“When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and righteousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders.”

- Sun Tzu, ‘The Art of War’

COMMENT | What exactly does “bumiputera” status mean? Recent polls suggest that most Malays identify themselves as Muslim first - which would make a certain opposition leader who considers himself “Malay” first an outlier - which basically means that religion as opposed to race has become the defining concept of supremacy in this country.

Just last year, the Peranakan Chinese community hoped to achieve “bumi” status. As reported in the press, Ronald Gan, the chairperson of the Baba and Nyonya Association of Malaysia, in dismissing the perception that all the community wanted was “privileges", claimed - “We are not interested in that, we just want recognition because we are already living a Malay lifestyle.” The aspiration of this community was supported by none other than Chief Minister Idris Haron.

Of course, the Peranakan community should be differentiated from Chinese Muslim converts who in my opinion have embraced the Muslim/Arab nature of the religion - as promulgated here - but who have not embraced the eroding “Malay” culture that defines the Peranakan narrative. The same “Malay” culture that certain members of Malaysian royalty have defended and asked those who wish to be more like the Arabs to migrate to Saudi Arabia.

One would think that since that most virulent of Chinese convert - Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, who once claimed “to implement Islamic law and to educate non-Muslims (on Islam) can only be done by force" - there would have been moves by the Umno state to grant “bumi” status to that particular community instead of merely concentrating on the Indian Muslim community.

All of this, of course, is just further evidence that the idea of what constitutes a “Malay”, while constitutionally defined, has become meaningless in the Najib era where the discourse has been taken over by Islamic narratives because of his compromised position.

However, it is not “bumi” status, which - pardon the expression - is the holy grail of racial politics in this country. “Umnoputra” status is where the real action is. As with most things in this country, status is defined along pecuniary lines. What exactly does Umnoputra status mean?

In its crudest form, it means preferential treatment above and beyond what “bumi” status confers. An example of this would be when former Kota Raja Umno chief Amzah Umar revealed - “We give a seven percent discount for bumiputera buyers and 12 percent for Umno members, if I am not mistaken.”

Beyond that, it also means convening a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) for alleged misdeeds of a political opponent while secure in the belief that your political misdeeds are covered by your political party (Umno), the state security apparatus and any other supposedly independent public institution...