The survival of a race is not only based on a column in any forms, said UMNO youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun.

He said that the Malay identity is instead formed by the individual themselves.

“We are busy fighting for our status quo but our children lack knowledge and identity,” said Khairul to Astro AWANI.

Earlier on May 7, Bernama reported that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun said that the Cabinet had decided that the ‘race’ column with no value added or useful purpose in official government forms to be dropped.

He said that the government had studied the matter before coming to its decision.

On May 8 however, Bernama also reported that Entulu had apologised on the confusion which arose following the report on the removal of the ‘race’ column.

He had said in a statement that the matter had been discussed in Cabinet however no decisions were made.

He said that newspaper reports which published the news had not mirrored the actual statement made by him.

Prime Minister Datuk seri Najib Tun Razak had ordered the minister Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun to apologize on the matter.

He added that the Cabinet has not made any decision to remove the column.