Back when we were ‘we and us’

All together now: The letter writer’s family and their Malay neighbours in the 1960s. — Photo provided

I BELIEVE Malaysians would generally agree with the recent comment made by our senior statesman and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad if he meant assimilation as Malaysians, and not as “Malays”.

The senior statesman rightly quoted Indonesia, but was confused between race and nationality. All the races in the vast country of Indonesia are rightly called Indonesians. So too all the two to three dozen races and tribes in our country are rightly called Malaysians. But Dr Mahathir cannot possibly mean that all the races must become Malay to unite the country, surely? After all, there are Orang Asli, and native Sarawakians and Sabahans of various races and faiths, along with the rest of us who make up this nation.