When I visited Sarawak for the first time this year I came across the term Bumiputera. What does it it mean exactly? Do people described as Bumiputera accept it or is it a derogatory term?
Please excuse my ignorance - just trying to learn more about Malaysian culture. Thanks
It stands for native (I believe) It’s not an offensive term as it’s an official term for it.
Usually bumiputra is used to describe those who first lived at that place. For instance, malays, iban (local tribes in sarawak) and also other local tribes in Malaysia
In a nutshell …
Bumiputra or Bumiputera (Sanskrit, translated literally, it means “sons of the Earth”; Malay, translated literally, it means “princes of the Earth”), is an official definition widely used in Malaysia, embracing ethnic Malays as well as other indigenous ethnic groups.
DEFINITION:
In Malaysia, by convention, it is generally considered that all Malays are Bumiputras and that all Bumiputras are Malay. This is technically incorrect, as there are cases of non-Malays declared as Bumiputra, and similarly of non-Muslim Malays who are not considered Bumiputra. However, the definition of Bumiputra clearly excludes ethnic Chinese. Non-Muslim Indians are similarly excluded.
Thank you for those helpful replies.
is a Very offensive term.
indiginous Chinese & Indians who can trace their roots in Malaysia up to 600 years ago, are ‘Non Native’?!
in any civilised Country of the World, this would be laughed at for the Blatant outragous offense against those citizens.
Not offensive since most of the time when you’re filling the official forms, they will ask you whether you’re bumiputera or non-bumiputera
and I guess malaysia is not civilised enough, lol.
HATE the term BUMIPUTRA very much… dunno which idiot come out with such term…
Would prefer to use the word "Malay, Chinese, Iban, Indian, etc) rather than using Bumi or Non-Bumi. Frankly, I think the word Bumi is very outdated and uncivillised…
I’m a chinese and was born in MALAYSIA (NOT IN CHINA :x ) i.e. in Malaysian Land therefore, Bumi Malaysia… as such is a 100% MALAYSIA BUMIPUTRA loh, isn’t it???
Eh… good point you brought up there Crusaders
Nothing much can be done though @.@
[quote=“Crusaders”]HATE the term BUMIPUTRA very much… dunno which idiot come out with such term…
Would prefer to use the word "Malay, Chinese, Iban, Indian, etc) rather than using Bumi or Non-Bumi. Frankly, I think the word Bumi is very outdated and uncivillised…
I’m a chinese and was born in MALAYSIA (NOT IN CHINA :x ) i.e. in Malaysian Land therefore, Bumi Malaysia… as such is a 100% MALAYSIA BUMIPUTRA loh, isn’t it???[/quote]
is not to worry too much about this offensive word.
With the Global community becoming more & more well travelled,
even a blind man could see that Malaysia’s polarised Government,
has succesfully reduced the integrity of this word,
to about the same level as… ’ Boleh, Boleh’
ie. it has now become good comedy material.
Should the Government ever get above the gutter politics of religion & the isolation of vast parts of it’s communities,
then mayb shall have to look elsewhere for an alternative source of daily comedy.
Peanuts perhaps.
bumiputra or not…we are still HUMAN…not much different between you and me…whats to argue?
I totally agree. As an ‘outsider’ one of the things I liked about Miri was the different cultural traditions whatevr the label.
bumiputra is “politically-motivated” term
u cannot find thid term in federal constitution
but u can find natives of sarawak, sabah n org asli.
politician used d term to justify mistreatment/ biased treatment of malays in msia
they owez argue or demand about d special right of bumiputra (mean malays only).
but natives of sarawak n sabah never demand or argue about this
basically it is UMNo dat is racist n split msia society.
no wonder in west msia malays hate other raced especially chinese
Sarawakian never use term of Bumiputera… We just noticed that we only sarawakian… no bumi or non-bumi… we’re the same… Truly Sarawakian will say that…
I totally agree. As an ‘outsider’ one of the things I liked about Miri was the different cultural traditions whatevr the label.[/quote]
i totally agreed too…on the above statement… there for… i think it is better that I just lock this thread off as we are just making round and round here.
anyone who disagree with my action, can PM me directly for questionaires… 