“To PKR Member of Parliament (MP) Hassan Karim, I think it’s best that you focus on the “Bangsa Sodom” that’s flourishing within your party instead of worrying about Johoreans and how they choose to refer to themselves. At the end of the day, a group of sodomites who share a common interest is most definitely reminiscent of the Quranic race that earned God’s wrath for engaging in sexual acts against the order of nature”
Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
The word ‘Bangsa’ in Malay may either refer to a race, a nation, a nationality or a people of common descent and (or) history. How one interprets the word depends on who’s doing the interpretation and the context within which the interpretation is made. To ask any one individual to stick to a particular interpretation is utterly stupid and reflects on the lack of intelligence in the person who’s doing the asking.
Let’s take the case of Ah Chan for instance.
To many, he is just another guy out there who’s as much Chinese as he is Malaysian. Ask him, and he may tell you that he is Chinese first and Malaysian later. Legally speaking, of course, that makes no sense, as neither ethnicity nor nationality take precedence over one another. And neither does the idea of being “Malaysian first, Chinese later” make any logical sense, as one’s citizenship definitely has no bearing whatsoever on one’s ethnicity both legally and biologically.
But the whole thing would make sense if the person saying these things is merely trying to express his (or her) priorities. For instance, if Ah Chan were to say that he is “Malaysian first, Chinese later,” he probably wants you to know that his priority is to coexist with all Malaysians peacefully and that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, i.e., the ethnic group he belongs to.
Likewise, if he says that he is “Chinese first, Malaysian later,” he could be telling you that if he had to choose between saving the lives of 10 Malay-Muslims or that of a Chinaman, he would go for the Chinaman. Either way, it would be an insult to tell him that he’s not Chinese, as that would be as good as telling to go back to China for thinking that his ancestors came from there.
You get the idea.
The thing is, Malaysians have not evolved to a point where one is willing to disregard his (or her) ancestral ties with his (or her) country of origin. Almost every Malaysian feels passionately about the country his (or her) forefathers came from. There are even those who cherish their ancestral ties with local townships and will not agree to marry a person from another township. Try telling a rural Kelantanese to marry someone from Ipoh and see what I mean.
To this day, you still have people referring to themselves as “Perakians,” “Selangorians,” “Johorians” and what have you. These people feel strongly about the states they grew up in and may even exaggerate to defend the uniqueness of those states. But that does not make them any less Malaysian than a Chinaman who refers to himself as “Chinese.” It follows, if you can have a Chinaman referring to himself as “Chinese,” you can also have a guy from Johor referring to himself as “Johorrean”
Johorean, Perakian, Kelantanese, Chinese – these are all references to race, defined by geographical borders, origins, ancestral traits and what have you. That effectively makes Johoreans “people who belong to Bangsa Johor” and the Chinese, “Bangsa Cina.” Stretch the list, and you will see that we have all sorts of races in Malaysia, including “Bangsa Kuala Lumpur,” “Bangsa Perak,” “Bangsa Sandakan” and even “Bangsa Universiti Sains Malaysia.” I personally belong to both “Bangsa Pulau Pinang” and “Bangsa Selangor.” Does that make me any less Malaysian than Ah Chan or Kamal?
No.
So, to PKR Member of Parliament (MP) Hassan Karim, I think it’s best that you focus on the “Bangsa Sodom” that’s flourishing within your party instead of worrying about Johoreans and how they choose to refer to themselves. At the end of the day, a group of sodomites who share a common interest is most definitely reminiscent of the Quranic race that earned God’s wrath for engaging in sexual acts against the order of nature.
