YOURSAY | ‘He’s just cherry-picking what suits his agenda.’

COMMENT | Malaysia: A secular, multi-ethnic nation

Man on the Silver Mountain: This is a good reminder for all of us, perhaps more so during election time, for someone to tell us that Malaysia is indeed a secular, multi-ethnic nation. There is no escaping from this fact despite what former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad may want us to believe.

Author Ranjit Singh Malhi with his historical background has the credential to speak on this, but we would probably like more Malays to say this as it is. There are certainly many of them out there - academicians, professionals, intellectuals, and even ordinary persons, who truly know and understand this.

But why are we arguing about this at all? The answer is the Mahathirs. There are certainly many Mahathirs out there, but the former prime minister enabled this. Twenty-two years at the helm, he had a free hand to commandeer our country into what it is today, for good or bad.

One thing is for sure, after 22 years of his administration, ethnic relation is still no better since he took over. Some would in fact claim it is getting worse.

It is funny that Mahathir likes to compare us with neighbouring countries, like Thailand and the Philippines, in terms of their homogeneity. One wonders why he does not mention other countries.

Of course, he is conveniently cherry-picking what suits his agenda. He is wrong. We were not like Thailand or the Philippines.

When we started off as a free country, post-independence, we agreed that Malaysia has to be secular and multi-ethnic. Of course, there were always the dissenters as it should be, but the majority prevailed. The Federal Constitution was drafted specifically to demonstrate it.

There should not be any argument now, even as we are approaching a century milestone. The current people that made up Malaysia are still multi-ethnic, not just of one race. Their right to the decision of what Malaysia was, is and will be, counts.

Apa pun boleh: Indeed, thank you, Ranjit, for setting the records straight as it was and as it is. There is nothing conclusive in the Federal Constitution in support of Mahathir’s farfetched claims. Accordingly, all his claims have been thrashed as a figment of his own confused mind.

Even his claim of Tanah Melayu being a Malay preserve is dismissed by the fact that the original inhabitants are the orang Asli and Tanah Melayu changed character with the arrival of the British in 1847 and the migration of Chinese and Indians in large numbers. With the formation of Malaysia, the character changed completely.

Mahathir himself during his first stint as prime minister had committed to creating a Bangsa Malaysia as one of the objectives of Vision 2020. What is clear is, Mahathir is distorting the Constitution and misleading the people for his own political expediency.

What is most disconcerting is Mahathir depended on multi-racial support all through his first stint and most non-Malays supported him through his second stint as PM.

His ‘Melayu muda lupa’ (Malays easily forget) tag on the Malays is more appropriate to describe his current confused state of mind. To him, the end justifies however deceitful and devious the means.

GalaxyM: Mahathir does not deserve our respect as the longest-serving former PM for he has blatantly contradicted himself. Remember in 2018, after becoming the PM for the second time? He addressed the United Nations General Assembly and said in front of leaders from around the world that Malaysia was a multi-racial, religious, cultural, and lingual country.

But he now shamelessly blares out that Malaysia is owned by the Malays based on the Constitution. How can a person like him at the age of 98 make such a glaring contradiction?

BluePanther4725: This earth and land do not belong to certain races alone. The earth belongs to all living beings, and we all belong to the human race. When our modern human ancestors migrated out from Africa around 60,000 years ago, all of us became 'pendatang' (immigrants).

For a race to claim that they are the original race while the rest of the races are 'pendatang' does not make any sense. This term has been misused by people over the generations to benefit themselves at the expense of others.

MaoTuckTeng: The mirage of a threat posed by non-Malays to the socio-economic well-being of Malays is a facade created by Malay elites and the ruling class. To stay in power, the latter created a bogeyman to scare the Malays.

The elites are worried that the working class may one day wake up to realise that they have been robbed by their own leaders and that we all live in a kleptocratic state. The late Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew, in a famous speech, while Singapore was part of Malaysia, said he will wipe out poverty among Malays in a single generation.

A few generations down, poverty is prevalent in many areas and communities, and incomes have not increased significantly despite the oil wealth and subsequent years of GDP growth. Where has the money gone and who stole it?

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s hands are tied, not only does he have to share power with his erstwhile adversaries and be less aggressive with his reform programme, but he also has to withstand the aggression shown by those who stoke religious sentiments to win votes.

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