Talkback Thursday: What does ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ mean to you?

A couple of days ago, Sports and Youth Minister Khairy Jamaluddin spoke about how young Malaysians preferred citizens of the country to be known as ‘Bangsa Malaysia’. He found a recurring narrative spoken by youths from 20 dialogues held nationwide on the TN50 Programme. It seemed that most young Malaysians ‘wanted the wall that separated the races in the country to be demolished’. Though, it isn’t exactly a recent idea: in 1991, the notion of Bangsa Malaysia was outlined as one of the nine goals in the Vision 2020 by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Our current Prime Minister announced a similar rhetoric under the brand of 1Malaysia. We all know what we want to be identified as - and that is Bangsa Malaysia, or simply: Malaysians. But what might be more difficult to define is what it means to us. So today for Talkback, we’re asking, what does ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ mean to you? Our lines will be open.