Friday, September 5, 2008

What Bangsa Malaysia?


It tickles me to hear so many of us calling for a final sprint to cap the 'Bangsa Malaysia' idea and ideals.

Wake up! What Bangsa Malaysia are we talking about when there still exist vernacular schools in the likes of the Sekolah Tamil and Sekolah Cina? And in answering this extreme we DO NOT have sekolah Melayu anymore!

The Chinese and Indians still defend their rights for their own ethnic-based schools and yet in the face of all this we hear screams and rantigs for a Bangsa Malaysia to be put in place.

Unity does not neceessarily mean that one's racial identity must be sacrificed. Unity in the Malaysian context is about peaceful co-existence, acceptance (not tolerance) of the rights of the majority as stated in the Constitution.