Undeniably "identity" plays a major role in determining one's cultural and historical relevance subject to the region or land where one is residing as highlighted by the article excerpt below presented by Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah and published by The Star 21 April 2009. Read my lips, this sovereign nation is called "Malay"sia... it's not "Jawa"sia, it's not "Bugis"sia, it's not "Iban"sia and it is certainly not "China"sia or "India"sia. Get the point?... Chinese got China to champion their identity and Indians got India to champion their identity respectively. Similarly, my Malay-Muslim identity bears no relevance if were I residing in America or Europe or China or India for that matter. So I hope the Non Malay - Non Muslims in "Malay"sia would give a weighty consideration about their identity status by speaking the language, practicing the culture and it could even be better if they can follow sincerely the religion of the majority in "Malay"sia in order to be accepted as trully Malaysians.
"The Regent of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah said Obama was a product of the premier education system in the United States, spoke the language and practised the culture of majority of Americans, chose to follow Christianity, the religion of the majority of the Americans, although his grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was a Muslim and his father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr, was born to a Muslim family."
Think of it this way... This is a very basic fundamental of the laws of human nature.
"In order to deserve something, one has to condition oneself and make the necessary sacrifices in the right direction to attain that privillege."
Perspectively, if one wants to be an engineer one has to condition oneself to think like an engineer and make the necessary sacrifices to be conditioned as an engineer. Generally speaking, can the engineer community accept a lawyer to be one of them without the proper conditioning in engineering background? Can an engineer expect to be respected and receive the same privilleges as a medical doctor by their medical staff in a hospital? Irregardless whether the engineer is good or bad in his or her profession... he or she is still someone who's been conditioned in the aspect of engineering therefore deserves the recognition with respect to engineering but not in the medical field. Do you follow at what I'm getting at? Now, speaking about recognition... it also comes in various levels. Still discussing referrence in the context of engineering, usually a diploma holder would probably hold the post of a technician... a fresh graduate degree holder perhaps will hold the post of a junior engineer and so on and so forth. See how complex the human nature is when it comes to determining one's identity? But can we say that this part of human nature is wrong? Obviously it happens for a reason, otherwise any Tom, Dick and Harry can be recognised as a medical doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or an accountant without proper conditioning. So the question here is... if it can be applied in determining the identity for our respective professions, why can't it be applied to determine the identity of our nationality based on the name of our sovereign nation "Malay"sia? So if you are Non Malay - Non Muslim, you can still decide who you want to be in "Malay"sia... you could even be better "Malays" than some who claim themselves as "Malays", but first you will have to follow and condition yourself to be part of the majority presiding predominant mould of this sovereign nation.
Is that too much to ask for? Well, if it is... then perhaps at the very least Non Malay - Non Muslims should condition themselves to be "Kafir Zimmis" instead of being "Kafir Harbis".
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Assalamualaikum Nazri,
ReplyDelete1. Non Malay Non Muslims should choose to be Kafir Zimmi than to embrace conditioning which can result in them losing their ethnic identity. Are you drawing an analogy to Indonesia where the Chinese there even adopt Indonesian names? Their identity as Chinese blooded human are only made known only through their physical features. Obama is still an American of half African origin. I am not sure how the Muslim African of Kunta Kinte's generation become the African American of the present time but that involved religion change. Americans are one in citizenship but the people can be of Asian, Mexican, Italian or Irish origin, for example. We know of people's ethnic identity from the name they hold. Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro- These are all Americans but they certainly are from Italian origin. I would like to see Malaysians of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Kadazan, Punjabi, Gurkha origins. We are united as Malaysians but we retain our ethnic identity. For the simple reason that there are hikmah behind God creating us in diverse ethnic beings.
2. "Malay"sia could very well be defined as the Malay land. It means the Malay once rule it. And now Malay kings are on the throne. And the Malays also live hand in hand with people of other ethnics. Everybody is called Malaysian and subject to the law of the land. Everybody living on Malaysian land should subscribe to Malaysian's ways of doing things. But by being on Malaysian land, it does not mean one loses one's historical and anthropological being. A person of Chinese origin can become a Muslim, can become a Malaysian but he can never be a Malay. It has got to do with birth and blood and you cannot change blood unless of course, you undergo bone marrow transplant.
There's more that meets the eye Sharifah. Yes, it's true the chinese in Indonesia had even adopted Indonesian names, but that was only after Sokarnoe forced them to drop their identities in the 1960's. That does not mean they have shed their "immigrant mentality" willingly.
ReplyDeleteYes, there's a hikmah behind God creating us in diverse ethnics beings, but please be realistic... that's why God created diverse ethnics segregated accordingly to diverse regions if you notice. People tend to grow fairer or darker as a form of adaptation to the climate of the region that they live in. This is scientifically proven... a law of nature... an ever evolving beneficial adaptation of the body that one has no control of naturally.
Too bad we can't say the same about the human mind especially for those with "immigrant mentality". When some people simply refuse to be infused not even so much to be associated with the predominant majority Malays in a little country called "Malay"sia. To make it worse... "Malay"sia is not even as big as China or India. *chuckles*