I received this from Concerned Malaysian:-
Concerned Malaysian said... Dear Uncle Zorro,
Please start a new campaign:
That henceforth from today onwards, all bloggers will push the MSM to refer to all Malaysian as Malaysians and not Malays, Chinese, Indians...lets start with Malaysiakini....show them how it can be done. Deduct points for common sense when they use race to classify, expose them for their pitiful shallow thinking. Let it be shameful to classify by race. That way soon we can truly have a multi racial Malaysia Malaysians can be proud of. I hope you can get this going. Thank you for all your previous efforts!- Concerned Malaysian has my undivided support. Let's do it people. "Bangsa Malaysia" initiative in Penang is very active. I suggest you take this up in your communications with each other. The KL chapter seems indolent (no insults meant...just probing). People's Parliament kicked-start this Anak Bangsa Malaysia initiative .....it is time we bring this to the three states under Barisan Rakyat aegis., ie Kelantan, Perak, Kedah. and not forgetting Sabah and Sarawak. Haris, lets gather the forces. Raja Petra has a timely piece here.
Thank you,..thank you..thank you..Uncle..its about time..we celebrate being Malaysians.
ReplyDeletehi uncle zorro,
ReplyDeletethanks for "not forgetting" sabah and swak.
ayuh... SAYA BANGSA MALAYSIA
u r rit brader........... we must start now ok
ReplyDeletehttp://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/4809/84/
Its a noble idea.God speed to you.It will be a wonderful day when we are seen only as malaysians and not by race.
ReplyDeleteHow do we come up with a 'Bangsa Malaysia' when all different races want different things? How do Malaysians of different races understand each other when they attend different schools and learn different languages? Are the Chinese and Indians ready to give up their their vernacular schools and the Malays their religious and malay schools? How do you get each Malaysian to take equal pride in being Malaysian? This 'Bangsa Malaysia' concept is attractive to the non-malays as it means that they get equal chance at business, education etc when their collective wealth already far exceeds the malays. The malays who had already benefited are ready to do away with their special rights now that they are living comfortably as professionals and pen-pushers. I suspect not many of the new generation malays are in the business sector whereby they will realise that the malays and non-malays are not on equal footing. These new genre of malays who are all for equal rights are ensconsed in their air-conditioned government posts which they got into once getting their government scholarship and given jobs within the government because they are Malays....
ReplyDeleteI want to see all races on equal standing with each other and truly have a Malaysia which is fair to all. We need to learn to trust each other. First lets come up with a Malaysian schooling system, Malaysian language and identity. Then we can take it further..
Hidup Malaysia!!!
Anonymous, I agree but then we also need to start somewhere in small steps. Lets first not worry about language as we have Bahasa to help us communicate. I think we should resist this race classification and this seems to be a good place to start. This is a sickness that also ails some major corporations. Remember advertisements that say only those from a particular race need to apply. To take it further than what is being suggested perhaps 1.A roster of companies or institutions that practise this discrimination wantonly and blatantly should be made public. 2. If you are asked to fill out race in a form, then do so if you have to but also write down that you are filling this in under protest and that you are a anak bangsa malaysia. I believe this will slowly but surely educate people to look beyond race then change happens in schools and elsewhere. Small steps but in time will lead to a tsunami that will rid us of this prejudice.
ReplyDeleteLet it be education, not confrontation for a better Malaysia.
Following up on anon 11.06 pm's comments, a sense of equality can be achieved in the current day by modifying two obvious instruments of inequality.
ReplyDeleteNon-Malay Malaysians understand that the underprivileged need to be taken care of. In this regard, the elimination of the bumiputera housing discount for houses above say RM180,000 should be supported by all Malaysians as obviously, those who can afford such houses shouldn't be called "underprivileged". This move will
(a) aid the true underprivileged people financially
(b) create a level playing field for all in the higher strata of the economic food chain
(c) reduce the woes of developers in trying to sell reserved "bumiputera" lots
Another area of inequality is in University admissions. Let's have merit based entrance for technical/scientific/professional courses ... the so called "hard" courses. A racial quota can still exist for the "soft" courses such as Arts, Languages, Religious Studies, etc. This modification will
(a) ensure that MALAYSIA has the best and brightest students for developing the country's needs
(b) stop the brain drain
(c) improve varsity standards
(d) channel personal and varsity resources effectively
(e) boost Malay students esteem as those who qualify know that they are the best
Non-Malay Malaysians just want to have a stake in this country because it is their country of birth and live here. There is no other homeland.
We already have a Malaysian language. It is called Bahasa Malaysia. We have a Malaysian identity - our diversity is being Malaysian.
We wish life is that simple ...but it is not true for all malays ...life can be never fair ..that is the fact of life that everybody need to live with it ...please read the history book ..when Malaysia was formed ...see what has all races agree upon ...don't forget the "agreement" ...then only we can understand why it is called constitutional rights ...what is not right is the implementation ..
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteWe are not saying that help for the underprivileged should be abolished, just that it should apply to all that are underprivileged irrespective of race. No chinese, indian or a malay for that matter made a choice to be born into a particular race or a particular circumstance. Which is why we must be fair to all and why race should not matter anymore. There are two sides to this and those on both sides of the divide should live with one another with tolerance so that we can overcome these barriers. How long should those underprivileged but not of a right race wait before their needs are addressed equally and equitably as well? Once we look beyond race I think we can start to see the wonderful qualities that each culture brings to being Anak Malaysia. This is all that we ask for.
its actually so easy ...dare we learn from Spore ? how did they do it ? We follow 75% we will succeed .
ReplyDeleteall other "intelligent / caring" ways/propasals are hypocritical and politically motivated as usual
dare to change
singapore is not a good example!dude
ReplyDeleteSome of these comments are pretty good, like anon(5th from top), i happen to agree very much with.
ReplyDeleteThere was just something about the education system long time ago that brought Malaysians together, regardless of race. And that was when everyone spoke the same language.
I believe that being Malaysian does not mean being of "one race", but being diversified, but still "Malaysian". Anak Bangsa Malaysia sounds good.
To melvill, I couldn't agree with you more. Just that, it's not "tolerance" that we're looking for. We should be gearing towards "understanding" instead.
It is very nice to have malays, chinese, indians and all other races in the world. They are beautiful creations of GOD ALMIGHTY. We should be proud that we are born chinese, indians or malays because God has created us in that forms. And that is just beautiful and honourable.
ReplyDeleteI am a Malay. As a Muslim i see it that way.
God Almighty has stated:
"O mankind! We created You from a single (pair) Of a male and a female, And made you into Nations and tribes, that Ye may know each other (Not that ye may despise Each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God Is (he who is) the most Righteous of you. And God has full knowledge And is well acquainted (With all things)."
(a verse taken from Al-Quran:Al-hujurat)
We should not be racist as all of us are the legitimate children of Adam and Eve. Truly we are all related by blood. People are honoured only if they are good and dishonoured only when they are bad. And not because of their colour or race.
I was a student in england for five years in my younger days. I felt very happy and secured living the UK as a minority muslim. But when i came back to Malaysia (where malays is the Majority and Islam is the official religion) all the sudden I felt unhappy and very unsecured.
From the bottom of my heart, i do not care whether your are black, brown or white. What I care the most is the honour and the security of my religion. It has to be on top so that everyone has a chance see it as the truth from God and it should not be hidden. It is my obligatory duty as a muslim to be nice and kind to all humans.
For your info, I am now in my forties. I have 5 kids. And i have never own a house. I am still renting i.e. homeless in Selangor. I am not rich.
I will not fret that I am poor. But I will feel very threatened if my religion is being at risk.
For me as a Malay I see that Malays are very helpless without islam. Malays are very-very indebted to the religious scholars such as tuan guru Nik Aziz.
Those Malays who do not uphold islam will easily show disrespect to other races. even to their own Malay Sultans and even to the Yang diPertuan Agong of Malaysia.
So I hope you should be very proud of your skin colour. Be it any colour - It is just beautiful and honourable.