JULY 18 ­— It has been almost 60 months since the concept of 1 Malaysia was introduced by the current Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. As average civilians, almost all of us — though we’d love to experience otherwise — can feel it in our bones that this concept is a mere chant.

We strongly think that there is a dire need to clarify that being a Bumiputera does not make you the only rightful owners of this country. To begin with, even the word “Bumiputera” was derived from a Sanskrit word, belonging now to the Indian minority (if you want to talk about what belongs to whom). How do your pools of genetic makeup define your love and allegiance to this land? The non-Bumiputeras have long contributed deeply to the nation side by side with the Bumiputeras, and if you are not willing to accept the former as a part of this nation, would you then choose to be hypocrites who exploit, then, applause at the said contributions?

Is it relevant to speak of your great grandparents and how they owned the soil back in their days — and to use it against the non-Bumiputeras as an excuse to chase them back to where they originate from? Through this piece of writing, however, we do not intend to dismiss India and China as countries any lesser than Malaysia. Rather, we seek to address the low intellects of some people who use this feeble and moronic “argument” to express hatred.

Our concern does not only favour the Indians, Chinese, and other non-Bumiputeras in Malaysia, but it goes globally, beyond man-set boundaries. How many people — up to this day — have warned us to not befriend the Blacks! Racism has been and still is prevalent not only in third world countries but also in countries of the first world like the United States of America and South Africa. It is now appropriate to quote an English author and literary critic, Christopher Hitchens from Hitch-22; a book of his. “What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.”

It might be necessary to stress that bad behaviours are not hereditary; nor are the good ones. It is not contained in the allelic pairs of a person something that makes her a cheat.

On Datuk Seri Nazir Razak’s proposal of criminalizing racism, while it could indubitably serve as a deterrent, we fear it will fail to completely curb racism. The sole key to combat this sickness is effective and unbiased education. Critical and creative thinking should be promoted, as absurd and sad as it is to have to teach people how to think. Religious education in schools should be revived and reviewed as to lose whatever internal prejudice it may contain. Parents should take the initiative to kill racial barriers by instilling in their kids not to associate one’s personality to her or his skin colour.

May God let us go through one day we finally won’t have to hear another person say, “Go back to your own country lah.”

* Nadia Habib and Nabila Habib are students of International Islamic University Malaysia.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.