I am Malay with a Malaysian Outlook

I am at a loss hearing people having difficulty and doing all sorts of verbal contortions in explaining who they are. I mean I don’t need a gun to say I am a Malaysian first, suggesting that it’s only under extreme pressure and clear and present danger, I HAVE to say I am a Malaysian. Or at other times, you respond in almost a knee-jerk manner you are a Malaysian.

As for me, I am Malay with a Malaysian outlook. The order of priorities depends. I suspect non Malays will say who they are ethnically but with varying degrees of Malaysian outlook.  If people were to ask me, I will say I am Malay with a Malaysian outlook. I mean, will go out of the way, to structure my social life as Malaysian as possible.

When NIzar gave out 47000 housing lots of 1300 square fee each to Malaysian Chinese who have waited 30-40 years to get a decent place to build a house, how was he acting? He was acting as a Malaysian first. He remains Malay but structures his social policies as a Malaysian. Incidentally that 1300 square feet of house lot is smaller than T. Adnan Mansor’s bathroom.  When he gave 102,000 lots of 3200 square feet each to Malays who have also waited that long to get land to build houses, he was also acting as a Malaysian while remaining Malay. He recognized the political reality of this country and adjusts accordingly.

I am not going to be a hypocrite in saying I am a Malaysian first if that means, you suppressed your ethnic self. When people say they are Malaysians, what I understand that to mean, is they are whatever they are ethnically, but their social life- i.e. in forming relationships with other ethnic groups in Malaysian, is structured as a Malaysian. That’s the whole idea. You live together socially, you adjust and you compromise. I mean, Malays can’t take offence if Chinese in their midst prefer having separate eating places.  Chinese can’t take offense if Malay Muslims insist if they want to eat pork, they will have to eat at separate places. We have to respect our differences while operating together on commonalities.

It’s how we structure our lives together as Malaysians- that is more important. We cannot go on pretending that we can structure this country by ignoring that we are all different racially, culturally, religious wise and language wise. We structure ourselves as Malaysians by accommodating and adjusting and not having one hegemony imposed on another. If nation building for example require that we speak Bahasa Malaysia, I will support it but at the same time not obliterating POL. Or denying having a few hours where pupils learn their culture and see how one’s culture can fit in the Malaysian context by leveraging on cooperative values.

What UMNO is doing, is structuring the country badly, they want to make the MCA Chinese honorary Malays as they want to make the Indians as honorary Malays. If I pummel all these people into being honorary Malays, do I solve the issue of low productivity, the issue of wrong placement of Malays in the economic construction of the country? You make Malays earn degrees in all kinds of field without thinking whether they are immediately relevant to the economic tasks at hand?

Posted by sakmongkol AK47