How racist are we all really?

By P. GUNASEGARAM, The Star

THAT tirade and tiff between former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, does little to illuminate things in the ongoing debate about whether to change the curriculum of the Biro Tata Negara (National Civics Bureau) courses.

But their ongoing conversation – if you could call it that – over the media does provide some clues as to the underlying problems over those so-called “unity courses” that NCB has been conducting over the years.

In his typical style, Mahathir attempted to turn the tables on Nazri, who had called him a racist in response to Mahathir’s comments that the contents for the NCB course are, well, suitable for all Malaysians.

Malaysian politics have been rather racial right from the start. The three parties in the original Alliance which gained independence represented the Malays, Chinese and Indians, with Umno being the most dominant.

After the race riots of May 1969, the politics of race became much, much more pronounced especially with Umno’s attempts to redress the imbalance against Malays by drastic measures. It was that which laid the basis for those NCB courses, which often had the agenda of raising awareness of Malay rights, often to the exclusion of Malaysian ones.

It was, according to some of those who attended these courses, rather racial if not racist and while there were some non-Malays who attended these courses, the composition was predominantly Malay and dealt mostly with Malay rather than Malaysian issues.

There could have been yet another agenda. Umno derives its power from Malays and it was necessary for it to continuously court that from the Malays. There is little doubt that the NCB courses were used for this as well. If Umno’s coalition partners did not object, it was because Umno was dominant.

But things are changing. An increasing number of Malaysians are realising the dangers of racial division and lack of unity and feel the need to do something about it – something that will make all Malaysians feel they belong.

Somewhere along the line, we must realise that fighting for Malay rights (or Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Orang Asli etc rights) does not ever make us more nationalistic — fighting for Malaysian rights does. There is no such thing as a Malay nationalist just as there is no such thing as a Chinese or any other but a Malaysian nationalist.

The day we all realise that, that is the day we will start thinking of ourselves as Malaysians first before anything else. That’s not an easy mindset to build because you have to destroy first the false edifices of more than half a century which extolled championing the rights of individual races.

History teaches us that all of us were at some time or other “pendatang” – it’s a question of when. Even the orang asli came here from elsewhere. Science tells us that we may have all descended from the African Eve tens of thousands of years ago.

And genetics tells us without a doubt that there is no inherent difference in our genes that makes us different in terms of intelligence or ability from anyone else.

Under our skin, our language, our religion and our culture we are much more similar than most of us realise. Education should make us realise all these beyond a shadow of a doubt.

When these are the true lessons that we choose to impart to our children, the process of integration becomes so much easier – we simply point out to them that we are basically the same and that our differences are artificial and perfectly surmountable.

You can debate about how much to help Malays and other disadvantaged communities and how you should go about this so that there is maximum benefit to the community as a whole instead of privileged groups and individuals.

But you should not have to debate about whether you or I or the other is more Malaysian. You are either Malaysian or you are not. The Constitution provides for only one class of citizenship. Measures put in there for the sake of social redress don’t count in terms of citizenship. Period.

A complete revamp of not just the NCB course is necessary but a dire need to change the entire way we look at race and Malaysians. We must emphasise national aspirations and de-emphasise racial ones. We must treat Malaysians equally.