Wednesday, May 28, 2008

We are of one bangsa, Bangsa Malaysia - The Sun

May 28, 2008

DEPUTY Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak made an interesting statement on Sunday. He said that Bangsa Malaysia will become a reality when all the people in this country regard each other as Malaysian rather than members of the various ethnic groups with their own separate culture, language and religion.

For one thing the statement affirms that Bangsa Malaysia is a national aspiration as well as an objective. For another it is in the interest of all Malaysians to work hard to make Bangsa Malaysia a reality.

Even though Bangsa Malaysia was talked about by the government nearly two decades ago, there was little real effort made to make the concept acceptable to everyone. It almost faded away from national memory after strong opposition to the idea caused the government to falter and caused it to be removed from the priority list of things that need to be done.

Fifty years of experience of living together should have made us more broadminded, tolerant, mature and even wiser so as to be able to discuss this common aspiration openly and with respect and decorum.What is needed now is a constant reminder through all kinds of campaigns that Bangsa Malaysia is a national objective. It should be the central theme of every National Unity Month.

Just as coordinated campaigns were conducted by the government to promote Bahasa Malaysia several years ago, the same type of campaigns should be undertaken to make Bangsa Malaysia part of the national consciousness.

If we truly want a Bangsa Malaysia, we have no choice but to work hard and put in all our effort to achieve it. There is no point in all of us saying Bangsa Malaysia is the national objective but doing very little to make it a reality. An important element of this effort is to regard each other as fellow Malaysians. If it is a process, as stated by Najib, then it is a process that had already begun, albeit informally, long ago even though not everyone was involved. All that is required now is to build on it and widen it to include everyone.

Also, it has been acknowledged that the strength of Malaysia is its diversity – people of various races, cultures and religions living and working together. Once everyone accepts this diversity, the people would be able to live and work together more harmoniously. There is much that we must do, but from now on let the effort be more concerted and properly coordinated.We must be able to say by the time we celebrate our 100th national day that we are truly one bangsa, Bangsa Malaysia. Our future depends on it.

3 comments:

artic turban said...

hai yah najib ...oh najib what tales you tell, has your nose grown longer, this bangsa malaysia would have been acheived a very long time ago if not for the aparthied policies practised by UMNO,
ALL ROADS LEAD TO UMNO,
who are the ones who make racist statements? UMNO,
WHOSE POLITICIANS INCITE RACIAL TENSIONS WHEN FACED WITH DIFFFICULT QUESTIONS? UMNO
So why this sendiwara, why all this bullshit, you want to talk about BANGSA MALAYSIA, DISSOLVE BUREAU TATA NEGARA, an umno propoganda vehicle whose whole existance is to hate the other races, to marginalise the so called 'OTHERS" SECOND DISOLVE NEP, CREATE AGENDA RAKYAT, TO HELP THE POOR, NO SPECIAL TREATMENTS FOR ANYONE, SCHOLAR-SHIPS GIVEN ON MERIT THAN WE TALK, MEAN WHILE, you can say what you want, we want to see action, free the ag, police, judicary from umno control. let them do their atual jobs, but we know umno will not allow this to happen, why? than the whole present and past members will be facing jail time, a bunch of future jailbirds

Billgates said...

Well said artic turban

Anak Malaysia said...

If you see two reptile snakes and a headed snake's human is speaking about creating a single national citizen, are you going to trust the two reptiles or the human who you are going to get rid of the danger here ?

Recalled the late Mother Teresa quoted when she visited a richman villa, she said that human words from his/her tongue is more danger than the reptiles' split tongues because a human voices speak louder than action whereas the snakes are silent but will bite if provoke only.

Well uttered statement of one Bangsa Malaysia for Malaysia Boleh but hold no bars for a local politician who talks about rights, privileges, scholarships, meritocracy, NEP etc.

Mother Teresa last advised "Dont trust anyone but always trust GOD and One-Self mind is wiser" and spare the snakes lives and get rid of bad human.