LATELY there has been a recurrent topic in Malaysia of whether one is Malay first or Malaysian first.
This comes after Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had downplayed his previous stance of prioritising Malay identity, saying it is no longer relevant in the current context.
As I was reflecting on this subject while switching Astro channels looking for some interesting programmes that could offer some insights on this conundrum, I came across the decades old drama The Waltons.
The Waltons was aired from 1972–81. It is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural mountainous Western Virginia of the Appalachian Mountains.
The drama series was portrayed in the context of the economic hardships and mass unemployment of the era of the Great Depression of the 1930s and subsequent wartime Homefront of World War II of the early 1940s during the rise of Adolf Hitler.
The Walton’s family, who are poor but hard-working, generous and hospitable with Christian virtues at heart, offers an interesting insight about life and identity that transcends the narrow tribalistic consciousness.
The episode that attracted my attention was about a Jewish family who migrated to the United States from Berlin, Germany after being persecuted by the Nazis and betrayed by close friends and neighbours.
They came to live in the mountainous area of where the Walton family lives.
The Jewish family who is headed by a university professor lost his trust in humanity after experiencing extreme bigotry in Germany. He decides not to identify himself as a Jewish fearing similar backlash in America and instructs his family to do the same.
He decides not to participate in Jewish festivals and rituals. His son and wife were unhappy and confided their problem to the Waltons.
The Walton family tried to reach out to this family but was rejected by the professor on several occasions.
It took the grandfather of the Walton family to meet the Jewish professor and tell him that one need not hide one’s identity just because of bigotry. One should be proud of one’s culture and upbringing by expressing it in a positive manner, the elderly patriarch explained.
The Jewish professor came to his senses and it was a touching moment to see Waltons who were Christians joining the family of the Jewish professor in celebrating the Jewish festivals later.
The shared sense of humanity can be seen when both faiths encountered each other to solve a problem and this created a common national identity in real sense. In essence one can be a Jewish and at same time be a proud patriot of a particular country.
The binary approach of choosing nationality over identity or identity over nationality does not do justice to human persons whose very nature is complex.
One can be Malay, Chinese and Indian and at same time project a national identity as Malaysians by engaging with each other.
The real problem starts when one resorts to choosing one against the other, and this certainly makes a great political capital for opportunistic politicians especially in the context of Malaysian politics where the focus on race and religion brings in votes.
Therefore let’s put the flawed argument of having to choose between race and nationality to rest. – May 9, 2025
Ronald Benjamin is the secretary for the Association for Welfare, Community and Dialogue (ACID).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: The Borneo Post
