The curse of Nationalism on this country

I am still reading Tun Mahathir's book, an attempt for me to heal myself and my frustrations with this place. To understand why things are the way they are, why people behave in a certain way.

If Tun's assessment of what happened before Malayan independence were accurate, that would mean that the current situation in Malaysia was born out of an artificial society created by the British. The British introduced the Chinese and Indians into Malaya; then set up segregated roles for each race, Malays in the villages with their paddy fields and fishing boats, the Indians as rubber tappers and clerical workers and the Chinese as tin-miners and commerce. Of course I believe that all his facts were spot on...but I needed to understand if some things were his perception or was it the norm.

Anyway, this artificial society was created and after world war two, the British were thinking of an exit strategy...we'll skip the Malayan Union part and go straight to independence. Malaya achieved 'independence' in 1957 but there was a problem in how to bring these 3 segregated groups together. The main problem was trying to bring 3 groups together on the basis o nationalism. How do you make nationalism the ingredient for unity when nationalism by its nature, divides and segregates people?

Islam was the only system in history that was able to assimilate different races, colours and languages into one people. This is because the Islamic Khilafah system demands the citizens to pledge their allegience to the system rather than to a piece of land, race, flag, King or country. Muslims within the Khilafah system have loyalty to the state due to their Aqeedah, the belief in Allah and His Messenger. The non-Muslims citizens (Ahl al Dhimmah) of the state have loyalty to the state on the basis of the protection given to them for their obedience to the rules and system of the state. As a citizen regardless of your race or religion, everyone is entitled to the same benefits, same rules, same punishments. The non-Muslims under the Khilafah was able to practice their own religion, their rituals, their cultural norms e.g. food, drink, marriage, divorce but they adhered to the Islamic rules in terms of political, economic, social and judiciary.

There is no hierarchy and no favoritism. History plays testament to this when the Khilafah expanded and embraced people from all walks of life, all races and all colours. Many great scholars in Islam came from different parts of the world e.g. Imam Hanifah was Persian, Al-Bukhari was from Central Asia, Salehuddin Al Ayubi was Kurdish, Hunayn Ibn Ishaq the famous translator was a Nestorian Christian. The Ottoman state also opened its doors to the Muslims, Christians and Jews from Spain during the time of the Spanish inquisition, and provided them with protection. The Christians of Palestine fought alongside the Muslim army during the time of the Crusaders invasion.

The problem with nationalism is that every group of people will only fight for their own cause, sometimes to the detriment of others. For the Muslims, it is even a bigger challenge to unite under nationalism because it goes against their Aqeedah. The Prophet (saw) says in a famous hadith "The Muslim Ummah is like one body, when one part of the body is hurt, the other parts shake with fever." 

So, to fight for the rights of one particular race would sometimes mean oppressing another, for a Muslim this could mean forsaking his fellow Muslim, inevitably hurting his own body. Hence, the loyalty of a Muslim is divided...he can never truly be nationalistic due to this conflict of interest within his own heart and mind and at the same time, nationalism is curbing his true potential to be completely loyal to Islam. He will always be half-hearted, confused, conflicted and in his actions, there will be inconsistency and contradictions.

This will result in people with no strong concrete belief, no clear objective and cowardice; fear of standing up for what is truth and just. This is what I've seen and understood so far in my observations and readings.