Taking the cue from PAS' astounding defeat at the recent polls, there seems to be a kind of a backlash against everything that is perceived to be manifestations of the party's vision and influence in making the Malays more religious in a puritan, fundamentalist sense. The most prominent and vexing of these is 'Arabizing' the Malays at the expense of Malay culture and heritage.

The new Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Dr Rais Yatim expressed uneasiness over this erosion of Malay cultural heritage in a recent interview in a local daily. New Straits Times journalists Sarah Sabaratnam and Loretta Ann Soosayraj took this further in its Life and Times feature on April 28 titled 'More Arabs than the Arabs', gathering the opinions from the Malay cultural elite and eminent personalities from the arts fraternity.

The proscription of Makyong , Main Puteri and Menora by the Kelantan PAS government comes to fore whenever this subject is brought up, as the extreme example of the desire to cleanse Malay culture of its pre-Islamic influences taking the form of institutionalisation. But it is also the every day things that Malays do like preferring the kopiah over the songkok , the wearing of jubbah and serban , doing away with bersanding at weddings that raise the ire of those in the vanguard of the preservation of Malay cultural heritage. This trend of 'Arabization', like the new 'dress code' as pointed out by the director-general of Istana Budaya, is said to be threatening the survival of Malay cultural heritage.