Stop saying Malay first, Tanah Melayu is no more, says Rafidah Aziz

[source:  https://sg.news.yahoo.com/stop-saying-malay-first-tanah-061557402.html

The Malaysian Insider:

September 12, 2015.

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Malays should stop identifying themselves by their race and accept that they live in a diverse nation, former Umno minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz said today, ahead of the September 16 "red shirt" rally organised by Malay groups.

She reminded the Malays that they no longer lived in Tanah Melayu, or Malaya, but were part of Malaysia, a multi-racial country.


"I know, politically, some people don't want (that). 'I'm a Malay first' (they say).
"Where is your country? Tanah Melayu is no more. It's Malaysia now," she said in her public lecture at Universiti Malaya today.


She said Tanah Melayu eventually became Malaysia because their forefathers recognised that they belonged to a nation of diverse people.


"Why do you want to emphasise your Malay-ness, Indian-ness or Chinese-ness?" she asked.


Rafidah said the country was now seeing various groups holding protests against one another because they had been taught to tolerate diversity rather than accept it.
"For as long as you guys learn to tolerate, this is what's going to happen: yellow shirts against red shirts, and very soon there will be purple against green, and what have you," she said.


She urged Malaysians to respect one another and accept that there would always be differences of opinion.


"That is what nation-building is about: Respect. Without that, there is no nation. It's just mortar and bricks and nothing in terms of spirit.


"If you look at the son‎gs that really raise our patriotism, it doesn't say about race or creed.

"It talks about Malaysia, Malaysia, Malaysia. And yet why are we introducing these elements that divide us and cause unnecessary chasms?"

note: Malaysia is formed as a multiracial, multilingual and multi-religious nation on 16 September, 1963.