At the Bangsa Malaysia Merdeka forum and get-together, participants were asked to register by filling up a form.
That was the launch of Project Irrelevant.
Let me explain.
It seems these days that for everything that we need, a form has to be filled up.
Whether you are buying a house, opening a bank account, applying for a phoneline, trying to land a job….
The list is endless.
Invariably, in addition to the ‘name’, ‘IC number’ and ‘address’, you’ll also be asked to state your
SEX
RELIGION
RACE
I honestly cannot see why any of these last three mentioned details would be of any relevance if one was applying for a phoneline or a bank account.
Worse, the last two have the effect of dividing and ‘communalising’ us.
In the registration form for the Bangsa Malaysia Merdeka, we included ‘SEX’ and ‘RELIGION and then urged the participants to respond to these with ‘IRRELEVANT’ if they thought that it was indeed irrelevant.
As for ‘RACE’, participants were urged to respond with ‘BANGSA MALAYSIA’.
If you are one of those who has written with comments to this blog supportive of the many initiatives to one day see this as a nation of one people, I ask you to now support this initiative.
Please walk your talk.
If you proclaim yourself as anak Bangsa Malaysia in cyberspace, have the courage and conviction to do the same on paper.
SEX : IRRELEVANT
RELIGION : IRRELEVANT
RACE : BANGSA MALAYSIA
The People's Parliament 
Eagle
August 29, 2007
Actually I’ve been filling up forms with the answer “N/A”, “Irrelevant”, “-” and Malaysian for some years now. The only exception to my rule are the government related forms. Last week while filling in an application for a member card for a shop (which is French) there was the race column with the usual 4 boxes. Why is this relevant I asked the salesgirl who of course was clueless and surprised at my question. I struck out the entire line.
I now try to use the phrase “Malaysian of Chinese descent” if I have to refer to a person’s race in coversation.
Satya
August 30, 2007
hahaha… no wonder it’s called project irrelevant. have been filling out “bangsa malaysia” for some time now. will definitely start with “irrelevant” from now on!
ghostline
August 30, 2007
I thought the answer to ‘SEX’ was: ‘yes please’ 🙂
Ghostline,
That’s my answer. But I am a rude and insolent fella. You all are nice people, so you all give nice answers, lah
The Watchman
August 30, 2007
We’re with you Haris … walking the talk.
Paul Warren
August 31, 2007
Sex: Twice a week? Good enough?
Religion: ( ) (Because it is relevant to me. Not to you. So to say irrelevant would be wrong. So I leave it blank! O.k.?
Race: Malaysian! But for medical purposes fact that I am of Indian descent would be relevant. I wonder what they are going to do to the members of Kimma when they are in ER and in a coma, and their IC says “Malay”!! I shall leave it to the good doctors to provide guidance on this.
Paul,
Whatever turns you on.
Bottom line, jangan layan those questions.
Seriously, it might seem insignificant now, but if everyone who cares about the way this nation is slowly becoming increasingly divided would help with this initiative, the authorities will finally have to confront and deal with this issue.
bayi
September 2, 2007
These questions, especially the ones on race and religion, become frightening when you apply for an identity card. They are affirmations to divide and to perpetrate the current system of division among the rakyat.
Spice Darling
November 12, 2007
I once filled out a form to apply for a membership card. There were 4 boxes as to which reponds for race: Malay,Chinese,Indian and Others. I ticked ‘Others’ for Race. It was quite obvious that i’m of Indian descent, and she asked me,’you bukan india ke?’. Then I answered,’Saya bangsa Malaysia la kak’. And for religion, I simply refused to tick any. She was quite iritated with me, but being the wicked,evil person I am, I enjoyed it. She asked me to fill in my religion, and then i asked her if the intention was to allow their company to send out festive greeting cards to the members. She didn’t know what to say. Then I smiled at her, handed in the form and walked away happily!
I’m sooo in for Project Irrelevant!
Mr.Haris,You rock!
the neutral anthropologist
November 13, 2007
I’m neutral here, but I have to give my dua sen.
I agree that an individual’s race, sex and religion should be irrelevant when it comes to getting accepted into a university or getting a job or promotion. Racial and gender discrimination should be done away.
But here’s the thing. Whether you like it or not, information regarding one’s ethnicity (I prefer this term to “race”), gender and religion is still important in some ways, especially on the identification card. Not trying to be morbid, but in the events of emergency such as death, this is what help identify and provide information on the John/Jane Doe. And not everyone’s religion allows blood transfusion to take place (I don’t know if there’s any Jehovah’s Witnesses in Malaysia).
Even in the UK, when you fill in forms for a job application, National Insurance Number and etc, they still require you to fill in your gender, ethnicity and religion – for political correctness reasons. I was told that the reason is to avoid discrimination and they’re also for legal reasons as well.
The real issue here is discrimination. I feel that filling in information on one’s ethnicity, gender and religion is still important to a certain extent. You want to be fair to everyone, you still need to be “politically correct”. But what should be made completely irrelevant is the discrimination itself.
kerishnamuddinitis
February 26, 2008
Aiyah, over my dead body-lah. Yah – the RELIGION thing. Better put it in man. I don’t put, even if I have Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu talismans on my forehad, left and right lobes of my ear, 4 fingers and 1 thumb of both hands, 8 crucifixes dangling from my neck, the Risen Christ tattooed on my chest and Zaratoonga-oonga prayers beads around my waist, all that is needed is the whisper of a man about to meet his Maker, ‘Ms Lim..Ms Lim…Ms Lim…’and bam, suddenly my poor dead body will be the very cold, lifeless object of a tug-of-war. “He uttered ‘muslim 3 times’ before he expired…” Yep, I can’t trust my MyKad…so, writing in it down everywhere else at half the chance helps. Not that I will have all these documents with me at the time when my Maker crooks His finger at me…but hey, you can never be too careful. SEX : Over-rated RACE : What’s the bet?