“They don’t have regular income or proper housing, access to universities and government jobs are difficult because these are allocated according to ethnic proportion, and Malays are less than one per cent (of the population),” Sri Lanka Malay Association president Iqram Cuttilan told Bernama in the capital.

In the island state, Singhalese make up 74 per cent of the population, 12 per cent are Tamils, while another 12 per cent are Moors, who are Muslims (Muslim community is made up of the Moors, Malays and Indian Muslims).

The Malays, who were brought into Sri Lanka as soldiers by the Dutch in the late 1600s, still profess Islam, speak the Malay language, and continue to preserve their own culture and heritage of their forefathers.

But now, the new generation of Malays wants to be equally represented in the mainstream Sri Lankan society which, to some degree, has been ethnically polarised.

“We are lobbying the government to nominate a Malay MP to represent Malays in Parliament. We are not being heard in the parliament, the minority rights cannot be articulated now,” said Iqram.

The Malays have assimilated well into the Sri Lankan society and lived side by side with the other ethnic groups for decades.

Many are multilingual, with Singhalese, Tamil, Malay and English widely spoken among the Malay community.

But their voice remains relatively weak. — Bernama

- theborneopost