ACTUALLY, there is no excuse whatsoever for the Visit Malaysia 2026 video clip, which was launched earlier this week, of not including mosques in it when other houses of worship were.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing’s (picture) explanation that mosques were included in a longer and detailed version reflected his ignorance of the thrust of the nation and its philosophy of being.

If it was not out of ignorance, those producing the video would have chosen not to acknowledge the primacy of Malay and Islam in the nation, regardless of whether it was intentional or otherwise.

Reacting further to the criticisms, Tiong urged all quarters to refrain from politicising the issue and reportedly said that “the video was to promote Malaysian art, culture and tourism as a whole – rather than focusing on race or religion.”

Herein lies the problem with Tiong’s reply. The criticisms were on why mosques were not included in the clip and not because other houses of worship were.

It is not about wanting mosques in the clip. It is a question as to why they were not when others were.

The question is being raised because it seems that the Malays and Islam, the former the primary race in Malaysia and Islam, the religion of the Federation, both Constitutionally acknowledged, are being ignored.

It comes across that the other faiths and races who are the minority are prevalent while the majority race and faith are obscured.

The concern and criticism are no different than that towards the promotional video for the Georgetown Festival in July last year which omitted Malay-Muslim heritage while showcasing the various cultures in the state.

Though it was eventually taken down, it was not before sparking outrage among the Malays, with renowned academic Prof Ahmad Murad Merican had then described it as memoricide and ethnocide – forms of cultural genocide in sociological terms which generally refer to deliberate destruction of all traces and physical reminders of an ethnic group such as their way of life, language and characters.

In that episode, Ahmad Murad further revealed that the festival had excluded Malay culture for more than a decade since its inception in 2010.

What is entailed from Ahmad Murad’s revelations about the Georgetown Festival is anybody’s guess, but like many other issues afflicting the nation now, it gets swept under the carpet – until it re-emerges again, as in the current case of the Visit Malaysia video clip.

So, whether it was intentional or not, it seems that omitting Malay and Islam from official video clips is beginning to become a norm rather than an exception.

There are, of course, Malays who themselves felt that there were those from their community to not be too prickly as it is merely a promotional clip and that Islamic-related matters should not be turned into an item for tourism.

Furthermore, some even argued that the video is targeted at non-Muslim tourists who would not be interested in mosques or symbols of Islam.

Others were even more shallow in their argument, claiming that Saudi Arabia’s tourism promotion did not have mosques and such in them.

Again, these people are missing the woods for the trees.

It is important to highlight to the world that Islam is the lead religion in Malaysia and that the Malays are the essence of the nation.

The existence of other cultures and religious symbols in any promotional items of Malaysia reflects that despite it being primarily a Malay Muslim nation, it is also a melting pot for other cultures and faiths.

It shows the tolerance of Islam and the readiness of the Malays in accommodating those from other faiths, races and cultures amidst their unending struggle to retain the nation’s identity and philosophy of being Malay and Islam.

This had always been the argument put forth by Malays – that they had long accepted the fact that the demography is multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious, but the philosophy, the constitution, and the nature are primarily Malay and Islam.

These aspects cannot be multi-racialised.

Worst is the efforts to multi-racialise the nation had even gone to the extent of omitting Malay and Islam from official narratives as in the case of the Georgetown Festival and now the Visit Malaysia 2026 clip.

While the Malays who are concerned about these developments may be said to be paranoid and, worst, racist, their fears are not misplaced.

Having witnessed how Malay states had been given away in a twist of fate of history whereby the contemporary generation of Malays had lost their ability to speak the language, and some had even given up Islam, their concerns are as real as watching the displacement of other peoples in other parts of the world through settler colonialism.

While people in other parts of the world were displaced and subsequently lost their identity from ravages of wars and belligerent nasties, the Malays here seem to be heading towards that direction from economic and political fallouts.

It may be they had brought all these upon themselves but for the others to rub it into their face by acts of omitting them is unacceptable and downright insulting.

That is the sum of all their fears and there is nothing racist about it. In fact, those who declare them racist for reacting are the actual racists, wanting to wipe them through acts of memoricide and ethnocide.

Because of that, the Malays asked aloud why the repeated need to omit them. The leaders and “enlightened” Malays may find the question to be of no consequence, trivial and lame.

But for the rest, it is their last vestiges of self-preservation.