A historian supports granting Bumiputera status to third-generation Sarawakian Chinese, citing a 1920 law that defined natives by birthplace, not race.
PETALING JAYA: A historian has lent academic weight to a proposal by Julau MP Datuk Larry Sng to grant Bumiputera status to third-generation Sarawakian Chinese, arguing that the idea is not a novel political demand but one grounded in the territory’s own legal history.
Dr Jason Ng Sze Chieh pointed to the Land Regulations Order No. VIII of 1920, enacted under Brooke rule, which defined a native as a natural-born subject of the Rajah.
Crucially, he noted that the definition is framed around nationality and place of birth rather than racial identity.
“A Chinese born in Sarawak was, by the plain reading of that Order, a native of Sarawak,“ he said, adding that the claim has “a documented legal foundation that was quietly dismantled and never formally repealed”.
Ng argued that the shift away from this birth-based definition began in the early 1930s, when the legal framework began aligning nativity with race instead.
That race-based definition was subsequently reinforced under British colonial rule and carried into Malaysia’s constitutional architecture when Sarawak joined the federation in 1963, finding expression in Article 161A.
He said there was no explicit legislative act that formally stripped Sarawakian Chinese of native status, rather they were “redefined out of it” through successive legal reframings.
He added that restoring that recognition would not mark a departure from Sarawak’s traditions but “in the most precise historical sense, a return to it”.
A parallel argument was raised during the Sarawak Legislative Assembly in February 2022 by Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How, who reportedly cited the same 1920 land law and said he could find no subsequent legislation that formally annulled the native status it conferred on locally born Chinese and Indians.
Under current law, however, nativity in Sarawak remains tied to indigenous racial identity rather than birthplace, as reflected in Article 161A and Sarawak’s Interpretation Ordinance.
That being said, constitutional amendments passed in December 2021 removed the enumerated list of indigenous races from Article 161A and restored to Sarawak the authority to define “native” through state law, potentially reopening the question.
Sng raised the proposal on April 3, arguing that third-generation communities across Sarawak have made substantial economic contributions and the state, despite contributing third-highest to Malaysia’s GDP and covering a land mass comparable to Peninsular Malaysia, accounts for only around 6.7% of the national population.
Sarawak Deputy Minister Datuk Snowdan Lawan said the matter carries constitutional weight and should be examined by the Council for Native Customs and Traditions.
He said any outcome must safeguard the rights of indigenous communities while remaining consistent with state and federal constitutional requirements.
