Participants reading the Quran while waiting for the ISMA symposium to start in Putrajaya, September 28, 2013. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) claimed today that the influx of Chinese migrants into Tanah Melayu had been “a mistake” which must be rectified, but stopped short of saying how this could be achieved.

According to Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman, the ethnic group were considered intruders into Malay land, and had been brought by British colonialists to oppress Malays.

“The Chinese entered this country together with the British invaders as intruders. Who gave them citizenship and wealth until their intrusion is protected until today?” asked Abdullah in Isma’s website here.

“Those were all done by the British, who were conspiring with the Chinese to oppress and bully the Malays.”

Abdullah insisted that if the Chinese wish to stay as Malaysian citizens, they must be loyal to the Malay kings, accept that Islam as the religion of the federation, and accept the sovereign rights of the Malays.

He claimed that a foreign race like the Chinese should not interfere and hinder the ambition of the Malays in the latter’s own country.

The group had previously claimed that Indians and Chinese were brought into Malaysia to weaken the Malay identity and undermine the community’s birthright to peninsular Malaysia on the pretext of multiculturalism.

In supporting the continuation of Malay special “rights”, Isma had in its seminar and events suggested that the community were the original settlers of Malaysia, describing the native indigenous Orang Asli as sharing the same ethnic roots with the Malays.

In September last year, Isma had organised a symposium where a historian who was one of the speakers suggested that the influx of the Chinese into the Malay archipelago, including Malaysia, had been part of a “southbound invasion” from China towards Southeast Asia called “Nam Tien”.

This “invasion”, backed by foreign Western powers at times, has since stripped the ancient Malay peoples of their riches and knowledge, causing their descendants to be inferior to other races despite being one of the oldest civilisations in the world.

The Malays and Bumiputera make up the majority of Malaysia’s population at an estimated 67.4 per cent of the 28.3 million population, followed by the Chinese at 24.6 per cent, according to the most recent census at 2010.