COMMENT | What is Bangsa Malaysia?
Modified11:22 pm
- James Baldwin,
The Fire Next Time.
COMMENT | Lim Kit Siang recently asked Malaysians to ask themselves one question – “who is the Other in the Malaysian context?” His answer to this question, his point of self-reflection if you will, was this: Is the Other the Chinese and Indians to a Malay Malaysian, the Malays and Indians to a Chinese Malaysian, and the Malays and Chinese to an Indian Malaysian?
As someone who has spent a decade attempting to figure out what it means to be “Malaysian”, I have to say this is the kind of propaganda I have been opposing all this time. Come one, in this context, like it is in many places of the world, the other is what the state defines.
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RACISM is toxic and very evident in Malaysia. It is well organised and has become systemic.
Key political parties are race-based and for nearly six decades, this was the accepted formula. We all contributed to this progression as they were elected and re-elected.
Racism is a human condition that we are all called to transcend. The “other” always remains a significant contributor to who we become.
For more than two decades Dr Mahathir Mohamad was at the helm. Prior to his arrival we had the Rukunegara – a testament of hope and an enabler to the New Economic Policy (NEP).
YOURSAY | M sia’s tiger economy an exercise in myth-making
Modified16 Jan 2021, 11:29 pm
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Manjit Bhatia: Ahh, Malaysia - the miracle economy , the tiger economy , etc. It never was. It never will be. It was and still is a mouse with a tiger s roar.
It s nice to rejoice in myth-making, no doubt led by the miracle economy - the neoclassical economics school of thought, replete with its composition of fallacies and explanandum.
It is seriously doubtful that Malaysia s competitiveness is better than Indonesia s or Vietnam s. That s the old story. The relatively new story, though, is whether Malaysia can compete with the likes of Laos, Cambodia and perhaps even Myanmar, whose economies are enjoying a gush of Chinese capital.