Every 1st and 3rd Thursday you can read Dina Zaman's column in TheStar titled "A Writer's Life".Today she posed a new hypothesis:
"Where are the Malays headed?
Below are abstract of what she wrote:
...in this day and age, what is a Malay? Is a liberal Malay any less a human being than a rural Malay, and is a kampong boy less intelligent than his city cousin?
on the ground, the Malays, have realised or are realising that their utopia is being threatened. Young Malays now will have to work very hard to prove that they are eligible for scholarships and places in universities.
Then there's this bumi discount on property. I can understand why the average Malay person is upset at not being able to afford housing, because he earns a pittance, while a VIP or Malay man of means takes advantage of the discount, even though he can very well pay for the piece of property minus the discount.
Yet, the very idea of a non-Malay receiving the same privilege irks the average Malay, as he believes it is his and his race’s birth-right; hence, this negates the resentment the average Malay has towards his richer cousin.
At the end of the day, I think, everything boils down to money. You can be black, white, blue, but when it comes to economics and your wallet ?
In the one month or more since March 8, I have heard so much bile about how the other races were going to cream us Malays that I even dreamed of it. My question is, if we are going to be ethnocentric about it, who are we Malays?
Because, my dear, these days I keep bumping into Malays who profess to me that they’re actually not pure Malays but have darah kacukan like Bugese, Jawa, Chinese, Pakistani, Mat Salleh ...
In the same breath, they also claim to be true blue Malays who’d kill for their country. Either I have a hearing problem, or they are confused.
Ah hah! Are we Malays a product of social and intellectual engineering then?
We’re known to be a gentle, moderate race. We’re also known as a race that’s reputedly lazy, living off the benefits the NEP has afforded us and becoming close-minded.
At the same time, we also know of successful Malays who have done very well internationally. But we also tell each other that we do not want to work for a 100% Malay organisation, and that we do not relish the idea of sending our children to a government school with 100% Malay enrolment.
We’re known to be loyal to our families and country, but we also do not like it if another Malay is doing better than us. Dengki (great envy) seems to be in our blood.
We’re also known for our ‘berhalus’ manner when we speak. Well, we used to. These days, ‘saya’, ‘kamu’ ‘kawan’ are replaced by the rather crass ‘aku’, ‘engkau’.
My Muslim activist friends make a huge demarcation between being a Muslim and a Malay, and that we are more Malay than Muslim.
The Who Needs An Islamic State discourse, organised by the Muslim Professional Forum and Malaysian Think Tank London, had four panellists – Dr Abdelwahab El-Affendi, University of Westminster, London, and author of Who Needs an Islamic State?;
While we followed the debate, a few young men behind us commented, “Ala? mamak dua ekor tu (those two mamaks)?” referring to, I believe, Malik Imtiaz and Sulaiman who are of Indian descent.
It may be harmless to you, but if at the end of the day, it still boils down to being Malay, and that other Muslims will still be distinguished by their ethnicity, I really don’t know where we’re heading. It’s always Us versus The Other.
You can read the whole article here
Dina also have a blog
