YOURSAY | ‘The issue should be Malaysian citizenship, not Malay citizenship.’

Ku Li wants Burhanuddin Helmy's 'Malay citizenship' considered

Hmmmmmmmm: Malay is a race. How can Chinese, Indians, Dayaks, etc, call themselves Malays?

If you really want to unite the country, everyone should be called Malaysian. And all Malaysians should be treated equally. True unity can only be achieved when everyone knows that they have a stake in this country.

A New Zealander once asked me many years ago why people here like to call themselves Chinese Malaysians, Indian Malaysians, etc. It had never occurred to me because we have always been asked about our race when filling up forms, etc.

He told me that he is of Irish descent, but it has never crossed his mind to call himself an Irish New Zealander. He automatically calls himself a New Zealander.

That was the day that my mind suddenly opened up and I began to think more deeply into our country's problems. I suddenly realised that this country doesn't treat all its citizens equally.

FairMalaysian: You can achieve anything without all these dumpty labels and suggestions - if the Malay politicians want it. It is the result of Malay politicians whipping up the race and religion factor to muster votes.

There is a much simpler, logical/rationale way of doing this - ban all singular race/religious parties. Make it mandatory that all political parties should consist of members of all racial/religious denominations.

By making all Malaysians Malays, we will be doomed. This will help the Malays to further incarcerate the non-Malays.

I would have thought Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was savvier and more realistic, considering what was suggested in 1947 was a take at a different moment in time.

With the "swearing" voices we heard from the Malays opposing the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Icerd), we are living in a country where Malays have been "educated" by their political leaders to jump up at every slightest instance of this race and religion thing.

Unless the recalcitrant Malay leaders realise that the acrimony this country is facing will set to continue unless they accept the reality and accept power-sharing with the non-Malays, this country cannot and will not be able to move forward as one nation.

The one single reason why the non-Malays rejected BN and Umno was the "bullying" and arrogance by Umno. Nothing much in Umno appears to have changed on this stance.

For PAS to hold onto to its outdated "vision" but calling for non-Malays fringe parties to join a "grand coalition" is not going to get much traction from the non-Malays. The camels have to look for more tents to oust their Arab masters.

William Tell: Razaleigh must realise that this suggestion is too late. That suggestion may have been possible in 1947 at the time when it was proposed by the Putera-AMCJA coalition.

Today, with the inclusion of Sabah and Sarawak in the establishment of Malaysia, the suggestion that Malays should be the nationality is not tenable.

It would make more sense to promote Malaysian as a nationality.

FellowMalaysian: “Malay citizenship was proposed during the British rule but was thrown out by the then government because it was felt that the people will not accept the proposal.”

What makes Ku Li 70 years later to think that this idea is now becoming more acceptable?

It is disingenuous for him to wheedle the Chinese and Indians to accept the Malay citizenship idea when they are in fact selling their race and dignity away. I am sure no Chinese or Indians will accept this offer.

Just A Malaysian: It’s is all in the mind. If the Malays are confident enough to accept non-Malays as Malaysians and treat them as equals, there is no need to change names.

If we change our names, there will be a Chinese with a Malay name and a Malay with a Chinese name. There will be a Muslim with a Malay name and non-Muslim with Malay name. We will be more divided than before.

Ku Li, your intention is noble but he is not addressing the key issue.

The key issue here is that the Malay elites refused to share this country with the rest of the population, claiming superior right over others. Changing Ah Chong into Ahmad will not solve anything.

BluePanther4725: Indeed, the correct term should be Malaysian citizenship, and not Malay citizenship.

The focus should be on nationality, not on race. US citizens comprise many races, but they are all identified as Americans. Also, what unites Singapore is Singaporeans and not the differences in their races.

However, our politicians here choose to mislead people using race and promote racism, they don't want to focus on nationality and Malaysians.

Different races have the right to practice and preserve their own unique cultures and yet can unite under the umbrella of Malaysians. It's a simple concept but our politicians choose to confuse us in order to benefit themselves.

Anonymous_15897060865429524: The Malays (or rather, Malay politicians) will just think of a new way to segregate and place the "true" Malays as apart from the others in order to win votes.

The "us vs them" narrative will just manifest itself in a different way with different labels: First-class Malays vs second-class Malays, Melayu sejati vs pendatang, etc.

You already see this in the concept of bumiputera. Are all bumiputeras equal? Are the Orang Asal, or the tribes of Sabah and Sarawak, or even the kristang treated as equal bumiputera as the Malays? No, they clearly are not.

Assimilating culture is not the way to achieve equality under the law. Races can be equal under the law without erasing cultural differences.

Look at Indonesia where the Chinese are culturally assimilated. Despite the fact that Chinese Indonesians have largely given up their cultural identity and assimilated into Indonesian culture (adopting Indonesian names, language, and cultural norms), ethnic Indonesians are still racist against Chinese Indonesians and anti-Chinese sentiment is still common.

Ku Li is proposing a flawed and outdated concept.

Iphonezours: It would just be easier for us all to be called as Malaysian first, no more racial background of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazan, etc. Having a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, etc, names or of any religious following should not be seen as a hindrance to national unity and identity.

The strange thing is that we are abroad, we identify ourselves easily as Malaysians but when back home, it’s the opposite. Indeed, it’s time to move forward and call ourselves Malaysians only.

Vijay47: A rose by any other name unfortunately does not thrive in the Malaysian garden. 

A change in how we are labelled is not going to make this country Paradise if we continue to practice the discrimination that is now becoming even more pervasive. Thank you, Umno and PAS.

Instead of trying to invent a better mousetrap, there is that little piece of paper we could apply fairly to all the citizens of this nation. I think it used to be called the Constitution. Otherwise, we may as well call ourselves Martians.

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