This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 21, 2019 - October 27, 2019

SO the good people who attended the Malay Dignity Congress early this month say it is the first step towards creating a Bangsa Malaysia, as the New Straits Times stated in a headline a few days ago.

Several leaders from Bersatu, PAS, Umno and PKR were quoted by NST as saying that the consolidation of Malay political parties in a new union is necessary for Bangsa Malaysia to flourish.

The party presidents were not interviewed but the leaders mentioned in the report are well-known in national politics. The highest-ranking official among them was PAS deputy president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

Their logic is that to unite Malaysians under the Bangsa Malaysia concept, the first step would have to be uniting the majority race — the Malays. Hence the call for Malay political parties to consolidate. As they see it, the present time is a golden opportunity.

Bersatu supreme council member Datuk Seri Redzuan Yusof reportedly said that to create Bangsa Malaysia, Malays must unite first and only then would come the question of who would lead. To him, as the majority race, it must be the Malays.

“I proposed this idea to Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein recently and he agreed to it,” Redzuan told NST.

I wonder if the remarks by Tuan Ibrahim and Redzuan had anything to do with the revelation by Pakatan Harapan that former Umno vice-president Hishammuddin and his colleagues are pushing for a government that excludes DAP and Amanah (see accompanying story). Some political observers certainly think so.

Datuk Khalid Jaafar of PKR, who is adviser to Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, said the idea of unifying Malay-based parties must be considered but it “must be realistic with regard to the Malaysian demographic where Malays and bumiputeras are the majority” and “it must be stressed that it is not racial”.

However, Khalid’s PKR colleague, Datuk Abdullah Sani Abdul Sani, feels the call to unite the Malays first is puzzling as the plurality of Malaysian society must be taken into account where everyone, regardless of race, has certain rights as a Malaysian.

“My question is, what is the goal of this unification?” he asks.

This makes me wonder if all this is a response to the Bangsa Malaysia seminar by Abim to be held at the end of this month.

As the seminar is being organised by people seen as pro-Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the PKR president himself is scheduled to give a talk, it is perceived as an event to boost Anwar’s standing among all Malaysians as it is not about any particular race.

That is open to speculation, naturally. Politicians and political interests aside, what is in it for the rakyat?

But first, what constitutes Bangsa Malaysia?

“Bangsa Malaysia should refer to one who is proud to be Malaysian, upholds the constitution and speaks Bahasa Malaysia, as is mentioned in Wawasan 2020,” is how political analyst Dr Sivamurugan Pandian sees it.

Political analyst Dr Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid opines, “Bangsa Malaysia is literally the Malaysian nation, one which is built on diversity, not uniformity — groups of people who have sworn loyalty to Malaysia as a nation state based on mutually agreed principles of nationhood that began as a social contract among different ethno-religious groups and crystallised as the Rukun Negara”.

Clearly, to Fauzi, bangsa is about nation and not race. “Yes, it’s not race. This is how social scientists understand it. On how the public came to understand bangsa as race, I blame journalists who write without due regard for the concept’s significance in social science. The skewed understanding is then taken up by politicians who exploit it for their narrow agendas,” he says.

So, what should the Oct 26 Bangsa Malaysia seminar focus on? One political observer tells me it should attempt to make Malaysians think and act more as Malaysians and not along communal lines.

“It might be an old theme espoused in the past by most leaders but it is a very important message to drive home in the present amid the toxic politics of race and religion that various quarters, mainly Umno and PAS, and their network of motley NGOs and so-called ustaz are playing,” he says.

Talking about the seminar, one cannot help but ask what is Anwar’s role in it. After all, he is the main attraction, never mind that he is said to be prime minister-in-waiting. Besides the Bangsa Malaysia seminar, PKR has teamed up with the Penang government to organise a dialogue on Islam and Confucianism in November. Anwar is said to be featured in the event as well.

“Anwar’s challenge will be in balancing the message between the needs and rights of the non-Malays and at the same time, assuring the people that the position of the Malays and Islam in the constitution will remain protected and the government agenda for bumiputeras to be empowered continues,” says the observer.

A former media practitioner is of the opinion that consolidating Malay political parties as a first step to Bangsa Malaysia is “wishful thinking and may even be an attempt to justify the Malay Dignity Congress, which was seen as exclusive and not inclusive”.

To him, the call is all about political survival and being the dominant Malay party.

As he sees it, “People, both Malays and non-Malays, will always have their own opinion irrespective of what their leaders do. So, it is better to work on Bangsa Malaysia with them directly rather than wait for Malay leaders to so-call consolidate”.

Mohsin Abdullah is contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.

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