Address by Project Co-ordinator, Dennis De Witt

Mrs van den Driesen - the principal of Kinderland Playhouse, fellow Dutch descendants, friends, teachers, parents and children.

Thank you for your participation and welcome to our first Christmas party jointly organised by the Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project and Kinderland Playhouse.

First of all, please allow me to thank the organisers, the van den Driesen family and Corinne Jansz for putting together this lovely Christmas party and in particular to Kinderland Playhouse for initiating this event and for allowing us to use their premises. We applaud you for your initiative and hard work because you have helped spread the Christmas joy during this special time of the year.

The Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project is really a community of Malaysians descended from the Dutch. This is why most of us have typically Dutch sounding surnames. Although, the Dutch language is no longer part of our culture today.

In Malaysia, our people are generally classified as "others", we are further sub-classified as part of a minority Eurasian community who are mostly of Portuguese origin. Therefore, we exist as a minority within a minority group, and have long remained unknown and forgotten.

Our existance here today is because of our adventurous ancestors who, between 200 to 300 years ago, had braved the year long sea journey from Europe to the Far East.

Holland, in the 17th and 18th centuries had grown to become a superpoweer of its time, much like how the U.S. is today. Our ancestors came to Asia as employees fo the Dutch East India Company, just as would employees of a multi-national corporation today be absconded to one of its foreign offices and work there as expatriates. However, these olden-days expatriates, upon settling-down in Asia found themselves falling in love with their new home, which was full of oppurtunities, the weather was pleasently warm, the country lush and bountiful and the people were cultured and mostly friendly - especially the ladies.

Therefore, all plans for a short stint in the tropics eventually became a place of permanent residence, and largely remained so throughout the generations.

In Malaysia today, descendants of Dutch origins consist of those from Malacca, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Indonesia.

Because of political and social changes that happened long before Malaysia's independence, the Dutch communities here began loosing much of their own culture, and eventually even causing the disunity of their communities. Now, the Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project hopes to rectify this by bring the community back together to reconnect with each other.

Beginning 3 years ago with just 6 family names, the Project now has over 30 family names, which are made up of more than 40 families. We now have the recognistion of government agencies, NGOs in Holland, the Royal Netherlands Embassy here and have even been recognised by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix. Also, the Project now have a representative in Penang.

Other than the colonial architecture left behind in Malacca and one ruin Dutch fort in Pangkor, there is very little left of our heritage today - well, at least not much visibly.

However, our ancestors did leave behind some of their lasting influences and this can still be found in some Malay words, Words like 'Gabenor', 'Senapang' 'Duit' and 'Laci' are Dutch in origin.

In the olden days, our ancestors did not celebrate Christmas on December 25th by making merry and giving presents. December 25th was revered solemnly for its religious significance - as the day Jesus Christ was born.

Our ancestors, like the Dutch in Holland today, celebrated Sinterklaasfeest with their children on December 5th, which is the even of the feest day fo St. Nicholas. Without revelling the magic of Santa Claus to our children here today, all I can say is that there are many parallels between Santa Claus and the more ancient tradition of Sinterklaas.

Today , we the Dutch descendants are Malasyians and like many Malaysians, we celebrate Christmas for both its religious and festive significance. Therefore, by coming together here today, we come together as Malaysians and as friends in the true spirit of Christmas.

I wish each and everyone of you and your families a Merry and Blessed Christmas and joy for the New Year.

Thank you.