Syahredzan Johan addresses the audience during the Projek Dialog forum titled 'Melayu dan makna-maknanya' in Petaling Jaya, June 6, 2015. — Pictures by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — Politicians who have hijacked symbols of Malay pride such as the keris have left the community too embarrassed to be associated with their own culture, according speakers at a forum yesterday.

In explaining the negativity tied to the word “Malay”, lawyer Syahredzan Johan said the “greatest tragedy that Malay culture and Malays have suffered over the past few years is actually the hijacking of Malayness by those with interest”.

“The raising of keris. That is something which Malays should be proud of, it’s part of our culture but because politicians have taken that, used it as a rallying cry for their own purposes.

“Now, no Malay who wants to be accepted by a non-Malay would ever want to be seen to even touch a keris,” the lawyer said yesterday when citing the traditional Malay dagger during a forum titled “Melayu dan makna-maknanya” (Malay and its meanings).

He did not name any politicians, but those reported to have publicly brandished a keris in the past include former Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali.

Hishammuddin later “retired” the keris following outcry from the non-Malay community.

But Syahredzan said Malays should reclaim their identity instead of letting politicians define what it means to be Malay.

“But I think these should stop, I think we Malays should say enough is enough, you are not going to define what is Malay for me. You are not going to hijack my Malayness from me,” he said, adding that Malays should be both proud of their identity while still being comfortable with being a Malay in multicultural Malaysia.

To illustrate, Syahredzan said the question on which of the different facets of one’s identity came first is unfair.

“Whether you are a Muslim first, Malay first, Malaysian first, that’s not a fair question. If it were asked of me, I would say I’m all three, at the same time. That is my identity,” he said.

Speaking of reclaiming the Malay identity, Syed Muhiyiddin Al-Attas said there was a need for Malays to overcome the contempt of their own past.

He urged for the review of how history is taught in the schools, claiming that the current textbooks are full of accounts of moral failures and had caused an “institutionalised contempt for our past”.

“That’s why we need to revise history books, we need to teach history that makes people love their past, not hate their past,” he said during the forum, pointing to the multiple historical achievements by Malays in various fields as examples of what could be taught.

Malays should also know the equivalent in their own tradition to Western philosophers and thinkers, as this will give rise to a new generation of Malays that are unafraid of leaders who try to force an identity on them, Syed Muhiyiddin said.

This was because the leaders would then come from the same new generation, he said, noting that the current set of leaders have a “poor sense of history”.

The other speakers at the Projek Dialog forum are Universiti Malaya academic Dr Lawrence Ross, DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud and Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s Nurhayyu Zainal.