Maori Soldiers in Malaya

Te Ao Hou, September 1962, Page 21

Privates T. Kuru of Porangahau (left) and T. Te Rangi of Gisborne, with a Malayan friend in the home of Mr C. M. Bennett, High Commissioner for New Zealand in Malaya. Maori Soldiers in Malaya by Arena Kahi For a Maori, Malaya is a novel experience. For the first time, we were the same colour as everyone around us and it was the pakeha chaps who were in the minority. We found that we could often pass ourselves off as Malays, with very much cheaper shopping as a result! Generally Maoris and Malays are the same colour but whilst the latter are beautifully built and muscled, they are slim in the hip and waist and lack the beef and short legged stockiness of the Maori. The native Malay is a delightful person and thoroughly Maori in his virtues and not so different in his vices. He is warm and hospitable and will give you anything. Often he tends to live for the present and forgets about the future, and often he would rather sing than work. For a start it was embarrassing for people to come up and start talking Malay to us, but after a while many of us picked it up and found it very similar to our own tongue. The grammar was similar, with no verb ‘to be’. Descriptive words come after the noun instead of before. Pronunciation is almost identical and we were thrilled to find that many of our words were similar to theirs. For example ‘pai’ is ‘bai’ (spelled baik) in Malay, ‘ika’ is ‘ikan’, ‘rima’ is ‘lima’, ‘tangi’ is ‘tangis’, ‘mata’ is ‘mato’ and so on. The Malays themselves form about half the population and the rest are mostly Chinese with some Indians and a few Europeans and Eurasians. They are trying to live together as one Malayan race and are particularly interested in our race relationships over here. Everything is not ideal in New Zealand but we are making a good try at it and we Maoris used to tell them so. Our battalion was roughly half Maori and half Pakeha and the Asians used to express surprise and pleasure at the mixing of the two groups on leave and at work and in our concert party. They always commented favourably on the lack of any segregation in the unit such as Maori platoons or companies, and the sight of Maori Officers and N.C.O.'s commanding pakeha troops as well as vice versa seemed to them a practical demonstration that in New Zealand we try and practise what we preach.