Kelas Menengah Melayu: Kacang Lupakan Kulit

Sunday December 14, 2008

A middle class Malay perspective

WIDE ANGLE WITH HUZIR SULAIMAN

The children of the Establishment tackle some difficult issues.

IN the strident and unnecessarily unpleasant debate over the concept ofketuanan Melayu and the Malay community’s political future, the quiet voices of urban middle-class Malays have yet to make themselves heard.

As a partial corrective, I spoke to several members of a tribe that, while small in number, is intriguing from a social anthropology perspective.

Dain-Iskandar Said is a writer and film director. His father was Datuk Mohamed Said Zain, a diplomat and intelligence officer.

He sees the concept of ketuanan Melayu as “outmoded, out of step with the times we live in, when the world is becoming more and more global. The world over, people are bringing down barriers of race, yet we are trying to instill and install those outmoded values.”

In his eyes, there are many aspects to the problem. “First, what is a Malay? Most Malays I know are some kind of mix, so who defines being Malay? Who are the guardians of the definition?

“The definition of ketuanan Melayu seems to be Umno; it always seems to lead back to Umno’s agenda."

Di atas adalah petikan daripada akhbar The Star yang memuatkan tulisan seorang penulis pojok berbangsa Melayu (?).  Tulisan ini hanya menggunakan maklumat hasil temubual dengan beberapa orang kelas menengah Melayu saja dan sama sekali tidak boleh dijadikan asas suatu rumusan.  Bagaimanapun memang sekarang apabila telah maju orang Melayu semakin berkecamuk. Mungkin mereka yang kita hantar ke negara barat pulang sebagai golongan liberal tiada jatidiri dan citarasa bangsa Melayu dan segologan yang ingin lari dari kebuasan barat masuk ke markas Islam berpaksi di Timur Tengah juga pulang tanpa jatidiri Melayu-Islam dan citarasa Melayu.  Yang liberal condong kepada PKR dan yang Islamis berkiblat kepada PAS.  UMNO hanya dapat saki-bakinya nasionalis Melayu.

Kerajaan harus memikirkan suatu dasar baru demi kelangsungan Melayu-Islam dan ketuanan Melayu.