Dr M 'confusing race and religion'

Malaysiakini

'Mahathir is confusing race with religion when he talks of Indian Muslims having to choose whether to be considered Indian or Muslim.'

Forget the roots, we're Malaysians

Zainal: Dr Mahathir Mohamad, instead of advising the Indian Muslims to choose to be either to Indian or a Muslim, you should advise the Malays to choose to become either a Malay or a Muslim.

I know Umno people choose to be Malays while PAS people choose to be Muslims. That is why PAS rejects 'Ketuanan Melayu' which is an un-Islamic practice while Umno people fight for it.

SameSame: What a joke. He finally realised that we are Malaysians. He started all this, and now he wants to make amends. He sowed the seed of the hate within his own community and Umno so let him start telling them that we are all one and equal in the eyes of the country and his religion.

Mahathir, we already were Malaysians way before you decided to tell us so.

Kee Thuan Chye: Firstly, most Chinese and Indian citizens of this country consider themselves Malaysians. I certainly do. I have no links whatsoever with China. I am committed to the idea of a Bangsa Malaysia and I gave my children Malay, Indian and Chinese names.

However, we cannot eschew our ethnicity and our roots. We practise Chinese customs but also integrate the best from other cultures, including the Malay culture. Many of us are not like Mahathir, who seems keen to deny his Indian origins. Even the Balinese of Indonesia retain their Hindu way of life.

Secondly, Mahathir is confusing race with religion when he talks of Indian Muslims having to choose whether to be considered Indian or Muslim. This is the great fallacy of this country, and it's shocking that he, a supposedly learned man and former prime minister, does not know the distinction between the two.

He is clearly resorting to his favourite subterfuge to deliberately fool the people. This is patently wrong.

Doc: I'm getting a bit confused here. When I was young, I was called a Malaysian. A couple of years ago, Umno called me a 'pendatang'. Two weeks ago, Umno's mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia called me a 'keling'. Now Mahathir says I'm a 'Malaysian'. Not sure what Umno will call me in 2010.

Thiang YH: Please know the difference between race and religion. You can change your religion, but not your race. And if all of us are Malaysians, why are we still classified under the different races in all our statutory forms?

Kanasai: I am 58 years old. Out of the country, I am known as a Malaysian in all immigration forms without the need to identify my religious belief or race. In Malaysia, I have to tick on the space 'Chinese' first and religion next.

A couple of days ago, this Mahathir defended the 30 percent quota for a particular race in our institutions of higher learning. What is he talking about now?

Jimmy Ng: For a person like Mahathir, who was the PM for 22 years, to make a comment like this is a farce. After all, he was the one who was responsible for perpetuating racist-tainted policies during his 'tyrannical reign'.

Why didn't he end the practice of having to state one's race in all those government forms then? He had 22 years to do it. Such a hypocrite.

Perak Boleh: Mr Ex-PM, we are all Malaysians now, is that right? Then, please tell all the government departments and agencies to amend their official form to remove the need to state what race the applicants are.

Just have a single box to tick 'Malaysian' or 'Non-Malaysian'. Then you can start telling us that we are really '1Malaysia'.

Madeline Loh: Dear Tun, the majority of non-bumiputera Malaysians are already second- generation Malaysians (probably more than second-generation). We think of ourselves as Malaysians but we had, and have, leaders who created and widened the divide between the races to suit their own ends.

Even you lacked the courage and the inclination to stop it. We have no home but Malaysia, and China and India are as foreign to us as Malabar is to you. People like you propagate the divide.

Malaysia will happen when people like you stop labeling Malaysians as bumiputera, Chinese, Indian, etc, and start accepting us all by the content of our character and the fact that we are all children of one god rather than treating some as children of a lesser god.

Dood: For someone who was the architect of many of the country's racist policies during his rule, I find his sincerity and honesty very much in question.

Visvalingam: Deceit is Mahathir's acronym and synonym. Even after all that has been exposed on his cheap deception, he still does not understand the difference between a Muslim and an Indian. How can religion change one's race?

Jbss: For 22 long years, you reigned supreme as the 'dictator' of the land called 'Malaysia'. You thought of every possible way to usurp the independent roles of the judiciary, the legislature and the administrative wings and all the other enforcement agencies in Malaysia just to hang on to power. You chose to 'divide and rule' by differentiating the races just like the way you accused the British of 'divide and rule.'

Your race-based policies brought disunity, religious intolerance, corruption, destruction of all our democratic institutions, gross injustice and lawlessness as seen now in this country.

Even now in your twilight years you are still talking about differentiating according to ethnicity and religion when the simplest solution to unite all Malaysians irrespective of ethnic origin is to call all Malaysians 'Malaysian' and treat every Malaysian alike.