I refer to the letter Hang Tuah was a Jakun by Jakun Descendant. The writer is either confused or obfuscating. Why would we want to remove the political boundaries that delineate the countries of Southeast Asia? The different countries of this region are a political reality. To imagine that these nations do not exist is mere wishful fantasy.

When we talk of 'Malay' in the everyday context, we do not refer to the generic use of the term to cover all of the Austronesian peoples of Southeast Asia. To do so would be absurd. The absurdity is obvious when you tell the Ibans or Kadazans that they are a subgroup of 'orang Melayu'.

When we say Malay, we refer to the ethnic groups who live in the Malay Peninsular, Brunei, southern Thailand, east Sumatra and some parts of East Malaysia. These ethnic group speak the various dialects of the Malay language. Our constitution even defines what is a Malay. It attaches a religious condition. If a Malay from the Sri Vijayan civilisation of the past could travel through time to present-day Malaysia, he most likely would not qualify as a Malay. This is because he would most likely be a Buddhist.

How the present-day Malay came to the Malay Peninsular is no mystery. There were ancient kingdoms such as Langkasuka. However, it was the Malacca sultanate that firmly established the Malay culture and institution in Peninsular Malaysia. This was in the 1400s. Subsequently, there was gradual and periodic migration from Sumatra, Sulawesi and Java.

There is a reason to Jakun Descendant's seemingly ingenuous humility to identify with the aborigines. This is to justify the racial and religious discrimination that works in his favour. It goes like this: 'We were here thousands of years ago, so we are the original people of this land; therefore we must have special privileges'.

As an extension of this warped reasoning, most Indonesians and Filipinos can migrate to Malaysia. When they do, and if they are Muslim, then they are Malay. Therefore, they will enjoy the privileges accorded to the bumiputeras in Malaysia. It does not matter if they just migrated yesterday.

According to people like Jakun Descendant, Sabah is also the home of the Sulus and Moros of southern Phillippines. So there should not be any fuss over the purported Project M . The Kadazans should have no reason to complain.

Jakun Descendant's prejudice is not because of lack of education or ignorance. Far from it. It is deliberate, cultivated prejudice arising from self-interest. This makes it more abhorrent. It is all the more disconcerting as his belief is shared by not a few.

The most unbelievable thing about this episode is that there are actually people like ES Chua who feels the need to defend this bigotry. That as the man says, 'how low can you go?'