malaysia

Ever had a merdeka wish?

Here is the best that I have read or heard of so far.

By Sharyn Lisa Shufiyan, great granddaughter of Tunku Abdul Rahman.

'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.

I'm happy that I don’t have the typical Malay look but I do get 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. "


I couldnt find a very credible source to validate it. but whether or not the author is really Tunku Abdul Rahman's daughter doesnt really matter, does it? because this is most probably the wish of many many malaysians.

"it should already be embedded in our hearts and minds that we are united"
i agree that it should and it might be, in the young minds. i remember vividly that when i was young, i was really proud to be a Malaysian and i did not see any difference between the races. i thought that we were merely people of different races that made up the country, people with different skin colour and people who have different mother tongue. but so what, we are all citizens and residents of that wonderful land. but as i grow elder, the reality of things start to set in. quota in schools, difference in treatment in schools, the unreasonable policies in the corporate and business world, and then, more and more drama in politics. i start to wonder, what is Malaysia, really. Is it really that difficult to say that we are Malaysians? Why do we always have to say that we are Malaysian Chinese? Malaysian Indians? Malaysian Malay? Is it that difficult to put away those superficial differences? why do we need policies based on these differences?

sometimes, when i m reading articles on Malaysia politics and others, i feel ashamed to call myself Malaysian, because my country is in such a mess that can be avoided, that is unnecessary. the root of the problem? various various various.

are we made to feel that malaysia is our home? i dont know. malaysia is my home because i grew up there, because my family members are there. was i made to feel that singapore was my home? well.
in singapore, i wasnt made to not feel that singapore was my home. i was free to think whether or not singapore welcomed me to treat it as a home.
in malaysia, it was made known to me that i was a 2nd class citizen because the difference was just so pervasive throughout the different sectors and layers of the society.
i m not going to come up with a decision on this question.
i m just saying that, i m a supporter of a multi-racial and equal and just political system and policies.