I feel cheated. To the core.

When I was in primary school, I remember my first year in class: Malaysia has three big races: Malay, Chinese, Indian. The size of the population of the race follows that order. All three big races live in harmony, a multi-racial country, tolerant of each other's traditions, beliefs, culture and customs.

My foot. I realised through conversations with colleagues and people I meet these past two weeks or so that many people in Malaysia are of mixed race. My colleague who is not from Penang mentioned that many Malays in Penang are not pure Malays. They are mixed with Indians or Chinese or other races. And when I start observing, I realised that what he said may be true.

Some Malays here are darker in colour. I assume that they are mixed with Indians. And I'm aware that some Malays here are mixed with Chinese. And according to Malaysia laws, these people with Malay blood are also categorised as Malay. Why isn't there an option of bi-racial? Or multi-racial, if that is what you want your country to be?

I attended a talk last Sunday on Indian migration to Penang in the 1700s and 1800s. And boy, Penang was the largest city out of Madras to have people from there! Many were traders and did not stay. But some did, and married the locals. Now that explains the kind of people you see in Penang.

And there are Arab-muslims as well, who come in 1700s. The Merican clan.

And other races (if that is even the most suitable word) came to Penang for trade. Those who stayed contributed to the multi-racial-ness of this region.

And who am I? Why am I categorised as Chinese? Why can't I be Teochew-Hokkien, or whatever my mum and dad is? I'm fully aware that the categorisation of the Chinese race only came in the 20th century. Probably to unite people from China who come from different places, reducing tension among the groups. But in these days, I feel the over-generalisation of people categorised as Chinese dilutes the identity of people.

 People in this region probably have grandparents/ancestors who are Thai/Arab/Indian/Indonesian due to the travels that people did in the past. Those who are categorised as "Malay" or "Indian" or "Chinese" may not belong to just one race. And why should they? Mixed marriages should be celebrated, and so should their children. And isn't that the real representation of the people in this region, of Malaysia?