The Incongruency of “Malay” according to the Constitution
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ What this Reserved Election has highlighted is the incongruent definition of “Malay”. The problem with the Constitutional definition of Malay essentially inherited from the British is that Malays who are not Muslim are not considered “Malay” according to the Constitution, but Indians, Arabs and others who are born as Muslims - not converts - are “Malay”. One issue here is that there is a growing community of Malays who are not Muslim, including senior people in academia, the judiciary, in government and business. Those who are converts to Christianity have non-Malay names even, but ethnically, they should be Malay. The British used to call them Native Christians. Are we going to bring that back? From a Muslim convert perspective, this is also problematic because it means that Malay issues are necessarily Muslim issues, and that is not right. Why should the issues of a separate community become our pro...