Must Read Article !! Why Malays (and Non-Malays) Should NOT Trust UMNO YOUTH

by

Hizami Iskandar

Quote:

"... to imply that Malaysia is the NATION of the Malays ALONE is breathtakingly arrogant, profoundly mistaken, narrow-minded in the extreme and overwhelmingly stupid.

Clinging to the dream of a LOST 'ketuanan', uninterested in the realities of building a tomorrow today.

(We need) to overthrow this limited orthodoxy, and replace it with the reality that we know and cherish, based on a few simple propositions:

- That all Malaysians are Malaysians, regardless of race and religion;

- That our loyalties to race and religion and nation can co-exist, can complement each other;

- That to be Malaysian is also to be a human being, and a citizen of the world, and to exercise our global responsibilities accordingly.
-Hizami Iskandar

Background:(Read here for more)

The Star reported that Tambun Umno Youth division chief Nasir Ismail said the phrase “The Birth of a Nation” is misleading and gives the impression that Malaysia was only born 50 years ago.

He said this was an insult to the country as it portrayed the Malays as a race without a nation of their own.

Read here full article by Hizami " Of Foolish Youth" on Locus Standi Blog

" .. This is why I DON'T trust UMNO Youth.

"Birth of a nation" is an incorrect term because it implies that the Malays did not have a nation before 1957.....

....well, of course , the Malays had a nation BEFORE 1957!

There was the Malacca Sultanate, the Johor Sultanate, the Kedah Sultanate...

But that's NOT the point.

31st August 1957 witnessed the birth of a new nation, a nation of not just Malays, but Chinese, Indians, Serani, Punjabi, proto-Malays, Negrito, Senoi, Malayalee - millions of people, declared to be Malayans by a sovereign constitution;

16th September 1963 would bring more to our family - Bidayuh, Iban, Melanau, Kadazandusun, Penan, Murut, Bajau, Lotud, Sungai, Orang Laut, Kedayan, and all the other indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, plus the Malays, Chinese, Indians etc living there.

And for a while, we had the Singaporeans too, but that went pear-shaped, of course.

But THIS is what WE talk about when WE TALK of the 'Birth of a Nation' :

The TRANSFORMATION of all these different peoples, all these different races, from disparate peoples all subjects of a British imperialism, to an independent, self-determining people, free under the banner of one nation - Malaya, and then Malaysia.

I've written about this before - the passing of sovereignty, at the moment the flag was first raised, to each and every Malaysian (I use this term for convenience), regardless of race and religion.

This is what WE celebrate THIS year.

For our dear UMNO Youth Chief from Tambun to imply that Malaysia is the nation of the Malays alone is breathtakingly arrogant, profoundly mistaken , narrow-minded in the extreme and overwhelmingly stupid.

Clinging to the dream of a lost 'ketuanan', uninterested in the realities of building a tomorrow today.

Obsessed with tribal notions of loyalty and identity, refusing to look beyond the narrow confines of 'Malay-ness' he has designed for himself.

Ill-equipped to lead us into the future, he is an anachronism, all the more dangerous for being in a position of power.

It is up to us to challenge this rhetoric - to chart a path that is not new, not new at all - for many in the generations before us have seen the same way.

(And) to overthrow this limited orthodoxy, and replace it with the reality that we know and cherish, based on a few simple propositions:

• that all Malaysians are Malaysians, regardless of race and religion;
  
  
• that our loyalties to race and religion and nation can co-exist, can complement each other;
  
  
• that to be Malaysian is also to be a human being, and a citizen of the world, and to exercise our global responsibilities accordingly.

A nation whose policies were based on such propositions would be a GREAT ONE indeed.

But it is WE who must make Malaysia so.

For if we leave the nation to our dear UMNO Youth chief and his ilk, our dreams would NEVER be realised, NOT for a thousand years. "
-Hazimi Iskandar

Commentary

From Imran Idris : Read here for more

"This guy is on a roll: another brilliant post by Hizami Iskandar in which he puts forward a better alternative to the race-based paradigm that has dominated the mindset of our society for too long.

When read side by side with this letter from ‘A Father’s Yoke’ ( read here )that was posted on Malaysiakini yesterday, one gets the feeling that all is NOT lost for Malaysia.