On 31 August, Malaysia marks 69 years of independence. So let’s ask it plainly: what do we actually have to show for it?
The answer, above everything else, is a united nation. Say what you want, argue the details all you like it is that unity, imperfect and hard-fought, that has carried us this far and made everything else possible. Nothing else we’ve built exists without it.
What happens next, as we step into our 70th year, is entirely on us. And right now, the voices of division aren’t just present they’re loud, and they’re getting bolder.
Rhetoric that edges toward incitement, race-baiting dressed up as advocacy, and religious point-scoring are crowding out every conversation that actually matters for this country’s future.
The Spirit of 1957
The party that led us to independence was built on a vision very different from what some of its current leadership now espouses. Tunku Abdul Rahman’s generation signed a constitutional settlement designed around fairness one that recognised every community’s place in this country. That settlement wasn’t an afterthought; it was the foundation everything since has stood on.
Look at where some of today’s leadership is taking that legacy. Umno’s top leadership has openly pushed a “grand collaboration” to consolidate Malay-Muslim parties under one banner “for the sake of Islam and the Malay race,” alongside an outreach drive aimed at the same communal base.
PAS has gone further still, with its leadership describing Malay supremacy and Islamic supremacy as two sides of the same coin that can work hand in hand and, just weeks ago, claiming without evidence that non-Muslims are responsible for the bulk of corruption in this country while Muslims are shielded by their faith.
None of this is happening because the multiracial model has failed far from it. It’s happening because factions within Umno and PAS see a path to relevance and power in stoking exactly the divisions Tunku spent his career trying to close. That’s a survival strategy dressed up as principle, and it deserves to be named as such, plainly and without flinching.
What We’ve Actually Built
Malaysia has grown into one of the more developed economies in the region, with real resources and a young generation that is capable, ambitious, and hungry to push this country further into the modern world.
We are genuinely close to something special. But the noise of hate and bigotry risks making the rest of the world take a second look at us and not the kind of look we want.
The choice in front of us is not complicated to state, even if it’s hard to live: a divided country marked by racial tension and the instability that comes with extreme politics, or a functioning, confident democracy where everyone has a place and feels safe, secure, and at home.
This Is Home
I intend to make sure my children and grandchildren five generations deep in this country now have every right to belong here, because we are not going anywhere. This is home. Not somewhere else. Home.
So to Umno, to PAS, and to anyone else who thinks they hold the upper hand because of race or religion: think again.
This country does not belong to whoever shouts loudest. Peace is built through dialogue, understanding, and compromise never through threats, ultimatums, or hate speech dressed up as faith.
(Every leader currently playing this game would benefit from reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point a reminder of how quickly small, seemingly containable shifts in rhetoric can tip an entire society past the point anyone intended.)
We have watched other nations cross that line and come apart. We know exactly what the point of no return looks like. Let’s not go there not for anyone’s short-term political survival.
Celebrating What We’ve Built
Still this is a moment to celebrate. 69 years, and this remains one of the best places in the world to call home: the food, the culture, the people, the everyday safety we sometimes take for granted. We are lucky, and we should say so.
Let’s mark it properly a kenduri, a flag raised high, pride in what we’ve built together. And then let’s get to work on the next 69 years: stronger checks and balances, and a country worth handing to the generations after us.
I’ve got my flag up. Have you? Salam Merdeka, Malaysia. – August 30, 2026
Datuk Dr Xavier Jayakumar is the former Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability and a former PKR vice president