In my opinion, for any race, their religion will be the most superior because when you are dead, your hereafter evaluation is based on your religion and not your race. That is why Kulim member of Parliament Zulkifli Noordin of PKR stresses this and says that he is not from PAS though many non-Malays don’t like him obviously because he champions religion.

Thus, in the bigger picture, religion is more important than race. For example, a Christian Indian cannot accept Hindu Indian traditions and vise-versa because the religion defines who you are and not the race. Why did Pakistan and India separate? One of the main reasons was because the Pakistanis cannot accept the Indian Hindu practices.

And the Pakistanis are no longer called Indians. Unfortunately, the Indians in Malaysia are still called ‘Indians’. There should not be such a thing as ‘Indians’ or ‘Chinese’ in Malaysia because they are no longer citizens of India and China.

In Indonesia, their ‘Malay’ language is called Bahasa Indonesia and they refer to themselves as ‘Indonesians’ rather than as ‘Malay’. So the word ‘Malay’ needs a definition. In Malaysia, someone is called a Malay if he or she speaks Bahasa Melayu, follows Malay customs and is a Muslim.

So by this definition, Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a Malay though he has Indian parentage. The same applies to some Malaysian Indian Muslims, Malaysian Chinese Muslims and Malaysian Thai Muslims.

Politically, who will take care of their welfare? MCA, DAP or the MIC? No, these parties will not because they need funds to support their majority or else they will lose in the elections. Will DAP build a mosque for the Chinese Muslims? Will MCA or MIC fight for ‘no liquor sale’?

Unfortunately, for some non-Malays, their ‘kiasu’ thinking is still very strong. They are afraid that these people will benefit from being called ‘bumiputera’. This is the only concern for them. Or else they will shut their mouths. Will the economically well-off Chinese help or fight for the poor Indians in the estates?

No, these Indians will rely on Hindraf. Again, it has something to do with being Hindu. See how important is religion? Being a bumiputera does not give any ‘real’ benefits. The non-bumiputera has actually benefitted more from the high-prices for non-Malay reserve land properties, better education (as they didn’t go to UiTM) and better profits from foreign exchange markets.

To achieve all this, a bumiputera status does not help. In fact. it has helped them to move from being poor Chinese to middle-class Chinese, from being middle-class Chinese to rich Chinese. But for the Malays, they have remained where they are.

So is being a bumiputera good or bad? Don’t forget that the Chinese only employ Chinese in their businesses. Do the Malays complain about them?