Malays

Malay family in traditional costume

The Malay folk hero Hang Tuah with his most famous quote: " Ta 'Melayu Hilang Di-Dunia " (The Malay people should never disappear from the face of the earth.)

The Malay ( Orang Melayu ) are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia . They belong to the Austronesian ethnic groups and speak Malay languages , the standardized forms of which are Malaysian and Indonesian . Almost all Malays (> 99%) are Sunni Muslims .

Today around 23 million people are counted among the Malays, they live mainly on the Malay Peninsula , in the east of Sumatra and on the coasts of Borneo . The majority of the population are Malays in Malaysia (51%), in the Sultanate of Brunei (66%), in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand (66–80%; see Malays in Thailand ) and in the Indonesian province of Bangka-Belitung (72%). In Singapore , Malays make up the second largest ethnic group after the Chinese with over 13% of the population. An estimated 200,000 Cape Malays live in South Africa .

Definition in the constitution of Malaysia

Article 160, sentence 2, of the Malaysian Constitution defines all persons who profess Islam, speak the Malay language, follow Malay traditions and were born in Malaysia or Singapore before or on that date on August 31, 1957 ( Hari Merdeka ) settled down (Singapore belonged to Malaysia until 1965), as well as their descendants as Malays.

According to this ethno-religious identity, there can be no non-Muslim Malays. Non-Muslim or apostate Malays are not officially considered Malays, but as non-Malay citizens of Malaysia.

However, there is some opposition to this religious definition. Some, above all nationalistic but also left-wing Malays, advocate the definition of “Malay” per jus sanguinis .

In all states of mainland Malaysia, Malays make up the majority of the population (between 53% in Johor and Selangor and 95% in Terengganu ). In Penang and the capital Kuala Lumpur they are roughly on par with the Chinese at 42% and 41% respectively. In the two East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak , however, Malays are clearly in the minority with 7.5 and 23% respectively.

Racial theory

Distribution of the Malay "race" according to Meyers Konversationslexikon from 1885

In the past, the term "Malay", coined by the race theory of the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach from the 18th century, was used for almost all Southeast Asian peoples and regarded as a subgroup of the Mongolian race . This interpretation of the term “Malays” is no longer used today.

Web links

Wiktionary: Malay - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ James B. Minahan: Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific. To Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) u. a. 2012, entry Malays .
↑ Leo Suryadinata, Evi Nurvidya Arifin, Aris Ananta: Indonesia's Population. Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 2003, p. 42.
^ Lowell W. Barrington: After independence: making and protecting the nation in postcolonial & postcommunist states . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2006, ISBN 978-0-472-02508-4 .
↑ H. Autrum, U. Wolf (Hrsg.): Humanbiologie: Results and tasks. Edition, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1973, ISBN 978-3-540-06150-2 . Pp. 76-82.

[1] James B. Minahan: Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific. To Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) u. a. 2012, entry Malays .

[2] Leo Suryadinata, Evi Nurvidya Arifin, Aris Ananta: Indonesia's Population. Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 2003, p. 42.

[3] Lowell W. Barrington: After independence: making and protecting the nation in postcolonial & postcommunist states . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2006, ISBN 978-0-472-02508-4 .

[4] H. Autrum, U. Wolf (Hrsg.): Humanbiologie: Results and tasks. Edition, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1973, ISBN 978-3-540-06150-2 . Pp. 76-82.