For Malaysians, embracing Malaysia Day with love for country strengthens unity among races

Kuala Lumpur, the potent symbol of Malaysia’s unity

 By Haib Toumi

KUALA LUMPUR: For Malaysians, Malaysia Day is not just another public holiday.

And it also goes beyond the mere commemoration of the formation of nation named Malaysia.

Malaysia Day holds a special significance for it brings all Malaysians together, regardless of their religion, race and ethnicity, and helps foster a deep sense of patriotism.

The day is a riveting reflection of the positive mindset of a nation that has invariably persisted to transform crippling disadvantages into motivating advantages.

And challenges, Malaysia did have, particularly the multitude of races and religions, often ominous sources of bias and mistrust and formidable obstacles to social cohesion and national unity.

However, Malaysians succeeded to meld a nation in which citizens while proud of their identities and of who they were, insisted on being Malaysians first and foremost. The challenges have been successfully turned into opportunities.

What has really mattered since the formation of the nation is that how all the people coming from a wide spectrum of races and religions have built a unified nation to which everybody feels they strongly belong and where sectarianism, intolerance, and bigotry have no room despite attempts by some radicals to impose them. Citizens are not at risk and foreigners do not feel threatened or unwelcome.

Malaysians have become so keen on preserving the national trait that they do not hesitate to sound the alarm in case they feel their solidarity could be fissured in any way.

Writing for the Daily Star, Tan Yi Liang once wrote: “I do believe we’re put on this Earth with a unique set of privileges and challenges as well as strengths and weaknesses so we learn to come together in a mutual web of cooperation and support.”

“Where we are strong and privileged, we can reach out to help those who were not blessed with our strengths and privileges. I call it the Great Web. It binds and links us all, if only we can open ourselves to it.”

In his historical account of what happened in Malaysia after its independence in 1957, Mahathir Mohammad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, said independent Malaysia recognised the citizenship rights of the non-Malay and granted them freely.

“This is unlike many countries in the region where strict conditions were imposed. In fact, some immigrants were actually expelled. The hope for independence was that the non-Malays would accept a single national language and a single national identity. But it became clear very quickly that the Chinese and the Indians wanted to retain their identities, their mother tongues and cultures. They did not want to be solely Malaysians, certainly not Malay,” he said. “At the beginning some prominent people tried multi-racial politics but this was rejected by the ordinary Malays, Chinese and Indians. In the end we settled for a compromise — retain your racial identity but cooperate with each other in a coalition of racial parties.”

However, the formula collapsed when English schools were abolished and the Malays, Chinese and Indian children went to their own schools rather than to the national schools where the teaching was in the national language.

“The hope for true national integration faded. After this, even the attempt to put the schools from the three language streams in one campus was rejected by the Chinese … The lower-ranking leaders, the ordinary members of political parties and the people as a whole had shown no sign of forgetting their racial identities. There may be few liberal-minded ones who reject race but some who do this do so because they believe their own race would gain by it.

“Then came the resurgence of Islam worldwide. The Malaysian Malays began to adopt Islamic conservativeness, especially with the dress code. This tended to push them further apart from the non-Muslims who saw this as an attempt to differentiate Muslim Malaysians from non-MuslimMalaysians … The behaviour of some extremist exponents of Islamic separateness did not help. And so the races drifted further and further apart.”

Mahathir then said what needed to be done to foster national unity.

“If we still want Malaysian unity, we need to be willing to make sacrifices regarding what we consider to be our racial rights. Everyone has to do this. The leaders must be given some mandate to discuss these matters in private and to make concessions. After each step the lower rung leaders of each race must be given full briefing as to why the concessions have to be made. It would be useless if they don’t agree,” he said. “Provided we can roll back the present unhealthy trends and redirect them towards more positive non-racial objectives, provided we do this slowly by small steps, we may be able to create a truly Malaysian identity where race would gradually become less important. It will take time but with sincerity we may reverse the present trends and move towards increasing cooperation and integration.”

Over the years, Malaysians warmly have accepted the need to recognise differences and welcomed slogans calling for and insisting on being together in unity in a nation that is harmony. They called it “One Malaysia.”

“Together in unity, a nation in harmony. One Malaysia”.

“We strongly believe in this vision and should work together to achieve it,” Charlie, a taxi driver, said. Coming from a Chinese, the support was significant. “‘One Malaysia’ concept is laudable. Malaysian society needs to recognise differences,” he said.

In keeping up with the unity call, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last week urged Malaysians to embrace the true spirit of this year’s Malaysia Day with a deep love for the country, an attitude of kindness and caring and strengthening unity among the various races.

Anwar expressed confidence that the country is strong and able to leap forward if all Malaysians are bold enough to reject prejudice and foster understanding and love, Malaysia’s news agency Bernama reports.

This year’s Malaysia Day adopted the same theme as the National Day 2023 –“Malaysia MADANI: Tekad Perpaduan Penuhi Harapan” (Determination in Unity, Fulfilling Hope), while the Iban phrase “Segulai Sejalai” (Together in Unity) is used as the unity slogan across the country, Bernama added.