What is Bangsa Malaysia exactly?
Is it an assimilation policy to create an united race?
Is it a multicultural policy that celebrates cultural diversity?
Is it simply about the citizenship of Malaysia?
Is it about equality?
Is it about Malay rights?
Is it something else altogether?
Is it about nothing at all?
Somebody. Help me. Please.
A lot of people are giving me contradictory answers and I’m officially confused. For instance, Dr. Rais Yatim said:
IDENTIFYING oneself as Bangsa Malaysia does not mean that one forgets one’s race, culture, heritage and other practices, said Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.
“Each of us is a Malay, Chinese, Indian or other race first, but at the same time, we belong to Bangsa Malaysia. This is because we share a common destiny, common interest socially, politically and economically,” said the minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage.
But Dr. Mahathir said:
In August, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made a plea for “Bangsa Malaysia” – a united Malaysian Nation in which being a Malaysian is the thing, not being Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban or Kadazan. It means “people being able to identify themselves with the country, speak Bahasa Malaysia and accept the Constitution,” said Mahathir.
Then, Najib Razak said:
JOHOR BARU: The Bangsa Malaysia concept is the state of an individual’s mind and does not infringe on Malay special rights and privileges, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The Deputy Prime Minister said Bangsa Malaysia was a concept and had nothing to do with the Constitution or national policies, but was related to an individual’s state of mind.
“Bangsa Malaysia means we do not evaluate someone by his skin colour, race or religion,” Najib said when closing the Johor Umno Convention at Persada Johor here yesterday.
“It does not question the special rights of the Malays, our quota or anything of that sort.”
Before we start banging on each other head, let’s define the term first, shall we?
I hate shooting bullets at somebody while not knowing why am I shooting the bullets in the first place.
3 replies on “[948] Of defining Bangsa Malaysia”
[…] the idea of Bangsa Malaysia, the Malaysian social contract is becoming so nebulous it basically could assume so many […]
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As the word ‘Bangsa’ means ethnic/nation, which is different from ‘Negara’ which means state, most Malaysians, particularly Chinese, Tamils, Dayaks and Kadazans will reject ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ as it is an assimilation policy, which is racism like Saddam Hussein’s cultural genocide on Kurds and Assyrians and Turks, or Suharto’s racist Bangsa Indonesia policy forcing Chinese to use Malay names.
Thank God first Indonesia, then Iraq have repealed the Bangsa Indonesia and Bangsa Iraq policy. Today, Iraq has 4 national languages, Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish and Syriac.
The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was sentenced to die for his racist assimilation policy towards Kurds and Assyrians. Saddam once said “I am just following Muhammad who said an Arab is anyone who speaks Arabic. I will force everyone to speak Arabic.” However, Assyrian Christians and Kurdish Muslims rejected this saying “If we speak Arabic, we become Arabs, or worse Muslims. We will fight”
Saddam was overthrown in March 2003 and who cares if Bush lost in 2006 as democracy has triumphed and Assyrian culture, Syriac is one of the 4 national cultures.
DPM Najib’s remarks are akin to a statement issued by an aging communist apparatchik emerging from a secret meeting of the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Double speak spoken with a degree of incoherence that would make Stalin proud. Might even earn him an Order of Lenin medal.