Mahathir insults Malays but wants all to identify as Malay

“I'm now 100 percent a Malay, I speak Malay and practise Malay customs and traditions.”

- Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Whenever a ketuanan type questions the loyalty of non-Malays to this country, there is this rush to justify our existence, our very citizenship of this country.

I would rather let Dr Mahathir Mohamad do that for me. I would rather let the former prime minister remind anyone who believes like he does, why there would be no Malaysia without the non-Malays. I would rather let the former prime minister remind the ketuanan types what he really thinks of the Malay community.

Mahathir says that for non-Malays to be accepted in this country they have to self-identify as Malay, defined as someone speaking the language and practising the culture.

Here is the thing though. Over the decades, Mahathir has insulted the Malays, demeaned their cultural traditions, and mocked their religion and now he wants everyone to identify as Malay to prove loyalty to this country? No, thank you.

I would rather the ketuanan types just thank the non-Malays and realise that, without us, they would not have the platform they have to spew the horse manure that radicalises the majority community.

And that support continues today, but that was the topic of my last piece.

‘Lazy’ Malays, thriving Chinese

Let us take the 3Rs. The “Tiang Seri” of Malay politics.

Mahathir thinks the Malays are lazy and that they blame other races for all their problems. And he has always believed this. In 2019 he gave his unique insights into how foreign communities evolved and how the Malays just sat by the wayside.

From reportage - “Mahathir said the Malays were happy to see the dangerous, dirty, and heavy jobs done by the Chinese and Indians, who were then the foreigners in Tanah Melayu. 

He said that from his observation, the Malays were not even worried about seeing the foreigners developing their livelihoods and wealth, because they believed that their state would continue as theirs.

The year before, he said: “Where are our faults? There are many. The first is we do not work as hard as others. Not only that, we also do not pay attention to our responsibilities. We don’t pay attention before deciding to do something.

“We lack mastery of the knowledge and information needed to make good decisions. I dare to say that we are lazy. We like to hand over our jobs to other people.”

The old maverick has always thought that Malay culture was deficient in some way - “This is our culture. We do not know what is hardship, we only want things to be easy.”

And let us face facts. Being a non-Malay in this country, with all the systemic discrimination we face, it is better than being a Malay.

Look, I did not say this, the old maverick did - “The Chinese in Malaysia have no special rights, they experience discrimination. But they are more successful than us.”

What does this tell us? It tells us that the prime minister has no problem reminding the Malay community that their privilege and entitlements rest on a community - the Chinese - which is discriminated against, thereby setting up a narrative of resentment and self-aggrandisement when it comes to the state-created racial role in this country.

The former prime minister seems to take perverse pleasure in lecturing the Malays about the system he and the Malay political elite continue to enable, while at the same time claiming to be a truth-teller to and of the Malay community.

The reality is that when it comes to “foreigners” in this country, the economic threat is not from the Chinese or Indians, but rather the influx of diverse foreign labour and the black economy it sustains, which is a threat to working and middle-class Malays.

Add to this a religious bureaucracy that stifles the entrepreneurial spirit of the community and impedes cross-sectional commercial interaction and what you have is a community that, locally at least, is marginalised from their fellow Malaysians and the greater worldwide economic terrain.

Royalty and religion

That is his view when it comes to the race part of the almighty 3Rs. But what about the royal institution, the sacred cow of Malay culture and tradition?

Well, much ink has been spilled on that, but in 2014 he said that foreigners were profiting when sultans reigned supreme.

He wrote: “The prime minister in particular must be firm and not be swayed by customary adats or deference to the rulers.”

From reportage - “Mahathir, who served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, oversaw moves to curb the monarchs’ powers by introducing a special court to hear charges against them.

“Under his premiership, reforms were also introduced to have bills passed by Parliament to automatically become law within two months even if the monarchs refused to endorse them.”

Then, of course, there is religion. Back in the day, when Mahathir hated PAS, he decided that Malaysia was an Islamic state.

The DAP, of course, made a fuss, which of course they would not do now, but times were different then.

The interesting part is not that Mahathir called this country an Islamic state (and, apparently, even the then Pope agreed with him) but rather how he defined this country as an Islamic state, which was in opposition to interpretations of the religion made by “political ulamas”.

From reportage - “He also said that Malaysia is a country which practises fundamental teachings of Islam and not interpretations of Islam made by the political ulama (religious teachers).”

But do not be fooled folks, since religion and the Malay race are not mutually exclusive, what Mahathir is probably implying is that the only way non-Malays could ever identify or confidently say that they are 100 percent Malay is to convert to Islam.

And there it is. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.