Politicians and even ministers from the both sides have lauded the Sabah-born federal Minister, Joseph Kurup whom on last Friday have brought a long-awaited proposal to remove the "race" field seen in most official forms as an indirect effort foster unity among Malaysians. You can read last Friday's article here.
As far as I recalled, this "race" field is no longer a required field in Singapore on most official forms except on certain scenarios, for instance a Chinese translator. The Singapore Manpower has clearly specified that if there is a need to require the "race" field, clear and sound reasons are required to be given prior to the potential candidates for the job, lest to invite trouble of law from the Ministry itself. This practice has already been in place for many years though.
Two
weeks ago, a group of people lodged a police report in response to the
Malay NGO's chicken slaughter and slap offer gathering held at Jalan Tun
Perak at the Brickfields police station. When submitting their report,
they requested to have the race code replaced with "Anak Bangsa
Malaysia". Although the computer form doesn't allow them to change, the
police officers in charge of report taking that night were gracious
enough to allow them to make that amendment. This was documented in
Haris Ibrahim's account here.
Muhyiddin Yassin responded that the idea will have to be presented to the Cabinet for consideration, while right-wing Malay NGO Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali has rejected outright, reasoning that it is equivalent to removing Malay privileges. You can read Ibrahim Ali's response here.The next day, ISMA, in addition to Perkasa showed signs of opposition to the idea, according to them inviting liberalism.
Do you think that Kurup's idea is likely to go through? High probability of no likely.
However, the "Mudah Lupa" syndrome rears its head here, not just the majority of Malays, but most of us Malaysians as well.
Looking back at a math's exercise book that I kept at home that states about the Vision 2020, the liberal society was listed as one of the nine challenges in facing 2020. This is what is said about Vision 2020's fifth challenge: (from Ministry of Education's website)
MEWUJUDKAN MASYARAKAT YANG LIBERAL DAN BERTOLAK ANSUR, DI MANA MASYARAKAT PELBAGAI KAUM DI MALAYSIA BEBAS MENGAMALKAN ADAT, KEBUDAYAAN DAN KEPERCAYAAN AGAMA MEREKA DAN PADA MASA YANG SAMA MELETAKKAN KESETIAAN MEREKA PADA SATU NEGARA.
We are six years away from 2020. Considering how the social-political-economical level in Malaysia, it is unlikely we can reach the target. In other words, we've broke the set philosophy that was set. The one who came out with this concept is none other than Perkasa's patron and ex-PM, Dr. Mahathir himself.
The question, has Perkasa and ISMA as well as other NGOs involved in the Malaysian human-rights arena forgotten about this thing before shooting their mouths? To say no, implies that they are rejecting what the old man is outlined about the concept in 1991. At that time, it's about 30 years away. We're six years from the deadline - where are we now?
If Kurup's suggestion gets a go ahead and becomes a new law due to popular support from people from all races, from both sides of political divide, who is it that is going to die from it? It can be definitely assured that the races in the world will never go extinct at all despite various threats. Do bear in mind that any Constitution amendment that involves the main religion do require participation from the "Council of Rulers" even it has been passed in Parliament, so there's no way to be cowed by an non-existential threat.
