Haris Ibrahim wrote in his blog, lets "walk the talk" about Bangsa Malaysia. He also re-posted Jayanath Appadurai's "Break the Shackles of Tribal Think", which to me is one helluva article. How apt!
It is my honest belief that categorizing all Malaysians by race or ethnic groups should have NEVER happened in the first place. Sure we cannot turn the clock back but does it not say so little about our leaders past and present of their total absence of understanding in nation building. I may sound harsh or am I being naive here that they have their own selfish ends in mind?
Any country with its peoples divided into racial or ethnic groups is a time bomb and unsustainable.
But unlike so many other things done, at least this one can be UNDONE. Jayanath could not be more right...it begins with us. So with Malaysia's (actually Malaya's) 51st birthday around the corner, it is time for us to renew this pledge that we will now bury the shackles once and for all (after breaking them last year).
It starts with us. We are not going to identify any of our fellow citizen by their race or ethnic group anymore. And we will continue the march and vote all those who see Malaysians as just that...Malaysians. And for those who do not, we will vote them out. Our chance today begins with Anwar Ibrahim. When he finally comes to power, he will have to institutionalize it. We would expect him to introduce laws banning identifying Malaysians by race i.e. there should not even be any space allocated to race in any form or document including the Malaysian Identity Card.
Not too long ago, Australia was (note my tense) such a racist country with its "White Australia Policy". But look at what it is doing today. In Australian schools, students are banned from identifying each other by race like , "That Indian boy..."; "Oh you mean the Chinese fourth grader...", etc. They must now describe the appearance or looks of the person for example, "That dark skinned boy with large eyes..."; "Oh you mean the fair complexioned boy..." (Sure there will always be a small minority that would remain racists).
Shame on us Malaysia!
Our hopes now lie with Anwar. And if he does not heed our aspirations, he will fall victim to our "no vote" and we will look for another leader with the moral courage and political will to do what we aspire. We will not give up our endeavour to achieve this goal where we are ONE NATION and ONE PEOPLE. We will also expect the constitution to be amended where even the special position has to be removed. 51 years and 2 generations later, the special position has not created what it was set out to do and no amount of extra time is going to do it. I recognized the likes of Raja Petra, Haris Ibrahim, Dr Azly Rahman, Din Merican and M Bakri Musa, to name a few know that the whole concept of this special position has proven counter productive. If nothing else, it has weakened that very group that the special position status intended to make them strong. What a shame! At least they are not the products of this special position.
Alright, let us all work hard to get Anwar back into Parliament and continue his march to form a new Government of Malaysia. Our Permatang Pauh brothers and sisters have this unique opportunity to make this happen and show to the current government of the day that their time is up...real soon.
Permatang Pauh brothers and sisters...you can count on us for absolute moral support.
It is my honest belief that categorizing all Malaysians by race or ethnic groups should have NEVER happened in the first place. Sure we cannot turn the clock back but does it not say so little about our leaders past and present of their total absence of understanding in nation building. I may sound harsh or am I being naive here that they have their own selfish ends in mind?
Any country with its peoples divided into racial or ethnic groups is a time bomb and unsustainable.
But unlike so many other things done, at least this one can be UNDONE. Jayanath could not be more right...it begins with us. So with Malaysia's (actually Malaya's) 51st birthday around the corner, it is time for us to renew this pledge that we will now bury the shackles once and for all (after breaking them last year).
It starts with us. We are not going to identify any of our fellow citizen by their race or ethnic group anymore. And we will continue the march and vote all those who see Malaysians as just that...Malaysians. And for those who do not, we will vote them out. Our chance today begins with Anwar Ibrahim. When he finally comes to power, he will have to institutionalize it. We would expect him to introduce laws banning identifying Malaysians by race i.e. there should not even be any space allocated to race in any form or document including the Malaysian Identity Card.
Not too long ago, Australia was (note my tense) such a racist country with its "White Australia Policy". But look at what it is doing today. In Australian schools, students are banned from identifying each other by race like , "That Indian boy..."; "Oh you mean the Chinese fourth grader...", etc. They must now describe the appearance or looks of the person for example, "That dark skinned boy with large eyes..."; "Oh you mean the fair complexioned boy..." (Sure there will always be a small minority that would remain racists).
Shame on us Malaysia!
Our hopes now lie with Anwar. And if he does not heed our aspirations, he will fall victim to our "no vote" and we will look for another leader with the moral courage and political will to do what we aspire. We will not give up our endeavour to achieve this goal where we are ONE NATION and ONE PEOPLE. We will also expect the constitution to be amended where even the special position has to be removed. 51 years and 2 generations later, the special position has not created what it was set out to do and no amount of extra time is going to do it. I recognized the likes of Raja Petra, Haris Ibrahim, Dr Azly Rahman, Din Merican and M Bakri Musa, to name a few know that the whole concept of this special position has proven counter productive. If nothing else, it has weakened that very group that the special position status intended to make them strong. What a shame! At least they are not the products of this special position.
Alright, let us all work hard to get Anwar back into Parliament and continue his march to form a new Government of Malaysia. Our Permatang Pauh brothers and sisters have this unique opportunity to make this happen and show to the current government of the day that their time is up...real soon.
Permatang Pauh brothers and sisters...you can count on us for absolute moral support.
1 comment:
Very Lobsang Rampaesque. And the monicker of 'The Third Eye' is very fascinating.
But I share in your vision for DSAI and PKR.
Will we survive long enough to see the realisation of Bangsa Malaysia and Ketuanan Rakyat? I hope so.
htp://donplaypuks.blogspot.com
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