COMMENT Now that Dr Mahathir Mohamad has tasted the bitter medicine of the party which he once created, following a major split in the original Umno, it is hopefully a lot easier for him to see the fallacy of the concept of ketuanan Melayu (or Malay supremacy) that is now rearing its ugly head every now and then.

From the Malay Dilemma, where he focused on the inferiority complex that he said the Malays possessed, he was able to convince the simple Malay rural folk that they were indeed a race more supreme than others, by playing on a few words borrowed from the federal constitution which referred only to the Malay rulers.

Therefore, till today, the Malays are still struggling with their self-identity - whether they are inferior or superior to other races on earth. The ketuanan Melayu concept has pushed them to think that they are the overlords while others are the followers, but unfortunately, in a multiracial society, this is a bane to national unity. It is tearing apart the social fabric of this country that we were once proud of.

Hadi’s version of ketuanan

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s concept of non-Muslims as ‘pak turut’ is just another version of Dr Mahathir’s ketuanan Melayu, except that it is expressed using religion as the justification to show that PAS has political dominance over DAP that he was trying to project. The truth is that these ulama are anything but streetwise, and their biggest loss is when they lost the progressives who were previously the faces of PAS.

The late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat was a much more respected PAS leader compared to Hadi, yet Nik Aziz was a man known for his great humility. Even to his fellow Malays and Muslims, Hadi was considered to be ‘arrogant’. For that reason, the progressives within PAS realised that they could no longer work within the framework with Hadi as the leader; hence, we have the splinter party, Amanah led by Mohamad Sabu.

I was in fact not amused by the way how Terengganu PAS commissioner Satiful Bahri Mamat had created an uproar on social media that an Orang Asli Christian woman by the name of Rozita Othman had become ‘murtad’ (apostate), after Satiful posted a picture of her grave at Taman Gelora Christian Cemetery, Kuantan.

Thanks to Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, who carried out an investigation, we have learnt that Rozita was indeed a Christian from the Orang Asli village of Kampung Soi, Kuantan.

Because Rozita had a Malay name does not necessarily mean that she is a Muslim. Idris Jala, for example, is a Christian from Bario, Sarawak. In the Middle East, there are many Arabs who are Christians although their names may sound Arabic, and they are free to use the name of ‘Allah’ in their worship.

The lack of exposure to the big wide world outside and suspicion, coupled with the concept of ketuanan Melayu, is indeed the cause of a lot of unnecessary ill-wills between people of different race and religious backgrounds in this country.

This should sound familiar to most of us: “Because I use certain words, they are exclusively mine, and no one else can use them”; yet when we research further, a lot of these words came from Hebrew root words.

For example, the Hebrew word Nevi’im (plural for the word, Navi) is, in fact, the root word for the English translation for ‘prophet’ yet we are told that non-Muslims are banned from using the word ‘Nabi’ in Bahasa Malaysia, which simply makes no sense even to some well-known Muslim scholars.

Once again, it is not the truth as taught by the religion but the concept of ‘ketuanan’ that is creating unpleasant relationships between the Muslims and the other communities in this country. Think about what I say.

Mismatched or misfits?

Reality is harsher than what this fanciful concept of ketuanan Melayu can provide to the Malays. In my opinion, it has become a mere booster of the ego than helping the Malays to become more competitive. This explains why when our Malay brothers and sisters have gone overseas to study, and if they are gainfully employed in another country, they prefer not to return to Malaysia.

While every effort was made to brainwash the Malays through the series of lectures that we hear so much about in The National Civics Bureau or Biro Tata Negara (BTN) that, for example, the Malays are supposed to be the lords (tuan) and other races are the immigrants and children of immigrants, a lack of education and sophistication has unfortunately created a brand of Malays in the likes of Sungai Besar Umno division leader Jamal Mohd Yunos, Rani Kulup, Mohd Ali Baharom (or Ali Tinju), PAS Youth chief Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz and Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali.

They want to be the overlords to other races, who are in fact more highly educated, having better financial positions, and more exposed to the big wide world; so through their actions which border towards thuggish and sometimes shameful, they have collectively brought a bad name to the race that they are supposed to champion.

On several occasions, I have written that it is not the society-dubbed ‘rascals’ who can raise the maruah Melayu (Malay dignity), but people like Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, the country’s first Malay lady doctor; her vocal daughter, Marina Mahathir; upright Rafizi Ramli; well-reasoned Mujahid Yusof Rawa; Asia’s best debater Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman; and an eloquent CIMB chairperson, Nazir Razak.

Even ‘Nasi Lemak Anak Dara’ proprietor Siti Hajjar Ahmad deserves to be on the list, together with many others whom I cannot name here.

These should be the role models for the younger generation of Malays to emulate if they want to stay on par with the rest of the world, but no thanks to certain politicians who are the sponsors behind the scene, what are our younger generations watching on television, but men like Jamal, Ali Tinju and Ibrahim Ali? These people appear to be invincible, beyond the possibility of being arrested for their utterances or thuggish actions.

Tomorrow: So, what have we created?

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.