Malaysian Malaysia- the slogan which brought PAP into fame in 1960s after the formation of Malaysia, the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak.
It was also the slogan which contributes to the expulsion of Singapore from the Federation of Malaysia.
It was also the slogan of the Democratic Action Party, to the extent that they won in 1969's General Election which later brought teh nation into its much anticipated racial riot of 13th May.
It was a dream of the non-bumis to have the same status as the bumis, especially in governments implementation of policies, which they say favours bumis over non-bumis.
The DAP,Gerakan and PPP has been fighting for this status for decades now; to have Malaysian Malaysia, and abolish the special right of the Bumis especially the ethnic Malays.
This is what I say:
To have a Malaysian Malaysia, which does not differ a Malay with his or her Chinese and Indian counter part, is to have one common identity for all. One Nation, One Race.
But, the Chinese and the Indian has to accept the fact that the Malays want them to "join" the Malays.
Explanation?
The Chinese and the Indian must become like a Malay.This situation is to provide the same identity for all.They have to eat Malay food, speak Malay fluently without slang,and to accept the idea of Sekolah Kebangsaan, to replace with their vernacular school.
Yet, the Chinese and the Indian are still pushing for more vernacular school.How are we going to create one identity for all, if the Chinese and Indian still speaks Malay badly because they were schooled at the vernacular school?Sometime it was rather difficult to communicate with the non bumis because of their poor conversation in Bahasa Malaysia. Communication is so important in building one identity.
Look at Indonesia, the Phillipines, they are years ahead of us in creating their own Bangsa.I salute the Indonesian and the Phillipines for their effort in creating one identity. Even now, when anyone refers to Bahasa Melayu, they will think of Bahasa Indonesia, not Bahasa Malaysia because all of them, 220 millions of them speaks one Bahasa which is Bahasa Melayu Indonesia.They still converse in their own mother tongue at home, with their family but not to the extent that they were fighting for vernacular school and multilingualism in their own country!
I strictly believe that to have a Malaysian Malaysia, these has to be done.
P/S:I apologise if this post make some people felt uneasy, and I do accept conmmentary and opinions from anyone.
well, good suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThat's true about vernacular school.
Bahasa Melayu is eroding from time to time, yet people nowadays tend to have the perception that those who are speaking BM are the inferior people. But speaking about inferior, so why when the Chinese and Indians speaking in their language, we think that they are superior? to me Language is a tool of conversation, and such perception that this and that language is superior than another is a blatant disregard for a serene and prosperous unity among all races. For some, even speaking Malay is something very hard eventhough it is our national language. This statement does not restrict the sovereignty of speaking English. What my message is that, is speaking fluently in Malay and English a crime? actually, it is a total shame for those who cannot use their national language well make it BM, Tamil, Mandarin,Japan, Thai, Laos,English etc.
kita sudah tiada masa
ReplyDeletesalam. hi there. its nice to know u. well, im quite honoured with the request uve mde-nak soh buat poetry pasal islam di msia?..nantilah tgklah.. btw. on this particular issue..malaysian malaysia..i ve mde a very dedicated study on it..4 one of my academic course. ingt blh share. if u cld just leave a msg kt email sye..maiman_s@yahoo.com.mybe blh sharing a fw thngs. tq.
ReplyDeletesalam. as a reply to ur suggestion, if its gonna be a thorough study on that particular issue, for me i wld certainly include these discussions into the study:-
ReplyDeletea. brief intro on the modern (western) context of modernism
b. retrospctve study on the aspects of islam in malaysia (or the malay archipelago).
c. impact/contribution of the pondok system in islamic undrstdng of the citizens.
d. study on the contribution/ideas of the kaum muda (fusion of conventional+modern education).
e. observations on the nation-state vs Islamic state ideology: a Malaysia perspective.
d. conclusion/suggestions.
if u mind, we could work together on this. its really interesting.
Your arguments were well delivered, but the disheartening thing is that you failed to avoid the common trap of opinionists: to begin with his/her own interests in mind.
ReplyDeleteAnd please do not illogically manipulate the history to support your points, why didn't you mention about how the Australian Caucasians claimed the country from the hands of Aborigines and proceeded to transform Australia into a global player? Should they have picked up and prioritized the Aboriginal Language just to create a distinct identity for the country? Can you imagine the official language of Australia not being English? How would it impact the education system, politics and sociocultural norms in Australia?
Just some food for thought. I used other country to avoid sensitive terms.
The world is flat. Being multicultural is one of our competitive advantages in reaping the most out of the globalization, and somehow your thoughts that non-Malay elements should be superseded only demonstrated how irrationally ethnocentric you were.
p.s. I'm wasting 249 seconds on this post just because you stated that you welcome commentaries towards the end of your article.