Ketuanan Melayu

Of late, discussions about the "Ketuanan Melayu" and Bangsa Malaysia are being organised. Perdana Leadership Foundation organised a discourse on Bangsa Malaysia at their Putrajaya office on the 12th of November. I would like to quote some of the panelists who discussed about the "Ketuanan Melayu".

On the subject of Ketuanan Melayu bandied by UMNO and receiving the brunt of current criticism, Prof Shamsul shed a different light to the often misused and misleading term derived from the term Malay Dominance coined by Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad. Tan Sri Abdullah was present at the Perdana Discourse.

In the Q&A session, Prof Shamsul expressed his disagreement and criticised Tan Sri Abdullah for the used of the term and initiating the concept of Ketuanan Melayu. He explained that the meaning of "Tuan" in Malay also means respect, as in the use in the word "Tuan Puteri". The dominance meaning received prominance when often used to address the orang putih during Colonial times and continued to misled the meaning of Tuan.

Another point to add, octogenarian Tan Sri Khalid Abdullah, the former group Chief Editor of Utusan Malaysia, explained in a Conference in Johor Baru that the word Ketuanan Melayu first surface in the early days of Merdeka to mean benevolence. The "Tuan", which is basically the Malay ruler confering citizenship to 1,000,000 local-born Immigrants before Merdeka
It seems that "Ketuanan Melayu" is a favourite subject nowadays. Yesterday, Raja Nazrin has warned that immigrants has to accept the norms and traditions of the bumiputra in order to live in peace and harmony. On the other hand, it was reported that MCA slams chauvinism of both UMNO and PAS. “It was the vitriol and behaviour of superiority of one race above others that was one of the reasons that caused consternation among the multiracial Malaysian general public resulting with the backlash of votes against BN during the March 8 polls,” Lee Wei Kiat, MCA's Information and Communication Chief stated in a media statement. How wrong could he be. I think this is the time that all Malaysians know the facts about this nation. Definitely, the Malays are not seeking superiority in their own country but to get what they are supposedly should be getting. Please read the 153 Article in the Federal Constitution. Clearly, the rights of the Malays and the non Malays are protected under the Federal Constitution. Nevertheless, all these crops up because some view it to be the weaknesses of the leadership in handling these matter. In the closing part of one of the session at the Perdana Leadership Foundation, Dr. Chandra, one of the panelist concur with one comment from the floor calling for a strong leadership as it is eseential in a diverse society like Malaysia. Let us all hope the next premiere will bring Malaysia to a greater height.