KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — Is a liberal or secular Malay less of a Malay? Must Malays choose between being influenced by the Arabic and the modern Western culture?
These were among questions posed at a forum here titled “Melayu dan makna-maknanya” (Malay and its meanings).
DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud stressed the importance of accepting the diversity within the Malay community, having also objected to the “standardisation” of Malays.
“In my opinion, we have to celebrate diversity. What is wrong if a Malay feels that Arab issues show that he is a Malay? For me, maybe I don’t have the same elements but I’m still a Malay.
“There are many types of Malays, for example, Malays in Bangsar, Malays in Shah Alam, Malays in Johor, Malays in Penang. So what is wrong if we celebrate diversity? To me, there’s no problem,” the political secretary to DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said during the forum yesterday.
Another speaker, Nurhayyu Zainal from Parti Sosialis Malaysia, said the labels of “liberal” and “secular” Malays were being used by some to gain political mileage, but added that politics should be about the interests of all ethnic communities rather than the championing of a single ethnic group.
“The important thing is politics is for the championing of every human needs, who is oppressed, who needs, that’s what needs to be emphasised, not who is secular, who is liberal, that is not the point,” she said.
Lawyer Syahredzan Johan, who has experienced being tagged as liberal and secular, said he was told in the past that he had betrayed Islam and the Malays and was therefore no longer a Malay.
While acknowledging that such messages could be politically-motivated, Syahredzan said these attacks cannot simply be dismissed as such, noting that his detractors appear to truly believe and feel his alleged betrayal of the Malays.
“Yes, there is political reasons, but more worrying is that there are people out there who truly feel Dyana or me are outside the Malay community because of what we do,” said the lawyer who spearheaded the Bar Council’s National Young Lawyers’ Committee’s campaign to abolish the Sedition Act.
“Why is this happening? Of course we go back to politics also, because our political masters, our politicians always say Malay is this, this, this, if not, these people are outside Malayness,” he said, suggesting such Malays are uncomfortable with their identity and felt the need for all Malays to conform to the official set of characteristics given.
But this could possibly be reversed if the Malays who constantly feel under siege learn of the glory in Malay history, he said.
“At the end of the day, that is to me the definition that we can apply to ourselves — whether we feel that we are Malay. We cannot then decide whether a person is more Malay or less Malay because we do not have that right, because to be able to define what is Malay is something that is very difficult,” he later added.
During the same forum, Universiti Malaya’s Dr Lawrence Ross noted that the characteristics of a Malay as used in Malaysia may not apply elsewhere, citing as example those considered to have Malay ancestry in Thailand may choose to identify themselves with other identities like Thai Muslims.
“It’s a situation that (shows) Malays are not homogeneous, not something that can be easily defined. If you ask 100 people, maybe you will get 100 views,” the senior lecturer in the university’s socio-culture department with a specialisation in Malay arts said.
The forum organised by Projek Dialog also featured Syed Muhiyiddin Al-Attas as a speaker.
