Malays Can Become A Strong Race - Indonesian Professor

Alor Setar, Malaysia - The Malays can become a strong race and respected by others if it can unite ethnic, religion, culture and race, said an Indonesian professor.

Prof Dr Syarif I. Alqadrie of Universitas Tanjungpura, Pontianak in Kalimantan said a race based only on ethnic and religion would not be strong enough to withstand a revolution or over hundreds of years.

“Each ethnic group in the world is obsessed with uniting the four elements to create an identity for a strong race and nation,” sad Dr Syarif in his working paper “Religiosity, Ethnicity and Identity in the Malay Archipelago” at the Malay World Conference here Thursday.

Dr Syarif said history has proven that nation building via the political and ethnic process still need religion, language and culture to become stronger.

He said the Malays in Malaysia were lucky as their rights and privileges were protected compared to the Malays in Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.

“If the Malays in Malaysia can unite the four elements, then they can become stronger as they are protected by the government,” he added.

Meanwhile, former Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) director-general Datuk Aziz Deraman said recent poltical developments had split the Malays.

He said the split became wider due to “political arrogance” within parties or between parties and the people.

“The time has come for Malay political parties to find a new formula to strengthen Malay unity,” he said in his paper “The Malay World: Islam and the Malays in the Malay Archipelago”.

Aziz said the new leadership has undertaken efforts to strengthen the Malays economically and socially.

“The 1Malaysia concept is aimed at strengthening national unity and it can only be achieved by stressing on cultural values.

“The boldness of non-Malays of late is beyond control and if left unchecked can destroy the nation,” he said.

To achieve the 1Malaysia concept, Malaysians should appreciate national policies particularly the Constitution, Rukun Negara, the geography and demography of the community.

Aziz said the heterogeneous characters of Malaysians of various races who were orginally immigrants with different traditions and religions called for special skills in dealing with issues.

The two-day conference was attended by laureates and culturalists from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

Source: http://www.bernama.com (11 June 2009)
Photo: http://www.asiafinest.com

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