“Malaysiakini.com" 8 November 2007
‘Malays have right 'to reclaim lost privileges'’ by Syed Jaymal Zahiid
Do not question the Malay agenda as it is the right of the Malay Malaysians to reclaim their privileges denied them by history, an Umno delegate stressed today.
Batu Pahat Umno division chief Puad Zarkashi told delegates at the Umno assembly that Malays have every right to claim their ‘privileged’ status. “This is the country’s debt to the Malays inherited from the colonial masters’ denial of Malay rights even in their own country,” Puad stressed. Puad, also a senator, then slammed members of a BN component party (whom he did not name) who criticised the 'Hidup Melayu' slogan chanted by Umno president and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday at the end of his policy speech. “When we shout Hidup Melayu! (Long live Malays), it does not mean we are racist? No, we are not.” he pointed out. “Their (unnamed BN component party) voice was an annoying one. I am disgusted to even mention the party’s name. Umno must not be swayed by the party’s insolence. Let them wither away,” he said.
In the spirit of Malay nationalism, Puad also urged the prime minister to rename Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu as it is the language of the natives even before ‘Malaysia’ was created. The Umno division chief argued that the Umno constitution demands members of the party to defend Bahasa Melayu as the national language.“The Federal Constitution under Article 152 also states that the national language is Bahasa Melayu, not banjar or bugis (both are native languages but of different tribes),” he said while holding up a copy of the Federal Constitution.
Public universities teaching in English too came under Puad’s criticism because he believed that the native language “should not be second to the language of the colonialisers”. From tertiary education, he then turned his attention to secondary and primary schools where he asked mathematics and science to be taught in Bahasa Melayu. “I know we have spent billions of ringgit to teach the two subjects in English. But let us rather lose money than allow Malay civilisation to disappear,” he said.
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