Multiracial or ‘multi-racist’?

[superadmin]

Malaysia has had an interesting few weeks and as usual, it all revolves around race.

First, we had the tourism minister demoting an allegedly underperforming director-general of tourism for the country. Instead of focusing the attention on the needs of the tourism sector in Malaysia, the narrative was spun as one where a robust ethnic Chinese minister overstepped his mark and sacked an ethnic Malay.

Then, we had the controversy of Bah Kut Teh, the world-famous herbal soup with meat. This dish is essentially a Malaysian concoction that deservingly got recognition as a national heritage food. Of course, the same ethnic Chinese tourism minister was the focal point for the vitriol. It caused much dissatisfaction with some Malaysians because prevalently, the soup uses pork, although there are multiple other versions with alternate sources of protein. The undercurrents of sinister racial narrowmindedness reared its ugly head once again.

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