ABSTRACT

The considerable numbers of Malays who go on pilgrimage to Mecca meet Muslims from all parts, notably from Turkey and Egypt; like the Arab influence in Malaya, stimulates interest in the religion of Islam, but for many the language bar is a real obstacle to intercourse with Muslims of other races. The barrier of Islam has combined with the natural shyness, conservatism and racial feeling of the Malays to prevent the effect of the presence of great numbers of hard-working and prospering Chinese and Indians from being as strong as it would have been otherwise. The financial operations of wealthy Chinese “towkays” or Indian money-lenders, the strenuous toil for long hours of the Indian or, especially, the Chinese workers in shop, factory, estate or mine, beneath the rigours of heat and storm, awaken little desire for emulation. Swettenham, in British Malaya, gives a summary of what they meant in the development of the country.