Superior Race

Race relation and race supremacy has been the utmost discussion in Malaysia politics recently in particular. Ahmad Ismail, Khir Toyo have been in the lime light for speaking up not to challenge the Malay race superiority, dominance and special privileges. Even before both of them trying to champion their race yet this idea and notion of “Ketuaan Melayu” has been around for a while during Razak, Hussien Onn and made worst during Mahathir’s regime. So which is the superior race in the world or is there a superior race?

It was an article in STAR by Veera pandiyan that intrigued me to write this article “ if we trace our lineage back to 60,000 years, we are all Africans”.

I saw this National Geography episode during my days in Spore a long time ago titled , The Journey of Man, hosted by geneticist Dr Spencer Wells, shows that all humans descended from a group that walked out of Africa about 60,000 years ago (or perhaps another 40,000 years earlier, if the opinions of dissenting archaeologists are taken into consideration).

His study is based on DNA the scientific historical link that we carry in our blood and Dr Wells has traced our common DNA to the Y-chromosome of this man, our veritable Adam, who lived in the eastern or southern part of Africa.

He suggests that our early ancestors could have looked like the bush people of the Kalahari, whose facial features make up a composite model of people from all over the world. Archaeologists, however, say the first wave of migration could have occurred about 100,000 years ago, based on fossil records. Earlier this year, three studies that looked at human diversity through genetics, supported Dr Wells’ contention that humans left Africa, walked into Central Asia and fanned out east and west to populate the planet. They also confirmed that the ancestry of many seemingly “purebred” ethnic groups were traceable to more than one continent.
What does all these tell us? We now know that scientifically, there is no such thing as a pure race as not a single characteristic, trait or gene distinguishes members of one “race” from members of another.

Genes influencing skin colour have nothing to with the genes influencing blood types, type of hair or shape of eyes. As Dr Well explains, humans who first evolved in Africa had dark skin because they needed protection in the form of melanin, our natural sunscreen.Those who moved into the northern hemisphere 40,000 years ago did not need such protection and lost some of their pigmentation to allow sunlight to synthesise Vitamin D needed to grow strong bones.“Our differences are only skin deep as we are all African cousins separated by, at the most, some 2,000 generations,” he says.

Throughout human history, the concept of race or the assumed superiority of one over another, have been used to justify territorial wars, hegemony, slavery, ethnic cleansing and other abominations and more so in Malaysia where we have a diverse race and each claiming to be superior than the other.

So there you have it all, we are distantly related cousins from Africa, and there is no such thing as “Ketuanaan Melayu, Cina, India” dan lain lain! The next time someone like Ahmad Ismail barks at you telling that you that you are a “pendatang” just turn to them and say, you must be my distant relative from Africa. So Ahmad Ismail, my cousin how is the family?