This article in the Malaysian government media mouthpiece 'The Star' vainly tries to downplay the slow-motion economic catastrophe otherwise known as the ongoing Chinese exodus from Malaysia. "Decrease in Chinese population ‘purely arithmetic’", by Mazwin Nik Anis and Lee Yen Mun, [1] The Star, July 31, 2011:

PETALING JAYA: The Chinese population in the country has declined by 2% last year from the figure recorded in the 2000 population census.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the report did not necessarily mean there were fewer births.

The percentage of Chinese might look like it was getting smaller when a census was carried out, but he stressed that this was “purely arithmetic”.

According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census report, the Chinese constitute 24.6% of Malaysia’s 28.3 million population while 67.4% were bumiputra [i.e Muslim], Indians (7.3%) and others (0.7%).

In the 2000 population census, the Chinese made up 26% of the country’s 23.27 million population.

When the census was carried out in 1991, the Chinese community made up 28.1% of the country’s 18.38 million population.

Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall president Tan Yew Sing said the declining Chinese population was a natural trend due to urban culture.

He said more Chinese were moving to the urban areas, where they preferred to raise smaller families.

“A significant portion of the Chinese community is also known to migrate overseas,” said Tan.

Geez, it's just one of those things -- the Chinese migrate. What could the reason be for this? Naturally, it's a complete mystery to the writer of this article, the apparently clueless officials quoted therein, and to most Malaysians reading this piece. And furthermore, the Malaysian government would almost certainly prefer that we not wonder too much about why the Chinese would prefer to leave rather than stay. But for anyone familiar with the long and tragic record of non Muslims in Muslim-ruled countries -- the Hindus of Pakistan, the Jews of Iran, the Christians of Egypt, and many others over the centuries -- the reason for such population transfers is no mystery.  Is it any wonder that the persecuted, second-class residents of Malaysia, the Chinese dhimmis, are leaving and have been for a very long time?

Prime Minister Najib's disingenuous "1Malaysia" rhetoric notwithstanding, there is no chance that the Chinese will be treated with true equality in Malaysia, as equal citizens of their own country, no matter how many elections take place, no matter who the Chinese vote for, and no matter which set of Muslims (UMNO or the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition) is in charge. Islamic supremacism, the placement of Islam at the centre of national life, the persecution of non Islamic belief systems, the primacy of Shariah law, are not up for discussion nor debate of any kind. So, as they cannot vote any other way, non Muslims under Islamic suzerainty have but one choice -- voting with their feet. And it's a choice the Malaysian dhimmis are continuing to avail themselves of.

At the rate the Chinese are leaving (two percent per decade), it looks like Malaysia will run low on, or run out of, the two most crucial driving forces for its economy -- the entrepreneurial, dynamic, and wealthy Chinese minority, and its petroleum reserves -- at around the same time, which is probably sometime in the second half of the 21st century. Poverty is sure to follow, but hey -- at least the impoverished Malaysian Muslims of the future will then have a more purely Islamic nation as their home.