Malaysians are generally God-fearing people. We are a religious people. Go to any Malaysian towns you would find temples, churches, mosque and other places of worship. So, for me to look at Paul Low’s recent assertions that Malaysia is not ready to abandon race-based politics from a Christian perspective is not altogether reasonable. 

First of all the creation account in Genesis tells us that God made us all in His image. To be made in His image is to say that we resemble God in his characteristics. For example; our ability to create, to reason at a level which animals are unable to do. We were also created for a purpose and that purpose is to bring glory to God.

God gave man and woman the task of filling the earth and ruling over it. To look at another human being which God created in His likeness as one of lesser value is an affront to God. Therefore any justification of dividing Malaysians according to their skin colour for the purpose of governing is untenable and unnecessary. Race-based politics is wrong because of how God made us.

Secondly, the good book tells us that God shows no partiality. He shows no favouritism because of one’s social standing or skin colour. The reason God does not show partiality is because God is all loving, but also because He created each person with life and considers each person as valuable. There is no race which is superior to another because this notion says that one race is more valuable than the other.  

To perpetuate race-based politics in Malaysia is to condone the notion of Ketuanan Melayu which is based upon the idea of ‘first resident’. Whoever came first is the host and all who come later are guests and therefore second class. So forever any non-Malay born in Malaysia could never be truly Malaysian. Why does Paul Low want to perpetuate this notion? The second reason that race-based politics is wrong is because of who God is.

Thirdly, why should there be such a fixation on race? Shouldn’t government policies be more concerned with those who are rich versus those who are not? Those who are struggling to make ends meet, to provide education and jobs to those under the poverty line? This is God’s concern, the poor, the widows, the orphan and the aliens among us. It should be the government’s main concern for the country.

The third reason of why race-based politics is wrong is because of what God cares about.

Paul Low, instead of perpetuating this old politics of race, should seek to end it. There is simply no justification for its existence and any attempts to defend it is simply an attempt to prolong the life of the Barisan Nasional government which lives off this notion of a divided Malaysia. Can a Christian continue to support race-based politics and any political party which divides itself and the nation in such a way? I find no reason.