[quote]Originally posted by Meat Pao:
[b]Hi,
No it is wrong.....Indonesia's Christians are mostly not
Malays.
They are actually from other ethnic
groups.....Batak....Minahasa....several others.
A lot of confusion on this term 'Malay'.
In Indonesia, there are ethnic Malays, but they are mostly on parts
of Sumatra, and they are only 1 ethnic group among the dozens or
hundreds of different ethnic groups in Indonesia.
Indigenous people in Indonesia are very diverse. Malays are in
relatively small numbers and only in some regions of Sumatra. The
majority of them are Muslims. Other indigenous ethnic groups who
are majority Christians, or have significant Christian population,
are of different groups altogether.
This term 'Malay' is name of an ethnic group only, it should not be
used as a broad 'race' or 'sub-race' for the whole indigenous
people in South-East Asia. For instance, you cannot call the
indigenous Filipino Catholics as 'Malays', although in the southern
part of Phillipines there is indeed a Malay ethnic group who are
Muslims, but the northern part of Phillipines are not ethnic
Malays.
This 'Malay' term is only referring to ethnicity, dont keep getting
it wrong.
I see this again and again.
From an anthropological point of view the Malay Race is even much
bigger than what you thought. Even the Dayaks,Dusun.....orang asli
of Malayisa should be included but only because they are
predominantly animists,Christians or others that the Malaysian
Government does not recognize these people as Malays.The Malay Race
were the first settlers in South East Asia although we dont really
know where these people really originated ffrom.The orang Melayu is
bangsa Melayu and no different from the other Malays.If you ask
someone from Sulawesi about his race he might say that he is a
Bugis and bangsa Melayu (ethnic Malay).The Term Melayu in Indonesia
is more associated with the Malay Dialect Most people in Indonesia
would claim to be a Malay..even for a Javanese not sure about the
Balinese though because of their Indian/Hindu Ancestry.