We are sustained by myths only as long as they are empowering, inspiring, instrumental, and serve our interests; yet when those very same myths provide us with little else than the false comfort of an unreconstructed nostalgia for a past that never existed, then they turn into cages that imprison us for life. The myth of a unique European ‘civilizational genius’ has only helped to parochialize Europe even more; the staid discourse of ‘Asian values’ merely denies the fact that Asian civilizations would not have developed as they did without contact with the outside world; and the myth of a pure and uninterrupted development of Indo-Aryan culture has only opened the way for the rise of right-wing Hindutva Fascists in the Indian subcontinent. Notwithstanding their claims to standing proud and tall, the demagogues who utter such pedestrian nonsense remain stunted, as their logic, on the stage of global history: testimony to the claim that those whose confidence is founded in stilts can only remain handicapped for life…

Farish is getting better and better.

Welcome to http://www.bakrimusa.com.

You now can join Mika, Jong et.al, and I. We argue often and exchange views. I also enjoy Mika’s creative poetry, and his contrarian views.

You will find us very tolerant, open and patient. We also hope you can contribute to our discourse in a very constructive and reasoned way. You can be sure that we are not trying to tell you “what to think”. We respect you too much for that.

You could be one of the UMNO bloggers,the “Mat Rempits” of the cyberworld. But I rather see you use this website to rebutt or debunk our arguments, since UMNO is not very good at trying to explain its politics and agenda to the Malays and other Malaysians.

As far as I know, UMNO leaders and their supporters have deviated from the party’s original mission, as articulated by selfless leaders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, based on respect for our Constitution and the national ethos as embodied in the Rukun Negara.

It is sad that UMNO is using its political hegemony over the BN component parties (MCA, MIC and Koh Tsu Koon’s Gerakan) to silence its critics and the opposition parties such as PAS, KeADILan and DAP. Elections are on the horizon, I think.

Happy 50th Anniversary of Merdeka.

Thanks.

it has been referred to as the malay peninsula translated to mean ‘land of the malays, for the malays governed by the malays” from the time of the portuguese who were circumnavigating the globe, before admiral cheng hoe became an admiral and given charge of a a fleet of tongkangs.

you call that ‘myth’?

we don’t need pseudo intellectuals like far-eesh nor to tell us what to think!

But tell me, dear reader, how many Malays in Malaysia are truly Malaysian; and how many Malays think of themselves as Malaysian and are committed to that very same ideal of a Malaysian Malaysia? Are the Malays Malaysians who live in Malaysia? Or are the Malays still living in the mythological land of ‘Tanah Melayu’, an idea dreamt of by Orientalist scholars and administrators during the colonial era, as a worthless compensation to a people who had been colonized and whose pride was reduced to the worth of a copper coin?

I am having a great laugh here. Please thank Farish for crafting this.

Only, a proof-reader comment:

Or are the Malays still living in the mythological land of ‘Tanah Melayu’, an idea dreamt of by Orientalist scholars and administrators during the colonial era, as a worthless compensation to a people who had been colonized and whose pride was reduced to the worth of a copper coin?

Dudes - bakri&din, I am a Malay and I am living in this land of “Tanah Malayu - Bumi Bertuah” which is more fantastic than any mythological land can ever be - and save only less so than Mekkah, Madinah and Al-Quds(Jerusalem?); which is more than a Kafir can comprehend much less appreciate. Meaning, the copper coin means alot there is a real shortage of copper, man.
But whose pride, Farish, pray tell.