The longer we deceive ourselves with this multiracial fantasy, the harder it takes to build a cohesive, unified nation . We Malaysians have lived in this fairytale for too long, and this blissful fantasy is now crumbling under the very weight of its own ludicrousness .
We are somehow told to “take pride” of our “multi-racial, multi-cultural” country, as if this is a preferred trait in achieving cohesive statehood. Of course it is not the case. The constant reminding of our “multi-racial, multi-cultural” essence breeds further explicit consciousness of our “race,” and this has now permeated every facet of our lives 24/7. Should we then wonder why we have all become so utterly Racists?
This hyper-ethnocentrism inevitably propagates further ethno-chauvinist tendencies, as each “race” outdo one another to stamp their racial identity in a grotesque manifestation of tribalism gone mad. Is our fragmented social existence a tenable long-term proposition in our daily affairs as a sovereign nation under one flag? No.
Every nation encapsulate a dominant, pervasive socio-cultural essence, a singular identity that defines their populace. A collage of distinct ethno-cultural groups co-existing precariously on a brittle platform of Muhibbah-by-convenience do not make a nation.
We must, therefore, go back to the basics of nationhood. We must have a national identity, driven by a common national language and a set of common values etched in stone. We must extinguish the differentiations that alienated ourselves and that gave rise to the primal instinct to survive amidst competing tribes. So you see, I'm not at all surprised at the heightened degeneration of our sense of nationhood since then, at the current state of affairs, where our acute RACIAL DISTINCTION and terminal CULTURAL DIVERSITY have been further glorified and institutionalised by PM Najib's 1Malaysia fantasy.
