Mahathir - Twisted Logic 101

"... I think they (Indian Muslims) will be accepted by all if
they can pick either to become a Muslim or Indian,"
he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
"The problem of Indian Muslims will be resolved if they can decide
and choose to become either a Muslim or an Indian," he added.
Elaborating, Mahathir said people in Thailand and Indonesia
called themselves Thais and Indonesians but this is not the case here.

=================================

There is a big problem here - and (to quote Russell Peters), "somebody's gonna get hurt real bad"!! There's some confusion between Nationality, Ethnicity/race/heritage and Religion in the aging mind of Mahathir and his apologists. They somehow don't seem to be able to define it well - to them, it all amounts to the "constitutional definition of being a Malay", and nothing else matters.
He doesn't understand how a person can be a nationalist, and yet hold on to his cultural heritage!! He doesn't understand how one can be an ethnic Indian/Chinese and an Indonesian/Thai/American/ Canadian etc etc etc, at the same time!!

It reminds me of what many of us feel - "I Love My Country; but Does My Country Love Me?" The answer here is quite simple - pluralism be damned - in Mahathir's (and therefore, BN/Umno/MCA/MIC's) Malaysia, your country cannot love you unless you are "constitutionally Malay" and consequently "accepted".
So much for Jibby's 1-Malaysia!!

Mahathir seems to be of the opinion that "to be accepted", probably means to "become Muslim", when they're already Muslims. The beauty about all this is, the fact that he implies that "being Muslim" is "being Malay" and consequently leads to- "being accepted". The Indian Muslim, has to give up his "Indian" heritage, suck up to the artificial Umno-Malay ways - and voila - you're accepted!! It's as simple as that!! You can then get all the benefits of the plunder which Umno perpetrates - at least in the next generation, lah. (No wonder some mamaks shamelessly go all-out to be categorized as second-class bumiputras/Malays).

The result of Indian Muslims "becoming Malay"

There seems to be no other way in his mind, that one can be accepted- even if one is a hardcore Malaysian nationalist at heart, or a patriot. All that matters is that he "becomes Malay", by abandoning his cultural heritage which is far older than the "constitutional Malay" ways.
In short, that means - You cannot be accepted unless you are constitutionally, Malay!! Now if that isn't racist, I don't know what is!

Neil Khor in his article "Indian Muslims - in defence of Mahathir" in MalaysiaKini, acknowledges the fallacy in the above statement, but turns out to be the apologist for Mahathir in saying, "But to be fair, what was the context and what was the situation that Dr Mahathir Mohamad was referring to?", and says that Mahathir isn't racist for playing up the race and religion factors - to "be accepted" as Malaysian.

He then goes on to say, "To be Malaysian, to Mahathir, means giving up this emotional link to one's country of origin. He also said that the Indian Muslims must decide whether to be Indian or Muslim. In the context of his speech, this means deciding whether one was Indian as an ethnic category or Malay, as Muslims are defined constitutionally".

Herein lies the twisted logic, for which Neil Khor wishes to be the spinmaster.
Firstly, being Muslim has never been "defined constitutionally" - only "Malay", as silly as it may seem, is.
What's worse, is the fact that we have an academic by the name of NEIL KHOR [who has recently completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge (!!). He is co-author of 'Non-Sectarian Politics in Malaysia: The Case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia' (2008).] subscribing to this fallacy and denying that Mahathir is being racist!! He seems to say that the Indian Muslims have a choice - they can abandon their "race", and overnight "become Malay" to be accepted!!
He does concede that "in a non-sectarian society, they would not have to make the choice that Mahathir has put to them. They can be both Indian Muslim and Malaysian" - he however does not condemn the sectarianism which is the source of the evil, but instead encourages them to adopt this evil which Mahathir preaches!!!

I wouldn't know - Maybe it was some greenbacks for which Neil Khor has traded his academic integrity. Maybe he just doesn't care about being Malaysian, and already holds a PR in UK - why else would he ignore the implications of Mahathir's racist statement ...