I applied for a savings account for Sophia Meiyin some weeks back. In the box for 'race' I left blank. If Malaysia is to be truly a melting pot, that little box should be gotten rid of. I'm not going to label my child Malay for she is only half Malay. What about her other half which is Chinese? What about other kids who are born of mixed parentage too? The Chindians or Eurasions? What if they are a quarter Malay, a bit of German, a bit of Chinese and Portuguese? Are they still labeled as Malay? That would be disregarding their other inherited bits. They are as much Chinese as they are German or Portuguese or Malay.
If we still need to fill in the 'race' box in this day and age, we are by far regressing as a multi-racial country rather than progressing.
On second thoughts, I should have just put Malaysian in the box.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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4 comments:
Exactly. I'm sick of hearing people say I'm Malay when I'm only about a quarter Malay, while completely ignoring all the other parts.
It's the same in Singapore too... legacy of the Malaysia days I guess. I tried to leave the box blank but they filled in for me... Malay. Since it traditionally follows the father. Oh well...
advice from some malay (partial and full) friends: to fill in the box as malay anyway since all that matters here is whether you're bumi or not. that way, sophia will receive all the benefits of being bumi. might as well milk it for all it's worth.
I will just leave the box blank for Shuyin, just like what I normally do for myself.
Two weeks ago I opened an account at stanchart and I left the race box blank. The officer-in-charge filled it in for me when she keyed in in her computer. Guess what I saw on the printout for me to sign? She put this MOHD ZAIFUDDIN ARIF BIN ZAINAL ABIDIN as CHINESE!
I had a good laugh signing that paper!
Anyway, I don't believe in classifying Shuyin as Bumi just so that she can get some unfair advantage in Malaysia...
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