Sultan Hits Out At Malays Who Lack Pride Of Race
Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah yesterday expressed sadness and disappointment with the current generation of Malays who are ashamed to call themselves Malays.
He also questioned why they no longer had pride in being known as Malays, to the extent that they were willing to pawn the word "Malay" and let it disappear when Western historians had acknowledged that Malays and the Malay rulers as well as their role in the history of the country.
"I feel a little sad and unhappy because there are those who had come here, especially Malays, and could bring themselves to question the Malays' position and privileges, the relevance of the institution of the Malay rulers and its role in the country's administrative system.
"I want to ask these Malays, do they not have feelings of pride as a Malay that they could pawn the word "Malay" to be buried and let it disappear from the eyes of the world?
"Try reading history written by the British where they mentioned Tanah Melayu, the Federated Malay States and Raja-raja Melayu.
"This showed that the Western writers acknowledged that the Malays started the history of this country," he said in his address at the Constitutional Monarchy -- History, Now and Future Perspectives Discourse (Raja Berperlembagaan -- Perspektif Sejarah, Kini dan Masa Depan), here.
Sultan Sharafuddin said he believed the objective of those who questioned the relevance of constitutional monarchy and the Malays' position stemmed only from their personal and political interest.
"Their goal is for the constitu-tional monarchy system to be reviewed and studied because the country has gone through modernisation and the current system is no longer suitable and extremely inconsistent (with current needs), resulting in loud calls from the Malays themselves asking for the word Melayu (Malay) in the phrase Raja-raja Melayu be abolished.
"I believe that this act is for their own benefit or for their political interest."
Sultan Sharafuddin said it was not his intention to stir racial sentiments but he wanted to stress that everyone should be proud that Selangor was made up of people of various races who lived in harmony and tolerance and respected one another, something that was difficult to achieve by other countries with a single race but different religions and opinions.
"To the Malays, I want everyone to realise that the Malays will not simply disappear as this land is where we were born and it is here, we will be laid to rest."
At the same time, Sultan Sharafuddin was delighted that History had been made a compulsory subject in schools across the country.
He believed that this would open up minds and bring enlightenment and knowledge on important roles in the country's history so that there would be no suspicion and questions that could lead to misunderstanding among the people.
Comments