Friday March 31, 2006

Helping to make Bangsa Malaysia a reality

By SA'ODAH ELIAS

IDENTIFYING oneself as Bangsa Malaysia does not mean that one forgets one's race, culture, heritage and other practices, said Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

“Each of us is a Malay, Chinese, Indian or other race first, but at the same time, we belong to Bangsa Malaysia. This is because we share a common destiny, common interest socially, politically and economically,” said the minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage.

“However, certain practices within a community that can promote intolerance towards others must be slowly forgotten,” he said, adding that this included the penchant to insult others' religious beliefs and practices.

Dr Rais said the term Bangsa Malaysia – to denote the conglomerate of the various races and community in the country and was first mooted by the first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1966 – has been accepted in general by most Malaysians.

The blueprint for Vision 2020 states: “This must be a nation at peace with itself, territorially and ethnically integrated, living in harmony and full and fair partnership, made up of one Bangsa Malaysia with political loyalty and dedication to the nation”.

Although Bangsa Malaysia is not an anthropologically accepted term, he said it was well accepted and understood by the people within the framework of the country's social re-engineering.

“In general, Malaysians from different races and background have accepted that we are Bangsa Malaysia.

“The fact that we share a common destiny, social, political and religious priorities as well as enjoy each others' religious festivals shows we have been successful in creating a Bangsa Malaysia although this term is not included in the Federal Constitution.

“Still, the stress on Bangsa Malaysia cannot be put idle, just because the term has been in used for decades.

“We have to nurture it in as much as we have to nurture the Rukun Negara time and again so that we can remind ourselves of our origin, our future objectives as well as what we have done”, he said when asked how we had come in becoming a Bangsa Malaysia and whether the Malaysian mindset was still struggling with the concept.

The creation of a Bangsa Malaysia is, once again, stressed under the 9MP, in light of the country's multi-ethnic society and the need to maintain national unity and harmony in the course of pursuing development goals.

He admitted however there were parties who used the term obliquely as a means to convey the failure in the formulation of a true Bangsa Malaysia.

“Although the government and experts have yet to fully explore the true definition of Bangsa Malaysia, in general, it is understood well and the term has already found its way in many of the country's major policies”, he added.

He noted that there were a good number of people who would disagree with the Government's stand.

“But it is all right. We don't expect every Malaysian to subscribe to this belief but the fact remains that at every election, the rakyat returns Barisan Nasional (to power), which speaks volumes of their believe in our liberal yet objective system within which they can identify themselves.

“This can also be taken to mean that they believe that Bangsa Malaysia is a workable entity though it has yet to attain 100% success; but we are going somewhere,” he added.

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