ONLY Malaysians can make Bangsa Malaysia happen, its progenitor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said, noting the government can only do so much for national unity. 

For now, the people are not doing their part, the prime minister said.

“The government wants it but whether the people will receive and accept our ideas or not is a different matter.

“The people are not doing their part. To change the laws is quite simple but it all depends on the people, whether they will accept or not,” Dr Mahathir told The Malaysian Insight.

The prime minister also highlighted the difficulty faced by the Pakatan Harapan government pushing the Bangsa Malaysia ideology.

“You see this is a democracy, meaning you are only the government if you are supported by the majority.

“And every party wants to please the majority, and the majority wants to be identified by race, so we have to stay by that.”

The Bangsa Malaysia concept was introduced by Dr Mahathir during his Vision 2020 speech in 1991, during his first tenure as the prime minister.

The main aim of the policy was to create an inclusive national identity for all Malaysians with “people being able to identify themselves with the country, speak Bahasa Malaysia and accept the constitution”.

Dr Mahathir ruefully said the policy did move forward after he stepped down in 2003.

“After that (stepping down), Vision 2020 went the other way. Nothing was done to create the atmosphere,” he said, adding that the previous prime minister, Najib Razak, depended on race politics to stay in power.

“First, he tried to win over the Chinese and the Malays rejected him, and when he tried to win over the Malays, the Chinese rejected him. That is why he lost.”

One way to revive the Bangsa Malaysia policy was by looking into the school system, he said.

“For example, we know that the schools are divided, because we have Chinese schools, national schools and Tamil schools.

“I have proposed that they put the three on the same campus but that was objected by the extremist educationists.

“I mean, how can you come together if you can’t even stay on the same campus?”

He was, however, quick to add that he was not suggesting the abolishment of vernacular schools.

“I am not saying you should abolish the schools but come on the same campus whenever they have the morning assembly for example. Don’t go according to the schools.

“If you play games, don’t base it on the schools but base it on the teams which are the members coming from three schools.

“That is the way to diminish the identities of race and get to know each other.”

He also said everybody must accept they are Malaysians for the Bangsa Malaysia concept to be successful.

In other Asean countries, such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, the people have assimilated themselves into a national identity and are not identified by their racial background, he said.

“But here in Malaysia, we want to retain our identity. You cannot have this cake and eat it as well.

“You want to retain your identity, people will assume if you are Malaysian Chinese then you must be from China, if you are Malaysian Indian you must be from India or you are Malaysian Malay, you are from Malaysia.” – August 29, 2018.