Perkasa: Bangsa Malaysia An Impossible Dream

(FMT) – The Malay rights group says the nation is disunited because children are educated in separate streams.

Perkasa has scoffed at those advocating the forging of a Bangsa Malaysia, saying the disunity among Malaysians makes it a dream that cannot be realised.

Sirajuddin Salleh, deputy president of the Malay rights group, said the main reason for disunity was the selfishness of politicians and this was seen especially in their use of the vernacular school issue for political mileage.

As long as vernacular schools continued to exist, he added, Malaysians could never be truly united.

He said a Bangsa Indonesia could exist because Indonesians “all speak one language and go to one school”.

He was responding to remarks made recently by Institute Darul Ehsan chief Siddiq Fadzil, who lamented that the Bangsa Malaysia idea had yet to be realised even though the nation had been independent from foreign rule for six decades.

Sirajuddin acknowledged that Perkasa had always been against the notion of a Bangsa Malaysia, but he declared that the group wanted to see solid unity among Malaysians.

He said any unity Malaysians had today was “fragile and shaky at best” and he attributed this to the nation’s failure to ensure uniformity in education.

“If we had had a single-stream education system since independence, I don’t think we’d have the problems we have today because Malaysians would understand each other better,” he said.

He alleged that other Malaysians lacked respect for Islam and the Malays, saying this was because children of different races and creeds grew up separately.

“Malays are a very accommodating people,” he said. “Go to any rural village and you will be welcomed and you’ll receive any help you may need. But naturally, a lot of Malays will get upset when Islam or Malay rights are attacked.”

He defended the constitutional rights of the Malays and said the benefits given to them in education and business opportunities were still necessary because the New Economic Policy had not produced the desired results. “Our share of the economic pie is small.”

He acknowledged that every racial community in the country desired national unity but said it appeared that not everyone knew how to work towards it.

“Perhaps more non-Malay businesses can hire more Malays in their companies,” he said.

“I recently read about a Chinese businessman who offered to help pay for the education of some poor Malay students. I think this is a good example of how businesses can help the Malays.”