‘Come and see for yourselves’

LANGKAWI: Their 30ha settlement is a somewhat secluded neighbourhood hidden away from the iconic eagle in Kuah town and unknown to many Malaysians visiting this “touristy” island.

But a community is thriving in this area named Bukit Malut, located about 20km from Kuah.

The village looks like any other kampung in Malaysia. Residents roam over a dirt road. Men converge on the mosque for Friday sermons.

Its estimated 7,000 dwellers are fluent in the Kedah dialect and refer to themselves as Kedah Malay Muslims.

But to other locals, Bukit Malut is a “Little Myanmar” whose inhabitants are illegal immigrants who came from Myanmar decades ago.

So, who exactly are the people of Bukit Malut? Are they bona fide Malaysians? Did their forefathers come from Myanmar by boat generations ago? Were they originally Rohingya?

When journalists from The Star informed their police contacts about a plan to visit the settlement, the advice given was clear: “Abort the plan.”

A Special Branch officer said: “If you insist on going, please be extra careful.”

Local contacts in Langkawi offered the same advice: “Even we don’t go there. Why would you want to visit Bukit Malut?”

Our team went ahead with the visit recently, arriving at a mosque there shortly after Friday prayers. They were instantly marked as outsiders and surrounded by a crowd gathered there. The negative public perception about Bukit Malut had made residents somewhat cautious towards strangers.

Secluded area: A scenic view of the village as seen from Masjid Jamek Al-Husaini in Bukit Malut.

An elderly man said: “We don’t want reporters in Bukit Malut. Leave us alone. We earn an honest living here.”

After much cajoling, the crowd calmed down and agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity.

They were indignant that their origins were being questioned.

“Who do we look like to you? Do we look like we are from Myanmar, or do we look like you?” a man responded when asked about their background.

“We are upset that newspapers have labelled us Myanmar immigrants. That is untrue. As a Bukit Malut native, I feel insulted.”

He said the Bukit Malut folk were angry that their home here had been called “Little Myanmar”.

“People should visit Bukit Malut and see how the place really is.

“We are very friendly. We are not what we have been made out to be in the media.

“If you want to get to know us, please visit us and we will receive you with open arms, ” he said.

On reports about criminal activities such as drug abuse in the settlement, the resident admitted that some people in their community had become drug addicts, but he insisted that the problem was not as serious as that portrayed in the news.

“In any part of the world, drugs and crime exist, and this includes Bukit Malut, ” he said.

The location of Bukit Malut in Langkawi.

Langkawi MP Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he would often hear comments about Bukit Malut every time he visited the island.

“This issue is played up without people understanding the situation, ” he wrote on Facebook recently.

The community here, he wrote on March 29 “... are orang Kedah who had travelled elsewhere, returned here and opened up a settlement.

“Bukit Malut people are not Rohingya. They are Malays who had migrated to Thailand and Myanmar, and now returned home. They speak fluent Malay.”

Last month, Kedah Mentri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor told reporters that the people in Bukit Malut have MyKad.

Other reports have stated that the forefathers of Bukit Malut folk could have been Malays from the Tennaserim division, a narrow strip of coastal land in southeastern Myanmar about 500km north of Langkawi, who sailed to Langkawi in the 1970s and 1980s.

International Islamic University Malaysia’s International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation lecturer Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Murad Merican said this movement was a normal process of migration among the community in the Malay archipelago centuries ago.

He added that this type of migration occurred throughout areas such as Langkawi, Sumatra, Sabah and Sarawak, and was part of the life of ancient, seafaring Malays.

The existence of the Bukit Malut community was proof of such movements in the region, noted Prof Ahmad Murad.

The matter came to the forefront only after South-East Asian countries were formed, he said.

“The government and community cannot treat Bukit Malut people as foreigners or refugees, as they are Malays and they are from Kedah, ” he said.

But some Langkawi folk begged to differ.

Odd job worker Saidi Jantan, 50, offered an insight on these differences.

“The attire of their women, who mostly stay at home, is different from the local Malays. Bukit Malut folk still love to chew sirih (betelnut leaves) all day.

“We are modern now while their way of life seems like 40 years behind us.

“I am not sure how else to explain it. You have to mingle with them to really know the difference, ” he said. - Star