MY EARLY THOUGHTS on problems affecting the Malays were fi rst set down in arguable form in response to a challenge made by Professor Ungku Aziz, Professor of Economics (now Vice-Chancellor) of the University of Malaya. In 1966, at a seminar in Kuala Lumpur discussing the reasons for the poor examination performance of Malay students, I brought up the question of hereditary and environmental infl uence as being among the factors contributing towards the problem. Admittedly a lot of other factors such as education policy, poor facilities, inadequate and inadequately trained teachers play a part in producing the high percentage of failures among Malay students. But, in my view, hereditary and environmental factors cannot be dismissed lightly. This view was generally disapproved by the seminar participants and in particular by Professor Ungku Aziz, because it was thought to imply that Malays are by nature inferior, and that this inferiority is hereditary and consequently permanent. This is not what the writer implied or concluded. The intention was to spotlight certain intrinsic factors which retard the development of the Malays, particularly those which can be corrected. If it is known and admitted that there are certain practices which are harmful, then it would be easier to suppress them. Generally speaking, modern ideas on the evolution of man are not acceptable to Muslims and therefore to Malays. But even Malays admit that certain characteristics are passed from parents to
offspring. “Bapak borek, anak berintek” is a well-known Malay saying which means “A spotted father begets a speckled son”. The meaning is obvious. If this is so for an individual, then hereditary infl uence must play a role in the development of a collection of individuals which constitutes a race. What is not generally known by the Malays is the effect of inbreeding. In this book I have explained how the laws of genetics, which govern the transmission of hereditary characteristics, are affected adversely by inbreeding and other marriage practices. There has been a lot of scientifi c thinking on the subject of inbreeding and the effect on human society. Cyril Dean Darlington, a British geneticist, in his book The Evolution of Man and Society, takes the extreme view that the evolution of human society is the product of genes. According to him, civilizations fl ourish and decay in obedience to genetic decrees. He pointed out that once a ruling class fi xed itself in power, it sought to conserve that power by inbreeding, thus denying the infusion of fresh stock. It was this habit, according to Darlington, that expedited the decline of the Pharoahs, the Ptolemies and the Caesars. This interesting hypothesis is perhaps too extreme to be generally accepted even by non-Muslims. In any case, Darlington was referring mainly to incest, a practice which is unknown among the Malays. However, the modern defi nition of inbreeding includes marriage between fi rst cousins and other close relatives, a practice fairly common among the Malays. Hereditary infl uence also produces an adverse effect in a society which, abhorring celibacy, insists that everyone, fi t or unfi t, should marry. Thus, the deformed in mind and body are somehow paired off to reproduce. While it must be admitted that inbreeding is not general among the
