Muhyiddin and the ethnic swing back - Malaysiakini

I'm not surprised that Kee Thuan Chye should feel he is Malaysian first. After all, his family has been here almost 200 years. We're first cousins.

Our grandfather's grandfather was an influential Province Wellesley sugar planter in the 1800s who has a 'lorong' named after him. His father - our great, great, great grandpa - was the one who sailed from China to the then British crown colony of Penang.

Unlike Kee, I'm not declaring the same sentiment. Instead, I'm asking why are we still second -class citizens after two centuries living in this land. Why is a second-generation Malaysian like Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, whose father is the Javanese immigrant Joyo Erodikromo, treated like a first-class citizen?

Here is how the sycophants of Ketuanan Melayu would answer me. Recently at a lecture, Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee was reported as saying: 'When this country was formed, there was only one race (sic). And this fact has to be respected, you have to respect us (Malays) for that'.

Ridhuan (right) more often than not classes himself among the Malays; this is seen when he uses the word 'kita' ('us', including himself in the Muslim-Malay polity) writing his Utusan Malaysia column. If Ridhuan is a 'best model' of what it takes under the present circumstances of discrimination and deceit to attain equal citizenship, I'd rather have a gangrenous toe amputated than be anything like him.

Someone who is Ridhuan's counterpart is Dr Chandra Muzaffar, in the sense that technically, both can be Malay according to the constitution.

Chandra writes in the New Straits Times: 'Article 160(2) of the federal constitution defines a Malay as someone who professes Islam, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay customs. Two of these characteristics actually define the identity of the Malaysian nation'.

He continues: 'This is why it is absurd to see Malaysian nationality as antithetical to Malay identity...On the contrary, Malaysian nationality is coterminous with Malay identity.'

Given that Chandra is also chairman of the Yayasan 1Malaysia board of trustees, what he espouses can be viewed as an academic abstract for the prime minister's public relations brainchild.

Right from the start, I've always thought that '1Malaysia' was just a lot of feel-good hot air. Lim Kit Siang pinning down Muhyiddin Yassin to his 'Malay first' admission made the (unnecessary) confirmation.

What is a M'sian race?

Kee asks: 'Why must we separate ourselves into divisive categories?'

Well, it is the federal constitution that does it. It defines Malay and not the rest of us.

But who has ever closely examined that purported race called 'Malaysian'? Go scour the anthropology or biology textbooks... see if you can find any references. The first I know of 'Bangsa Malaysia' is from Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Vision 2020. My opinion of Dr M and his slogans such as 'Bersih, Cekap, Amanah' does not vary from my opinion of Najib Abdul Razak's Apco-assisted sloganeering.

But there is that Bangsar Malaysia (pun intended). They live in the Liberal Republic of Bangsar where English is their national language.

Chandra (right), in his article defending Muhyiddin, explains what it means to be Malaysian first.

In the Chandra template, the Chinese are called upon to 'be enthusiastic about propagating Malay as the national language and strengthening the Bahasa Malaysia-based national school as the school of first choice for all Malaysians'.

'An appreciation of the role of Islam as the religion of the federation would also be part of his (the Chinese's) outlook', Chandra advocates.

I shall discuss his statement by breaking it down into three parts, in the order he lists them.

Part (a): If we follow the Chandra blueprint on national language, then those Malaysian-First folks who bash Muhyiddin should, by right, have vented in BM. If in BM, Chandra must surely hope that their pronunciation is accurate and the intonation correct.

Part (b): National school as first choice. Kee walked his talk and sent his kids to 'sekolah kebangsaan'. But let me ask, does a Chinese upon completion of primary education stand a fair chance of proceeding to the residential schools or Mara junior science colleges? To UiTM?

Part (c): The Malaysian-First cheerleading squad should thank Chandra for his reminder. The Malaysian flag which is our national symbol bears the Islamic crescent. (Side note: The flags of some European countries carry the Christian cross; Korea's has Taoist elements, India's the wheel of dharma, Israel's the Star of David, and so on.) Hence, the spiritual identity of Malaysia is Islamic. One goal for Chandra.

Next symbol, the monarchy. Items of royal regalia comprise the 'tengkolok' and this headdress is affixed with the star and crescent; the 'keris' is tucked into the 'kain samping'; the sceptre has verses from the Quran embossed on it.

Even the yellow royal umbrella sports, at its top, the star and crescent. Hence, the leitmotif of the Raja-Raja Melayu - the institution of the royal houses is not called 'Raja-Raja Malaysia', by the way - is Malay-Muslim. Another goal for Chandra.

Is Chinese-ness a sin?

Lim, Kee, my member of Parliament Tony Pua and others have avowed they are 'Malaysian first, Chinese second'.

To me, it's no big deal if Muhyiddin is Malay first. After all, it's his personal sense of self that every individual is entitled to. Why browbeat Malaysians into selecting a rigid hierarchy for self-identity? 'I am Malay' is to its speaker a positive affirmation, just as 'I am Chinese' is to me the same. And please don't quibble as to whether it should be 'Malaysian Chinese' or 'Chinese Malaysian'.

Head-butting the deputy prime minister has only created a wave of sympathy for him, not to mention alienating segments of the Malay electorate. The mobbing of Muhyiddin has come across as a negative tilt at Malay identity although this is an unintended consequence.

Isn't it more precise to convey to Muhyiddin (left) this message: 'Do you swear by your oath of office that you will put national interests, not communal interests, first?' And rather than eliciting from Najib's pink lips that he is Malaysian first, I prefer the PM to say this: 'I promise to treat all citizens fairly and equally'.

But will it happen? Consider the racial breakdown of the Malaysian civil service: Malays 78.2% and bumiputera altogether 86%; Chinese 5.8%. An overwhelming majority of the Chinese workforce employed is in the private sector. I've written before that Mandarin and the Chinese dialects are our 'cari makan' language.

For whatever reasons, 90-plus percent of Chinese parents send their children to Chinese school. In Kelantan's little lost dragons, I said the Chinese who have for many generations acculturated themselves to locals are now opting to revert to mainstream 'Chinese-ness' - a social marker of which is speaking Mandarin.

Chinese have swung back. Malays have swung to Perkasa. Dr Mahathir Mohamad - the spiritual godfather of this Malay-ultra movement - was once asked to comment on his Indian ancestry in an Al-Jazeera interview. He replied he is 'constitutionally Malay'.

True, some countries do prioritise nationality; the Americans, Australians and Singaporeans come to mind. Malaysia doesn't. Malaysia is a country that aspires to perpetuate active discrimination against one minority race and passive neglect of other minority races. 'Great' aspirations to be proud of indeed.

Yet it is the Chinese and Indians who are overly keen to declare themselves Malaysian first. The Malays are 'selamba aje' or don't show any particular eagerness. To them, their nationality is a given - their birthright. Shouldn't the rest of us accept our nationality just as naturally? After all, we were born here.

HELEN ANG used to be a journalist. In future, she would like to be a practising cartoonist. But for the present, she is in the NGO circles and settling down to more serious writing and reading of social issues.