Recently Malaysia’s premier announced the new concept of
One Malaysia or
1Malaysia. I have nothing against this. What I fear is that – this is concept (or rebranding, or gimmick) will go unnoticed. In my limited knowledge of such tagline the whole idea of this is to promote
“unity” in Malaysia. Having said this, it will either manifest the whole scenario of either Malaysians are not united at all, or we are not united enough or we appear to be united on the surface and there’s racial tsunami that’s hidden underneath.
Again I must stress – I have nothing against this. But let’s revisit what Pak Lah tried to do with Islam Hadhari. Was it relevant then? I think it was not relevant then, and it is not relevant now (the only thing that it did cause was confusion. People thought that was another version of Islam. When it comes to Islam I would always like to emphasise on the basics).
Islam Hadhari then, was defined to be “Progressive Islam” – which signifies what Malaysia is all about. OK now, being an Islamic Nation, Malaysia has always been one. Since when? Since forever. And being Progressive – it has always been especially in the era of Abdul Razak and Mahathir. So, what is the deal of rebranding of an existing brand with no obvious objective or gains?
So that was during Pak Lah’s tenure.
Now, with our present PM, there is One-Malaysia concept. I am proud to be Malaysian, indeed. I am proud to be Malay at the same time. But, being Malay or being Malaysian does not contribute to anything when I choose to befriend or to become close to anyone. It has never been and will never be. I am just one of the many more millions who have embraced 1Malaysia for centuries before (if I define 1Malaysia correctly, i.e. unity, multiple race united by a bond that is not based on racial background). To be honest, I do not want to be pretentious – it is not that I can make friends easily with any Malays and it applies to anyone I think. So I never base my judgment of friendship based on racial background. And I am certain many of all of you out there would agree.
I am a Malay – that does not mean that I can get along with any Malays easily, for whatever reason. There is something we call chemistry (as an example, I do not see myself getting along someone who’s full of himself or herself). If I do not have it, I will not get along easily. In my opinion, I am better of not being a friend of someone, rather than faking the relationship or friendship. Now, let’s not be too emotional about this, if we want to do this correctly, we have to have 1Malay, 1Chinese, 1Indians because among the segment of race, we are not all united. If we were all united, we will not have PAS, PKR, BN etc., or even we will not have MCA, MIC, UMNO. So that itself stands as a point, point that is worth pondering. And more recent case in point – the bickering in MCA, do we reckon we need 1Chinese mantra now?
Why is there a need for 1Malaysia campaign? What can we gain out of this as rakyat? To certain extent, we have all been exercising 1Malaysia spirit for as long as we could remember. So why manifest and emphasise on this? It is similar to Islam Hadhari. To people who have been practising the spirit of making friends without assessing one’s belief, skin colour or whatever background – have we not done enough? Or is there a bigger question than this, perhaps with statistics that says 70% of Malaysians are not united hence we need this campaign of 1Malaysia. I do not have the answer to this. It is a mere question really.
I do not even know who I should pose this question to.
Note:
I remember clearly that my very close friend during my A’Level days was a Malaysian Chinese (it is so strange to label him this (I am ashamed of having to write that "Malaysian Chinese"), I never have done this before. I never regard him as a Chinese and it does not matter to me). His name is Edwin. I got on very well with Edwin albeit having another fellow Malay guy that went to the same school. The reason why I couldn’t get along with him was he was being competitive unnecessarily and it’s obnoxious. There, I said it.
In fact, on my last day at the school, as I was on the Intercity train heading to London, tears rolled down reflecting my experience at The Leys School and in all flashes of memories that I recollected throughout the 2-year stint, I do not recall my Malay friend was even close to getting into the frame of thought at that very instant! There I said it twice!
