AUG 22 — Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is reportedly trying to get his Cabinet to drop the requirement for Malaysians to state their race in official documents.
This is a positive move but it raises questions about how far the government is willing to go in tackling Malaysia’s principal quandary, and whether it realises how deep the race-related crevices actually are.
Getting rid of the mention of “race” in official documents is the simplest, and most easily-enforced measure the government could take to hint at the direction it wants to go.
The problem is that it is a hint, and measures that merely hint at changes under-rate the enormity of the issue and throw doubt on the establishment’s willingness to force Malaysians to rise above race.
It is a drop in the ocean, and the racial ocean is one that is expanding by the day.
The recent rally against the Internal Security Act (ISA) was perplexingly criticised for attacking Malay rights.
Similarly, the anger against the death of opposition political aide Teoh Beng Hock while under interrogation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Council, was also spun incomprehensibly as aggression against a Malay institution.
Race has been a growing issue since the early 1900s, and as the British withdrew, we witnessed the rise of parties with names like the MIC, Umno and MCA. The only parties that consciously steered clear of race and religion were left-leaning ones.
Clearly multi-racial parties managed to challenge the Alliance coalitional model of race-based parties in the 1960s. This thrust was however defused after the race riots of May 13, 1969. Several of these parties were quickly incorporated into the coalition, leaving diehards such as the Democratic Action Party championing the multi-racial discourse.
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