay population from much earlier (from Portugese,
Dutch and British times).

In short mamaks are a permanent feature of the Malay 'make up'.

It is the karma of the mamaks that they have become kurma in Malaysia.

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