‘Super’ race concept an insult to BN: minister
Malaysiakini
Nov 7, 2006

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Bernard Dompok today expressed his concerns over the rejection of the Bangsa Malaysia concept by the Johor Menteri Besar.

“In crafting Vision 2020, serious considerations have been given to the roles for all the races in this country,” said Dompok, who is also Sabah's Upko president, in a statement.

Dompok added that he was also alarmed by the emergence of a new terminology - 'a pivotal race' - arising from Abdul Ghani Othman’s policy speech at the Johor Umno convention on Sunday.

“For a 'super' race to emerge at this stage is an affront to the integrity of the Barisan Nasional as a party and government,” said Dompok.

The Sabah politician said that the unity among the races in the country has been long touted as one of the cornerstones of achieving Vision 2020.

“If accepted this present proposal is tantamount to scraping of one of the nine strategic challenges of Vision 2020. Thus by definition itself, Vision 2020 can never be achieved.”

Malay and others

Abdul Ghani drew widespread controversy by saying that the Bangsa Malaysia concept would only jeopardise the stability of the country.

“The term Bangsa Malaysia continues to be lauded by our friends under the name of unity and understanding without proper thought for its definition,” he had said.

He further added that even if the term Bangsa Malaysia had to be used, it should be limited to the definition of the people of Malaysia with the Malays as the main race.

Abdul Ghani argued that the Bangsa Malaysia concept was unacceptable because the constitution clearly defined the races in Malaysia distinctly as Malay and others.

Language switch

At the same speech, Abdul Ghani also said that the government should scrap the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in schools.

To this, Dompok said that the rationale for the switch to the usage of English in the teaching of these two subjects was well explained at the outset.

“It is now for the government to ensure that the language is given enough attention at all levels of the education process in order for the country to regain it's competency in the language,” added Dompok, who is also the chairperson of the parliamentary select committee on integrity.

Many other ruling Barisan Nasional coalition members had slammed Abdul Ghani over his Bangsa Malaysia remarks.

They said Abdul Ghani’s comment was putting down the ruling coalition's fundamental principle of integration and unity among the different component parties.

Just Ghani's view

Meanwhile, Soon Li Tsin reports from Dewan Rakyat that the government will continue with efforts to promote Bangsa Malaysia in line with Vision 2020.

“That was just the view of Johor Umno and not the prime minister himself. They are just voicing their concerns. This is not Umno’s stand as a whole,” said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz.

“We don’t clamp down on what our component parties want to say. We give them free speech.”

“If every statement we make risks disrupting the peace in the country then DAP can be said to be doing the same with the things they say,” he retorted.