Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Bangsa Malaysia & bangsa malaysia


Tun Dr Mahathir was the Father of Bangsa Malaysia or 'Bapa Bangsa Malaysia'. We Malaysians like to confer our leaders with ‘Father’ of this and that. Tunku was ‘Bapa Merdeka’, Razak was ‘Bapa Pembangunan’, etc. Maybe Anwar Ibrahim hopes to be a ‘Bapa’ something too wakakaka.

But alas, when our Bapa Bangsa Malaysia talks about a national identity, where all Malaysians would be able to identify themselves with the country, speak Bahasa and accept the Constitution (presumable Article 153), he actually has many categories of Bangsa Malaysia in mind.

Initially, he wanted to create an inclusive national identity for all Malaysian citizens, full stop.

When the concept of Tun's Bangsa Malaysia was raised some years ago, the Johor MB, Ghani, was furiously against it, insisting that the Malays must continue to be the ‘pivotal’ race, whatever that word means, though of course we know Ghani’s concerns (and those of many others in UMNO) about Malays continuing to hold key positions in the Malaysian political leadership, such as PM, DPM, Finance Minister and various crucial ministries, and the most important part (his crucial concerns), that the gravy train steams jolly fully forward for selected UMNO members.

Well, after all, Dr Mahathir himself admitted that UMNO today is just a party of contracts.

Then last year Dr Mahathir qualified his call for a Bangsa Malaysia. As I recall, he said his concept of Bangsa Malaysia had been premised on the Malays doing well, when he then claimed they hadn’t. In other words or rather his words, Malaysia’s social-economic situation wasn’t ripe yet for the implementation of Bangsa Malaysia. Malays must continue to have special privileges and benefit from the official socio-economic engineering program.

It would seem then that he came to agree with MB Ghani about the latter's pivotal race.

But then, when will Malaysia's socio-economic situation be ripe for the acceptance and emergence of his wonderful Bangsa Malaysia?

No one knows, nor will there ever be an agreement on the achievement of that nirvana-like socio-economic state, because it all depends on the Malay share of the economic cake.

Unfortunately, the fact on Malay economic equity has been yo-yo-ing from a measly 19% to well over 45% and down again, depending on who made the assessments.

It’s no point arguing who had been right or who was bullsh*tting, because politics rather than statistics have dictated that Malay share of the economic kueh is still low, and therefore the NEP must continue.

Thus the less-than-happy socio-economic assessment, according to the gospel by Dr Mahathir, requires that the concept of Bangsa Malaysia be postponed further.

But wait, he has now changed his mind. The Malaysian Insider just reported in its Malaysia is Tanah Melayu, says Dr M that Dr Mahathir is revisiting that rather smelly ikan kembong called Bangsa Malaysia. Apprently he wants to have his cake and eat it as well.

Wondrously and wonderfully (well, initially) Dr Mahathir asserted that “… non-Malays must accept the concept of “Bangsa Malaysia” (Malaysian nation) to help strengthen national unity. … the communities must place country before race and identify themselves as Malaysians.”

Yay! High-5's!

But alas, he then spoiled it when he qualified the above noble aspiration. The Malaysian Insider quoted him as saying that Malaysians (presumably non-Malays) today must accept/admit that the country belongs to the Malays. He reminded us that Malaysia used to be called Tanah Melayu.

Hmmm, I wonder how Sabahans and Sarawakians would say? Besides, I thought Malaysia would belong to Malaysians, all Malaysians [sigh].

He urged non-Malays to accept the culture and language of the dominant community, which I personally believe that’s not only okay but already a given. I love wearing my sarong and eating nasi lemak, and certainly look forward to dating some sarong-kebaya-ed nyonyas (or nonas in Indonesian, which defines nyonyas as married women).

Then he launched into that old tired argument that the Malays gave the Chinese and Indians citizenship because they expected the communities to respect Malay sovereignty. Thank goodness he didn't use the 'grateful' word.

But what does he mean by ‘Malay sovereignty’?

The rulers? No problem, I sembah their HRH with utmost respect and loyalty.

But I suspect he wants the non-Malays to accept that the rights, privileges and whatever of Malays must take precedence over nons. Something like what is/was practised in Israel, White Zimbabwe and White South Africa? Okay, maybe not as bad, but certainly we can forget about equality.

In other words, there are Bangsa Malaysia and (in lower cases or uncapitalised) bangsa malaysia.

But he said: [the] Malays will feel less threatened if the country adopts the concept of Bangsa Malaysia. Former Philippine President Corazon Cory Aquino is Chinese but she identified herself as a Filipino. Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is Chinese but he speaks the Thai language and lives the Thai culture.

It is different in Malaysia. We still introduce ourselves according to our race. This is why the question of race will continue to haunt us.

I have to admit he’s right in the above second paragraph, but alas, Tun didn’t probe a bit deeper and ask why so?

Tun, I think the answer for you lies in fact in the above first paragraph, where ethnic Chinese like Corazon Cory Aquino and Thaksin Shinawatra could become the top political leaders of their respective countries.

Could that happen in Malaysia?

As Tun had alluded, there are Bangsa Malaysia and bangsa malaysia [sigh again].

The more cynical political observers have analysed his pitch to the non-Malays, particular the Chinese after the Tenang by-election showed that BN-UMNO, even in its (MCA) heartland have lost Chinese support. They suspected Tun has strategized, in an apparent willingness to accord a common national identity to the nons but one which would be spelt with lower cases - bangsa malaysia.

13 comments:

  1. What?? But Malays came about because the Chinese married the Indians and procreated!

    A case of kacang lupakan kulit.

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  2. bangsa ini bangsa itu. you all fight and under malay supremacy cover, his family has amassed billions. His family is as clean as Marcos and Suharto. Thanks, Mahatir.

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  3. Crankster sweetheart, you're very naughty (but I'm still laughing away wakakaka) ;-) anyway,happy bunny year to you and yours

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  4. Since when can Keralese / Malabarese call themselves Malays?

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  5. Gong Xi Fa Chai KT and everyone

    He is just giving us history lesson lest we forgot or didn't know.
    It's the truth. Though I like our country being known as Malaysia.
    It's still got the word Malay. Wakaka.
    I also think it's a subtle way of telling Najib not to go too overboard with 1Malaysia.

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  6. Haha.. I hope my fellow Malay brothers and sisters will not be conned by Mamakthir.
    The mamak is an opportunist, I bet my last dollar that when PR ousted BN , the bugger will immediately fled to Kerala India; his hometown to seek political asylum.
    The bugger will claim that he being an Indian is persecuted by Malay in Malaysia.
    Mamak then will have nothing to do with his current "Malayness" and will declare loudly, " I am an Indian , to hell with the Malay!"

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  7. Kaytee,

    Gong Xi Fa Cai

    TDM is speaking the truth now. He is his true self now.

    All he said before were just lies and half-truths to pull wool over the people's eyes.

    Yes, for 22+ years, he fooled all of us and most of all, the malays because they were accepted an indian to be called malay. They still do!

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  8. what to say....nothing .............

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  9. There is no more Bangsa in this country. We only have Bangsar. Those who talk about Bangsa must visit Bangsar and then they will understand the true meaning of Bangsa which has be transformed into Bangsar.This has given rise to Bangsar Baru which includes indians, chinese and malays represented by indonesians. Then you have Bangsar Dalam where most of my countrymen from Pahang reside. In the middle of that you have Bangsar Village. It is not a Chinese New Village and it is ot Malay Village. It is a Europen Village where you will find foreigners enjoy meting their respective Bangsa. Then you have the Bangsar Bar where the Bangsa fron Britain get together on Fiday nights.

    You have the Bangsar Pos where all the employees belong to One Bangsa.Then you have have Bangsar Automatic Toilet where the is no Bangsa looking after it.And last and by no menas the least you have Bangsar Pasar Malam where the Bangsa is represented by Bangsa Indonesia.

    After long consultastion and consideration I have come to the conlusion that there is no more bangsa in this country only Bangsar is permanent.

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  10. I can understand why Mahatiu is so full of hatred , insecurity and racism.

    The bugger is bloody worried that once amno no more in power, all his sins, corrupted practices, abuse of power, cronyism, nepotism and all other misdeeds will see him spending his last days in jail.

    The mamak is very depressed too as when he surfs the net , he will only see people bash , ridicule and curse him.

    Mahatiu is a bitter man though he is filthy rich with all his ill-gotten wealth whether holding directly or through proxies.

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  11. "Tun, I think the answer for you lies in fact in the above first paragraph, where ethnic Chinese like Corazon Cory Aquino and Thaksin Shinawatra could become the top political leaders of their respective countries."

    Like the chicken and the egg, which comes first? Give up state funded vernacular education or political equality? Malays are happy with the current stalemate and are happy for the others to make up their minds. For the still clueless, neither Thailand nor the Philippines has state funded "vernacular education".

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  12. Malays are the original Annunakiig

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