COMMENT During my youth, I was raised in a typical matriarchal Johorean household and grew up with Johorean colloquial terms - twala is towel, grobok is almari, geba is selimut. However, my father hails from Perak thus it does not make me a true blue Johorian, although my mannerisms and preference is the land of my mother’s birth.

Moreover, ever since my marriage, I have also begun to embrace my wife’s Pahang and Negri Sembilan roots including speaking a bit of Nogri.

State identity is what can define a person as to how he or she interacts within a given community. Bangsa Johor is what defines us, but it should not limit us lest we fall into the trap of creating silos amongst ourselves and alienating others.

It is days away from our National Independence Day, and the issue of Nationalism vis-a-vis a state identity are on the lips of most ardent political followers. When Dr Mahathir Mohamad stated that promoting a state identity can create further divisions in an already fractured Malaysian identity, he was correct as we cannot continue to live in the silos that we ourselves have created.

However, as a child that grew up with everything Johorean, his remark did strike a chord within me.

As an individual who is proud to be an Anak Johor, I sincerely believe that the term Bangsa Johor is actually a good ethos that binds all Johoreans together, regardless of one’s race or religion. The loyalty to our sultan is absolutely paramount and it is this bind that allows us to focus on each other’s strengths to move forward.

However, in the national scope, being an Anak Johor the Bangsa Johor ethos is what we can bring to the table as an individual. Since Bangsa Johor is about embracing one another, we can seek others to embrace us. Malaysia is not only Johor, even though we contributed the model of our state constitution to form the Federal Constitution and the behemoth called Umno, we too can learn from others.

State patriotism is important, but for this nation to move forward we need to move forward.

If I were to ask Malaysians with regards to their own solutions with regards to moving forward, 99 percent of the time it will be their own interpretation of their own nation. But here is the reality of what is Malaysia - it is West and East Malaysia, it is 13 states with Malay, Orang Asal, Chinese and Indians and a few religions. Thus, Malaysia is not mine to make nor is it any other individuals, it is all of us together.

Inclusive society

Malaysia must become an inclusive society and anything that drives any divisions between Malaysians of different ethnicities or religions must be avoided.

Whatever one's personal feelings may be, I feel all Malaysians need to cast aside any tendency to vent those feelings in a manner that may offend or threaten other Malaysians.

We each have a dream of the ideal Malaysia that can help us ensure the values of what Malaysia was and can be are protected and enhanced for the benefit of all citizens in ensuring fairness, understanding and compassion to all if our leaders are willing to take the first step. Musywarah is recognised throughout Islamic history as an important step in this endeavour.

We are partners, brothers, sisters and we are all in the same boat together. We need to resume the task of nation building and we need to build on each other's strengths while recognising each other’s weaknesses. Above all, we need to recognise that by focussing on the negatives, we compromise our unity and risk our nation being reduced to a shambles - to the detriment of us all.

TARIQ ISMAIL is the founder of Facebook page Aura Merdeka and is the grandson of Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman.