Being Malay – Nur Adilah Ramli

In Malaysia, if you're a Malay, your life is almost completely guaranteed, because it's Malay-sia! I'm a pure Malay, and by that I mean my parents are both Malays. My never-met maternal grandfather is, however, an Indonesian. Nevertheless, as far as I am concerned, I'm a Malay.

I have to admit that in terms of privileges, Malay race is far more superior than other races. Considering the fact that Malay makes up the majority race, the Malays get to be prioritized in practically all things. I would like to think that this inequity has something to do with politics. The rulers are mostly comprised of Malays, thus in order to muster the majority votes, the politicians especially have to consider the interest of the electorates, specially the Malays.

I have always been grateful to be born as a Malay. I have come across several cases where the non-Bumiputeras or the non-Bumis were denied their rights to get access to tertiary education because of their blood. To add to that, they were among the best brains, but just because they are not Bumis, their string of As' was discounted. Their rightful places in public universities were filled in by some Bumis who might not even get a single A. In Malaysia, such is a normalcy; racism is packaged in a way that, at face value, racism is nationalism – whatever that means!

In spite of getting the best of everything, Malays, apparently, do not appear to be the best. The Malays have been attached with connotations like "janji Melayu," "Melayu mudah lupa," "Melayu malas," among other things which lend themselves under the bad light. As a Malay, I have never liked my race to be attributed with such attitudes, though as much as I despise the stereotypes, I have to admittedly agree to the remarks. I would be in self-denial to proclaim that Malays are all the opposite of the common stereotypes, because in actuality, it can be seen that those are practised by some of the Malays. Myself included.

To be objectively fair, an attribute is not necessarily mutually exclusive, thus the Malays are not the only race who commit such “miscompliances”. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to judge one's action on the ground of the action per se, not the race one is born with.

Because racism is given new labels such as nationalism and patriotism, it is pertinent to not readily accept the new breeds of racism. When we actively disregard the rights of other races, that is tantamount to racism. If that is not racism, then I don't know what is.

When we talk about politics, race is indeed a mammoth issue. As each race wants to cater to the needs of their own kind, we could see the pattern of race-based political groups. Umno, MCA and MIC, despite being under the umbrella of Barisan Nasional, have their own agendas sought to be championed. Although we can say that the component parties are united under one roof, in reality, the parties are pursuing for individual rights which are, as the name of each party suggests, for the sake of their own race.

However, it is understood that it is never a walk in the park to harmonize heterogeneous societies who definitely have stark differences in many aspects. Hence, it is unbecoming to create a unilateral society as in each race is bound by uniform worldview, for instance. In the context of multi-racial Malaysia, favouritism to a certain race is downright unjust. It is unthinkable that some people still hold the belief that the non-Bumis are "pendatang" when in fact, Malaysia is the sole place they belong to. Even though their ancestors were not born in this land, but the fact that they were born here justifies why they should be entertained just like Bumis.

The Malays, including myself, might feel intimidated and endangered if the non-Bumis were to lead the country. Chances are, we might lose out the bounties we've been enjoying at the expense of other races. But in the name of justice, I concede that the practice of "Malay first" in any sort of activity is not right. Every race should be rewarded on the basis of meritocracy, not cronyism. Until Malaysia gives equal rights to everyone regardless of race, we will stay on living with prejudice towards other races.

*Nur Adilah Ramli reads The Malaysian Insider.