Do Johoreans need Bangsa Johor?

I thought I don't want to write about the Bangsa Johor issue again as I had written about it quite a while before the whole nonsense started a few days ago.

But the debate on it seems to be getting worse.

So, I think I better write a bit to reiterate my position on it.

Well, I had made clear what I think of the concept in this post in May this year,

We are Malaysians from the state of Johor, no more, no less

As I wrote there, I don't subscribe to the concept of Bangsa Johor despite being a Johorean.

In fact, I'm against all attempts to introduce any kind of new bangsa (race).

This is what I think of the Bangsa Malaysia concept which was first popularised by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who triggered the latest debate on Bangsa Johor with his statement a few days ago,

Bangsa Malaysia bullshit

That post is the third most read of this blog so far.

For me, there are bangsa Melayu, bangsa Cina, bangsa India etc.

And they are all Malaysians irrespective of those races of theirs.

To create a bangsa Malaysia or Bangsa Johor is the same as trying to create a bangsa Singapura or bangsa Amerika.

For me it's silly.

There's really no such things in the first place - the Singaporeans and Americans know that.

Do we Malaysians really need to do otherwise by creating all these bangsa concepts?

Do we want to be like Indonesians? They have Bangsa Indonesia.

But I'm quite sure most of us don't want to be like the Indonesians.

Their country is not as good as ours, don't you think?

Otherwise, why so many of them come to work here. Some even die while smuggling themselves to come here.

As for Bangsa Johor, if it's for cheering the JDT football team, okay lah.

For fun.

But I don't think it should be promoted beyond that.

I don't think we want to also later on have Bangsa Sarawak, Bangsa Sabah, Bangsa Kelantan, Bangsa Kedah etc.

What more if those bangsa start to claim that they are superior than other Malaysians and even want their states to break off from Malaysia.

It's possible to happen, isn't it?

What will happen to Malaysia then?

This concept of Bangsa Johor was actually only being bandied out after the last general election of 2013.

I hardly heard of it before that.

Then it was followed by several controversies connected to it, including some which involved calls for Johor to separate from Malaysia.

You can just google "bangsa johor" and read stories about those controversies.

I think they were all so unnecessary.

Same as the concept itself - unnecessary.

Honestly, I'm quite embarrassed whenever my friends from other states made fun of the whole thing.

"What's wrong with you all Johoreans? Not enough bangsa in this country is it, that you want to create a new one for yourself?" one of my friends teased.

Really. I feel that Johoreans don't need a new label such as Bangsa Johor which will makes them even more distinct from their fellow Malaysians.

That's why I disagree with it.

All this while, Johor have been doing quite well without such a concept, why the need for it now?

Unless of course if by promoting that concept, Johor can really gain something out of it instead of just an empty sense of pride.

For instance, if all the Bangsa Johor people can take back the whole stretch of coastal land from Stulang to Second Link along the bank of Tebrau Straits from the mainland Chinese - then I will also join the bandwagon and declare myself a member of Bangsa Johor.

Then it will worth something real.

Otherwise, I really think it's nothing more than just a vehicle to give Johoreans a sense of false pride, the same as the Bangsa Malaysia concept which actually did nothing much to unite Malaysians.