Reply #12: Everybody else, too, if the truth be told.

[Igel]

Then again, places like Iran managed to do precisely that by itself. Afghanistan, as well--you can claim "Durand line" but that doesn't help the fact that the Kingdom of Afghanistan independently produced a country with Uzbeks, Tadzhiks, and Dari speakers in it. So did lots of other countries, as well as those poor wretches on whom such an disease was inflicted by the Russians/USSR or other countries.

On the other hand, take away all the immigrants in the last 400 years and Malay would still not be the only language there. Lots of languages whose presence predates Malay. (Then again, Hinduism predates Islam in Malaysia.) Presumably the same kind of tribalism--power is wielded primarily to benefit one's own tribe (however you define "tribe"), not the entire population--would obtain.