#5Tahun2020: Malaysia is 'too young' to form Bangsa Malaysia - Ibrahim Ali

The man walks into the office and you would expect a large, stocky individual towering over you, his reputation for making bombastic statements preceding him. Instead, he is small-sized (around five feet tall) and with a wide smile. He warmly invites me into his office.

As I walk along the hallway behind him, I notice that both sides of the walls are filled with blown-up copies of newspaper and magazine clippings of him and his Malay rights NGO. And so it is in his office as well.

I sit down face to face with Malaysia's number one racist, or it’s number one hero, depending on whose perspective you look at things from. This is my interview with Datuk Ibrahim Ali, the extremely outspoken president of Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa).

The reason for the interview is because Malaysia is now five years away from Vision 2020, a target set by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed for the country to achieve developed status. And the first challenge is to build a 'Bangsa Malaysia'.

'Bangsa Malaysia'

"Bangsa Malaysia is a very noble idea. But Malaysia has only been independent for 50 plus years. It’s too soon. We need at least 100 years to be prepared to even entertain the thought of creating a harmonious Bangsa Malaysia," says Ibrahim.

He says the Malays are still lagging too far behind economically if compared to the non-Malays in Malaysia and the disadvantage is just still huge, and this is due to us having inherited a very divisive social contract from the British.

According to Ibrahim, the National Economic Policy (NEP) that we have been implementing for the past decades hasn't been able to bring the Malays ahead either. He says we need more policies in favour of the Malays.

"The Malays, who are Muslims, are restricted when it comes to business. The non-Malays can do all kinds of businesses that we can’t, like selling alcohol, opening up entertainment and centres and gambling businesses. Malays can't do that," he explains.

That is why Ibrahim believes that more needs to be done to bring the Malays to equal footing with the non-Malays. And by that, he really means that the Malays need to be given more aid and subsidies to improve themselves.

"The quota for businesses when it comes to Bumiputera is 30 percent. It should be 67 percent because that is our population. But it's okay. We're not greedy!" he says. "But there should be more for other things like financial aid."

Instead of investing billions of ringgit outside of the country, some of that money can be used to create funds to help Malays to purchase proper homes to live in and office space for them to conduct businesses because property prices are out of their reach.

"Are Malays so low that they can only live in chicken coops? Only in low-cost housing? Houses and offices are too expensive these days. The government should allow 100 percent loans without requirement for down payment," he says.

Attack on race and religion

"Things are getting worse. The sanctity of the Malays and Islam is being threatened all the time now and this will not lead to a united Malaysia. So how can we talk about Bangsa Malaysia?" Ibrahim says in a complaining tone.

He says the position of the Malays and Islam as the official religion is protected under the Federal Constitution and the Rukunegara. But all these are not being respected by the non-Malays because they are becoming too brave.

"The Christians are adamant in wanting to use the word 'Allah'. They attack our religious authority Jakim (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) and say that Friday sermons are responsible for creating extremists. Of course the Muslims will react," he exclaims.

Education is another issue that is holding back the creation of Bangsa Malaysia. Ibrahim opines that there needs to be a single education system where the national language, Bahasa Melayu, is used as the language that unifies the rakyat.

"Now, even certain universities in the country have discarded Bahasa Melayu as the medium of teaching. But the language is suppose to be used as a tool for integration," he says.

Race-based politics

"The system that is practised by Barisan Nasional is actually a good system because each party can stand up for the rights of their own race and it's all under a proper umbrella coalition," says Ibrahim.

He goes on to explain that multiracial parties such as PKR and DAP will face a lot of problems when the different ethnic groups have issues that they want to raise. It will become a ruckus because there is no proper channel to say and do, and everyone will disagree.

"The only problem is that the leaders of Barisan Nasional are perceived as corrupted and stealing the rakyat's money. They need to clean up their act because the young voters distrust them," he says.

Ibrahim explains that the way integration is suppose to happen is to see the ethnic composition of the country and to determine the majority. Then, the minorities would have to gravitate to assimilate with the dominant group, and in Malaysia's case, it would be the Malays.

"That's how it happened in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. But of course it doesn't mean the minorities can't practice their culture and religion. It just shouldn't supercede the dominant culture and religion."

Racist?

One issue that almost everyone has in their minds when they think of Ibrahim is the fact that so many people from all sides of the divide have at one time or another accuse him of being a racist and extremist. So, is he really racist?

"I don't care if people think I'm a racist. If being a racist means standing up for the rights of my race, culture and religion, then I am proud that I am a racist," he declares.

Ibrahim continues by turning the question back to his accusers. He says that UMNO can be considered racist for always declaring "Hidup Melayu", and so would the MCA and MIC for standing up for the Chinese and Indians.

"And DAP, although they claim to be a multiracial party, they are the most chauvinistic of them all!" he exclaims.

Then, Ibrahim turns his rant towards the media, accusing the many online media as always twisting his words and taking things out of context. He says even Astro AWANI is fond of doing that.

"There was even a time when I was nick-named 'Man-made news' meaning that anything I said or did would be big news. Apparently, a news story involving me would really get a lot of hits and views," he laughs.

But one thing Ibrahim is really proud of is the fact that although many Malaysians accuse him of being a racist, not one accusation against him has ever been about corruption or stealing money from the rakyat.

After a few hours, my one to one conversation with the former Pasir Mas parliamentarian came to an end. As I pack up my notebook and camera equipment, he jovially tells me to inform him when this interview will be published.

"I have a lot of followers online. Imagine, I have 50 WhatsApp groups alone. So I can blast out the story and you'll get more views than you can imagine," he laughs.

I smile and promise that I would tell him when the story comes out. I thank him for his time and he thanks me as well. We shake hands and he politely walks me out of his office and bids me farewell as I enter the lift to go down.

As I left the premises of Perkasa, the debate that raged in my mind is whether Ibrahimi is really a racist as so many people have accused him of being, or if he is just a misunderstood, vocal individual. But I guess it's not for me to say.