The news item, “Perkasa: Bangsa Malaysia an impossible dream”, highlighted parochial and skewed views on issues pertaining to Bangsa Malaysia and national unity. For Perkasa, everything is centred on vernacular education as if nothing else is causing disunity among Malaysians.
Perkasa and people like its deputy president Sirajuddin Salleh just love to pick on vernacular education. Have they got any indisputable evidence to support their arguments? Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, just to name a few examples, use the same language and practise the same religion.
But do they have national cohesion and unity? Switzerland uses four major languages and practises freedom of religion – do we see dissension, factionalism and disunity in that country the way we do elsewhere?
It is just too sweeping to conclude that other Malaysians disrespect Islam and the Malays because they go to different schools. I think respect is a two-way street: we must be mutually yielding and sensitive towards each other. There are definitely many other factors causing disunity among Malaysians besides vernacular education.
We keep hearing that non-Malays are attacking the constitutional rights of Malays and the position of Islam. I wish we could hear how so, and in what ways this has happened.
Hasn’t the government provided enough affirmative action programmes in terms of education, licences, business opportunities, contracts and employment in the public sector to the Malays? Hasn’t the government done enough to promote and promulgate Islam? Who is disrespecting the Malays and Islam?
If affirmative action programmes have not yielded the desired results as claimed, we have to find out why. This is not tantamount to questioning the essence of affirmative action programmes or the right of the Malays. I am sure the Malays themselves would also like to know why there has not been more success.
Where did all the benefits go, who are the recipients, and how can we do better to ensure the benefits are more equitably distributed among the deserving groups? This is not questioning the constitutional rights of the Malays; this is wishing or desiring to see better utilisation of resources and better outcomes. Asking questions on the effectiveness of implementation is not challenging the constitutional rights of the Malays.
I agree that non-Malay businesses should do more whenever they can to help the Malays directly through employment, business opportunities, or granting of scholarships. In addition to direct help, non-Malay companies have paid taxes which in turn are used to support affirmative programmes.
Be that as it may, Perkasa should perhaps ask more pertinent questions like: (i) why are Malaysian businesses employing more and more foreigners and (ii) why are Malay-owned businesses, including GLCs, also employing foreigners and even more non-Malays as employees?
I am not saying the non-Malays are faultless or are doing all the right things for national unity. I think all communities, particularly the respective leaders, must engage in some introspection. It is better to examine ourselves than to keep blaming others.
I think we can quite easily discern whether we are genuinely concerned with the welfare of our people or if we are just deliberately racist, angry or defiant.
TK Chua is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.