KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin should explain his previous embrace of the “Bangsa Johor” concept when he now rejects the “Bangsa Malaysia” concept, DAP lawmaker Edry Faizal Eddy Yusof said today.
The Dusun Tua assemblyman said it was perplexing that the former Johor mentri besar is finding fault with the phrase “Bangsa Malaysia” and denying that such a Malaysian “race” exists when he had freely used the “Bangsa Johor” term while campaigning for the general election last year.
“If Bangsa Malaysia never and will not exist, how about Bangsa Johor? I ask for an explanation from Khaled Nordin, is he being rhetorical in his writing?” Edry asked in a statement.
He was responding to Khaled’s recent statement disavowing Umno’s acceptance of any concept unless it is centred on Islam and the Malay culture, which he said included the DAP’s recent revival of the “Bangsa Malaysia” national identity for all citizens regardless of their background.
Edry pointed out that Khaled had in a run-up to the May 9, 2018 elections posted a message in Malay on his Facebook page that read: “Fellow Bangsa Johor whom I respect, we ask to be given another chance”.
He also suggested that Khaled was likely “confused” when he insisted there is no “Bangsa Malaysia” but only “Rakyat Malaysia”.
“The first flaw that we need to observe carefully is the word ‘bangsa’ that Khaled used. What does he mean by that?
“The second flaw is Khaled’s statement ‘differentiated by political experience’. Does this mean that ethnic and race within Malaysia did not underwent the same political experience when we went through the process of independence?
“Was not there a consensus among all the races to obtain independence from the British then?” Edry asked.
He said it would be too hypocritical if Khaled denied the 1Malaysia concept which existed during the Barisan Nasional administration whereby the formation of Bangsa Malaysia was repeatedly mentioned in 1Malaysia documents published by the Department of Information.
“Not only that, the formation of Bangsa Malaysia is also considered an important core of Wawasan 2020 that has been documented in the Form 5 History syllabus.
“Does this mean that the Malaysian history studied by our students was a mistake?” he asked.
Edry said the Pakatan Harapan administration is only continuing the past government’s efforts in fostering closer ties among the different peoples in the country by developing a national narrative centred on “Bangsa Malaysia”.
