KUALA LUMPUR – Political parties and language – these are the two reasons why the country is still far from achieving a “Malaysia-first” mentality.
Universiti Selangor president Prof Datuk Mohd Redzuan Othman said despite achieving independence more than half a century ago, the people continue to find it a challenge to create a Malaysian race.
“One of the things that shape our people is by painting the community with racial issues, and this is aggravated by the formation and conduct of political parties, which are race-based.
“These parties appear to only champion their own race,” he said in his keynote address at the online launch of the National Islamic Youth Movement’s 2020 49th annual general assembly today.
Citing PAS as an example, Redzuan said while the party champions itself as an Islamist outfit, its foundation and struggles are based on the Malay race.
“This has only thickened the racial sentiment among Malaysians, making the existence of a Malaysian race a bigger challenge.”
He also noted the lack of an education system that strives to unite all races in the country, with elements of unification through the national language are glaringly missing.
He said while Bahasa Malaysia has been accepted as the main language in the country, generally, only Malays are more inclined to speak in that tongue.
“On television, we can see that when a Malay person is giving comments, they will typically speak in their mother tongue. But if it’s a non-Malay, they are more likely to communicate in English.
“This is unlike our neighbour Indonesia, where the majority of the people, regardless of their race, can speak Bahasa Indonesia very fluently.” – The Vibes, December 26, 2020
