From Tunku Abdul Rahman's Granddaughter
by Sharyn Lisa Shufiyan, 24, Conservationist
Both my parents are Malay. My mum's heritage includes Chinese, Thai
and Arab, while my dad is Minangkabau. Due to my skin colour, I am
often mistaken for a Chinese.
annoyed when people call me Ah Moi or ask me straight up "Are you
Chinese or Malay" Like, why does it matter? Before I used to answer "Malay" but now I'm
trying to consciously answer Malaysian instead. There's this incident from primary school that I remember till today.
Someone told me that I will be called last during Judgement Day
because I don't have a Muslim name. Of course, I was scared then but
now that I'm older, I realise that a name is just a name. It doesn't
define you as a good or bad person and there is definitely no such
thing as a Muslim name. You can be named Rashid or Ali and still be a
Christian. I've heard of the 1Malaysia concept, but I think we don't need to be
told to be united. We've come such a long way that it should already
be embedded in our hearts and minds that we are united. Unfortunately,
you can still see racial discrimination and polarisation. There is
still this ethno-centric view that the Malays are the dominant group
and their rights must be protected, and non Malays are forever the
outsiders. For the concept to succeed, I think the government should stop with
the race politics. It's tiring, really. We grew up with application
forms asking us to tick our race. We should stop painting a negative image of the other races, stop thinking about 'us' and 'them' and
focus on 'we', 'our' and 'Malaysians'. No one should be made uncomfortable in their own home. A dear Chinese
friend of mine said to me once, "I don't feel patriotic because I am
not made to feel like Malaysia is my home, and I don't feel an
affinity to China because I have never lived there. I know some baby Nyonya friends who can trace their lineage back
hundreds of years. I'm a fourth generation Malaysian. If I am
Bumiputra, why can't they be, too? Clearly I have issues with the
term. I think the main reason why we still can't achieve total unity is
because of this 'Malay rights' concept. I'd rather 'Malay rights' be
replaced by human rights. So unless we get rid of this Bumiputra
status, or reform our views and policies on rights, we will never
achieve unity. For my merdeka wish, I'd like for Malaysians to have more voice, to be
respected and heard. I wish that the government would uphold the true
essence of parliamentary democracy. I wish for the people to no longer
fear and discriminate against each other, to see that we are one and
the same. I wish that Malaysia would truly live up to the tourism spin of
Malaysia truly Asia . Malaysians to lead - whatever their ethnic
background.Only ONE NATIONALITY MALAYSIAN. No Malays, No Chinese, No
Indians - ONLY MALAYSIANS. Choose whatever religion one is comfortable
with. Remember it was Dr M & UMNO who destroyed Tunku's Malaysia . MERDEKA
MERDEKA
MERDEKA
Comments