IN responding to the controversy surrounding his recent remarks, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor maintained that he had neither questioned the citizenship of non-Malays nor suggested that anyone should leave the country.
That clarification, however, misses the central issue.
Sanusi did not deny saying, “Orang India ada India. Orang Cina ada China,” while asserting that the Malays have only Tanah Melayu.
The concern is not whether he explicitly questioned anyone’s citizenship. It is the implication that Malaysians of Chinese and Indian descent have other countries to call home and therefore do not belong to Malaysia as fully as Malays do.
The reality is quite different.
China is not the homeland of Malaysian Chinese, just as India is not the homeland of Malaysian Indians.
For many of us, our families have lived here for generations. We were born here, built our lives here, raised our children here and owe our loyalty to no country other than Malaysia. Our ethnicity does not give us citizenship, political rights or any claim of national belonging in China or India.
How a senior political leader can conflate ethnicity with nationality is difficult to understand unless the intention was to appeal to emotions during an election campaign.
The dangers of such rhetoric were highlighted in Australia this week when the Full Federal Court unanimously dismissed Senator Pauline Hanson’s appeal against a ruling that she had racially discriminated against fellow senator Mehreen Faruqi by telling her to “go back to Pakistan”.
While the circumstances are different, the underlying message is strikingly similar: that a person’s ethnicity determines where they truly belong.
In defending his remarks, Sanusi cited statements made by three British politicians between 1946 and 1957 describing Tanah Melayu and Malaya as the traditional homeland of the Malays.
No one disputes Malaysia’s historical roots.
Those statements reflected the political realities of a colonial period when citizenship, constitutional arrangements and the future of the nation were still being negotiated.
Even the British politicians cited by Sanusi acknowledged the interests of other communities and the importance of building a nation founded on shared citizenship and constitutional principles.
Malaysia today is not the Malaya of the 1940s or 1950s. It is a sovereign federation formed in 1963 with the inclusion of Sabah and Sarawak.
Our nation is defined by its Constitution, democratic institutions and the equal citizenship of all Malaysians, not by assumptions about where our ancestors originated.
History should therefore be understood in its proper context rather than selectively quoted to support present-day political narratives.
To borrow a modern analogy, it would be like taking the meaning of the word “telegram” from an era when it referred to a Morse-code message sent from a post office and applying it uncritically to today’s messaging app.
The historical relationship between the Malays and this country is beyond dispute. The institution of the Malay Rulers, the Malay language and the constitutional position of the Malays are fundamental parts of Malaysia’s identity.
That, however, is not the issue.
The real question is why, in 2026, a national political leader still finds it useful to suggest that some Malaysians belong elsewhere because of their ethnicity.
Malaysia does not become any less Malay by recognising that it is also the one and only homeland of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians, the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, and every citizen who proudly calls this country home.
History helps us understand where we came from. It should never be used to diminish the belonging of fellow Malaysians. Whatever our different ancestral origins, we share one Constitution, one citizenship and one home. That home is Malaysia. ‒ July 29, 2026
Ben Fong Kok Seng is the DAP Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur Treasurer.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: Unsplash/Putra Mahirudin
