Is Mahathir a Bona fide Malay or a constitutional Malay?

Is Mahathir a Bona fide Malay or a constitutional Malay?


Aug 28, 2024

The constitution was not ratified until the year 1957. Mahathir however, was born in 1925. In 1925, your race is the race of your father. So from the time he was born until he was 32 years of age in 1957, how could Mahathir have been a “Malay by birth”, when neither his father, grandfather or great grandfather have been Malays.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy


Mahathir was born a 100 years ago; so the chances that there are documents that will be able to prove his ethnicity and ancestry in a conclusive manner is very low. A 100 years ago, I doubt whether you even had such a document as a birth certificate or a passport. At that time, I imagine that if you wanted to come to India from Malaysia or vice versa, you just have to take a boat and go there. You don’t have to provide any travel documents whatsoever.

If your wife gave birth to a child during that era, I doubt you have to notify anyone other than your relatives. The colonial government that ruled at the time probably had little to no interest in issuing birth certificates to anyone born in the country.

Currently, Mahathir is suing DPM Zahid Hamidi for claiming that Mahathir’s actual name was “Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty” in court. People outside of the country will not understand why he is making such a big fuss about the matter but to all of us Malaysians, we know that the reason why Mahathir has taken so much umbrage towards Zahid’s claim, is because Zahid’s claim is implying that Mahathir is actually Indian, not Malay, as he claims.

In the court case, Mahathir has given some evidence to prove that he is “pure Malay”, unlike what Zahid claims.

However, I find the evidence that Mahathir has stated has quite a number of plot holes in it.

For one, according to Mahathir, his other siblings used “bin” or “binti Mohamad Iskandar” while his name is “bin Mohamad”. Somehow, I find the idea that you have a different bin or binti from your siblings to be very odd. How did that happen? Surely it couldn’t have been something accidental. If you already have 9 of your elder brothers and sisters setting the precedent of putting a bin or binti Mohamad Iskandar in their name, why would you decide to break tradition. It is extremely unlikely that his parents or siblings are the ones who wanted him to name himself in a way that will make him different from them, so it must have been he himself that had done it. Why did he do it? Why did he deliberately name himself in a way that distanced himself from his family and his father especially?

I also find his explanation, that his father’s name was Mohamad, while it was his grandfather that was called Iskandar to be equally odd, because if this is the case, then why did his 9 elder siblings call themselves bin and binti Iskandar. Didn’t they know that it was their grandfather, and not their father, that is called Iskandar?

According to Mahathir, although there are no records as to whether it was his grandfather or great-grandfather that came to Malaysia from Kerala, he is sure that his father’s name is “Mohamad bin Iskandar” and his father was “registered as a pure Malay”. Who was it that registered his father as a “pure Malay” in the late 1800s when his father was born? Why were they going around registering people as pure Malays or pure Chinese or what not at that time? Also, for his father to be registered as a “pure Malay” as Mahathir claims, his grandfather must also have been recognised as a Malay, because racial identity follows the patrilineal line. If Mahathir himself acknowledges that either his great grandfather or grandfather came from India, then how can he claim that his father is a “pure Malay”?

If his father cannot possibly be “pure Malay”, then how can he claim to be a “Malay by birth”, even if his father had taken a Malay wife?

After the federal constitution was ratified, maybe it would have been possible for Mahathir to claim that he is a Malay on account of the definition of a Malay via article 160, but the constitution was not ratified until the year 1957. Mahathir however, was born in 1925. In 1925, your race is the race of your father. So from the time he was born until he was 32 years of age in 1957, how could Mahathir have been a “Malay by birth”, when neither his father, grandfather or great grandfather have been Malays.

If doubts were to arise about your race, the one that should be attesting your race is actually your relatives. If someone were to say that you are of a different race than what you claim, then it is your uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, nieces, grandfather, grandmother and grand uncle that you should bring forward to bear witness to your race. Of all people, they are the ones that can allay any doubts about your ancestry by saying something to the tune of : “I am his cousin, niece or nephew, and I am of such-and-such race. Being of such and such race, I shall bear witness that he is also of the same race as me, on account of him being my relative.”

Mahathir has 9 elder siblings. By this fact alone, he should have tens if not hundreds of cousins, nephews and nieces in the country. Considering that, if he is a bona fide Malay and not just a constitutional Malay, why doesn’t he bring his cousins, nephews and nieces to court to bear witness to his ancestry? Why is he always alone in testifying about his ancestry?

Also, why does Mahathir always have to add that he is a Malay because “Under Article 160, a “Malay” means a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, and conforms to Malay custom.” If he is very confident about his credentials as a bona fide Malay, why does he always have to insist that he is a constitutional Malay, to support his Malay bona fides? Have you ever seen or heard of another bona fide Malay use the constitution to support their Malay bona fides other than Mahathir?

According to Einstein, truth is what stands the test of experience.

Look at Mahathir’s face and compare it with the face of the current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan. If Mahathir has been “Pure Malay” for at least two generations, why does he resemble Vijiyan, who is ethnic Malayalee from Kerala in such an uncanny manner?

Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan

Also, look at the way Mahathir speaks, especially in English. What do you hear in his accent and pronunciation? Does he sound to you as how a Malay would speak English or how an Indian would speak English? Even Mahathir’s famous sarcasm and cynicism, “I put it to you”, is indigenous to an Indian mind more than a Malay mind. The distinction in the level of sarcasm and cynicism in the expressions of an Indian as compared to a Malay is as distinct and noticeable as the difference between the taste of curry made by a Malay and an Indian. The level of sarcasm and cynicism displayed in Mahathir’s expression is actually rare amongst the Malays, but common amongst the Indians. Isn’t it odd that someone who claims to have been a “pure Malay ” for at least two generations still speaks in an accent and uses sarcasm and cynicism in a similar fashion as how an Indian would as opposed to a Malay?

The fact that Mahathir gets very defensive and touchy when people talk about his race, to the point that he will actually spend a whole lot of time addressing the matter, and sometimes even be prodded to sue people for not accepting his version of the story, is also another indication of what his ancestry might truly be.

If his ancestry is as he claims, if people were to doubt it, why can’t he just shrug it off and ignore it.

Tunku had a Thai mother and a Thai wife, but I doubt he would have been very upset if you said that he is a Thai more than a Malay because of it. Tunku wouldn’t have cared because he would have known in his heart of hearts that it is not true.

Anwar also supposedly has some Indian blood in him but he is happily dancing to MGR songs without a care as to whether people will say that he is more Indian than Malay because of it. Anwar doesn’t care, because if people were to accuse him of being an Indian in disguise, he would have just had a good laugh.

“We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.”

If we tell the truth, even if a million people drown our voice, we will be unperturbed. If we tell a lie, even if a million people repeat what we say, just one dissenting voice will be enough to upset us to no end.

To tell you the truth, Mahathir’s race should really have been of no consequence to anyone but him. It is really up to him whether he wants to honour his ancestors or not.

If that be the case, then why am I writing a 1500 word essay on the subject, you might ask?

Well, I suppose I have always been curious as to how Mahathir knew that Indians are not loyal to the country, as he claimed during an interview not too long ago, when there has been no research or study done about the matter.

Well, I suppose that Mahathir did not need to research or studies to speak about how loyal an Indian might be to the country, because Mahathir knows by direct experience how loyal an Indian is to the country.

An Indian doesn’t need to ask anyone else about whether an Indian is loyal to his country after all. All the Indian needs to do is ask himself, and the answer will arrive to him.

I suppose this is why Mahathir also believes that non-Malays in the country should have been assimilated into the Malay community, to form the “Bangsa Malaysia” concept of nations he envisioned.

He believes that, perhaps, because that is exactly what he has done himself.