'Racial distinction good, anak Malaysia bad'
Published: Jun 11, 2011 8:13 AM | Updated: Jun 12, 2011 11:40 AM
The Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association (PPMM) said they opposed removing racial boundaries in official forms, and that the generic term ‘anak Malaysia’ was “confusing ...not in line with social order” and allegedly infringes on “constitutional rights”.
The Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association (PPMM) said they opposed removing racial boundaries in official forms, and that the generic term ‘anak Malaysia’ was “confusing ...not in line with social order” and allegedly infringes on “constitutional rights”.
“PPMM supports the National Registration Department’s (NRD) rejection of the application for a child to be registered as ‘anak Malaysia’ recently. Such an application only confuses Malaysian society and is not in line with our social order that has been practised since long.
“PPMM also views this application as an infringement of the rights enshrined in our federal constitution,” said the group’s president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar (left) in a statement today.
The group of lawyers said race was not something that could be concocted, but was something rooted in history and culture of the respective races.
“To create a new race at this time is extremely inappropriate because all the races of the world have been identified ....” said Zainul.
He said PPMM opposed any government move to eliminate any indications of race and religion in official forms and records.
“This is because in Malaysia, it is very important to know one’s race and religion, not to discriminate, but in order to implement rights and laws,” said the lawyer.
The group was likely responding to NRD’s recent rejection of Subang Jaya rep Hannah Yeoh and her husband Ramachandran Muniandy’s (both in photo above) attempt to register their newborn as ‘anak Malaysia’ rather than ‘Chinese’ or ‘Indian’.
Supporters of the move have argued that race distinction in official records is not very reflective of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s purported 1Malaysia.
Racial inferiority: ‘Live with it’
‘Every citizen must submit and accept that there are differences in privileges among the rakyat of Malaysia, as long as those distinctions are not oppressive or cruel to any race,” the PPMM president said further.
Zainul added that the government has “given in too much to various issues that sometimes is not according to the federal constitution”.
For example, he said the term “Bahasa Malaysia” was unconstitutional as it really should be called “Bahasa Melayu” and called for the authorities to bring back the term in schools.
He called on the government to “stand firm” against the ‘anak Malaysia’ issue as “race and ethnicity is not only an identity, but comes with rights and laws with its own different laws (from that of other races)”.
He warned that allowing such an application would “open the floodgates wide” to other similar applications to do away with racial categorisation.
This, he argued, would “erode the identities of various races and cultures of Malaysia”.
He ended with the bizarre conclusion that retaining distinct racial identities would "reinforce toleration and improve competitiveness amongst the races".
“PPMM supports the National Registration Department’s (NRD) rejection of the application for a child to be registered as ‘anak Malaysia’ recently. Such an application only confuses Malaysian society and is not in line with our social order that has been practised since long.“PPMM also views this application as an infringement of the rights enshrined in our federal constitution,” said the group’s president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar (left) in a statement today.
The group of lawyers said race was not something that could be concocted, but was something rooted in history and culture of the respective races.
“To create a new race at this time is extremely inappropriate because all the races of the world have been identified ....” said Zainul.
He said PPMM opposed any government move to eliminate any indications of race and religion in official forms and records.
“This is because in Malaysia, it is very important to know one’s race and religion, not to discriminate, but in order to implement rights and laws,” said the lawyer. The group was likely responding to NRD’s recent rejection of Subang Jaya rep Hannah Yeoh and her husband Ramachandran Muniandy’s (both in photo above) attempt to register their newborn as ‘anak Malaysia’ rather than ‘Chinese’ or ‘Indian’.
Supporters of the move have argued that race distinction in official records is not very reflective of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s purported 1Malaysia.
Racial inferiority: ‘Live with it’
‘Every citizen must submit and accept that there are differences in privileges among the rakyat of Malaysia, as long as those distinctions are not oppressive or cruel to any race,” the PPMM president said further.
Zainul added that the government has “given in too much to various issues that sometimes is not according to the federal constitution”.For example, he said the term “Bahasa Malaysia” was unconstitutional as it really should be called “Bahasa Melayu” and called for the authorities to bring back the term in schools.
He called on the government to “stand firm” against the ‘anak Malaysia’ issue as “race and ethnicity is not only an identity, but comes with rights and laws with its own different laws (from that of other races)”.
He warned that allowing such an application would “open the floodgates wide” to other similar applications to do away with racial categorisation.
This, he argued, would “erode the identities of various races and cultures of Malaysia”.
He ended with the bizarre conclusion that retaining distinct racial identities would "reinforce toleration and improve competitiveness amongst the races".
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