The Cham Arrivals In Malaysia: Distant Memories And Rekindled Links

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The Cham Arrivals in Malaysia: Distant Memories and Rekindled Links

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Danny Wong Tze Ken Archipel Année 2013 85 pp. 151-165

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Wong Tze-Ken Danny. The Cham Arrivals in Malaysia: Distant Memories and Rekindled Links. In: Archipel, volume 85, 2013. pp. 151-165.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/arch.2013.4389

www.persee.fr/doc/arch_0044-8613_2013_num_85_1_4389

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DAnny Wong Tze Ken

The Cham Arrivals in Malaysia: Distant Memories and Rekindled Links

When Phnom Penh and Saigon fell in April 1975, throngs of refugees fled Cambodia and Vietnam in the face of incoming Communist regimes in the two countries. The refugees left their countries for fear of living under what they considered oppressive governments; in some cases they were enemies of the Communists as they had taken part in the fighting against the Communists. This marked the period of mass exodus (1975– 1982) when more than a million people left these two countries as refugees. Many left in a very deplorable and perilous manner. Crammed into small vessels which were hardly seaworthy, many had to face the threats of storms and pirate attacks. While many made their way to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines, others were less fortunate and perished at sea. In these countries, known as transit countries, the refugees were detained in refugee camps where they were screened and processed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) before being settled in a third country. In Malaysia, it was estimated that more than 250,000 Indochinese refugees passed through the various transit points in the country and were resettled elsewhere. 1 While the Malaysian Government, for various reasons – including fears of racial imbalance and security – generally did not allow the refugees to settle in the country, an exception was made for 9,704 of

Archipel 85, Paris, 2013, pp. 151-165

1. For a study on Indochinese refugee arrivals to Malaysia, see Danny Wong Tze Ken,

Vietnam– Malaysia Relations during the Cold War, 1945– 1990, Kuala Lumpur : University of Malaya Press, 1995, pp. 93-97, 126-130 & 152-155.