Why attempt to unite Singaporeans by sacrificing a Malay suffix? Javanese culture expert asks Divian Nair

Suryakenchana Omar, an expert on Javanese culture has spoken up against the wannabe social initiative of Divian Nair’s, ‘Majulah’.
Writing on his Facebook, Mr Suryakenchana said that the video lost him when they tried to explain how ‘Majulah’ is not a Malay word because it is not in the Malay dictionary, but ‘maju’ is.
“In Malay, words have their root words and its meaning expanded with the use of prefixes and suffixes. “-lah” is one of the Malay suffix,” he explained.
Mr Suryakenchana feels that Mr Nair’s video is another attempt to unite Singaporeans but by sacrificing a Malay suffix.
Wondering why such sacrifice was needed he said, “Javanese who came here gave up much of their language. While being accepted to be Malay, Javanese arts are not considered as Malay arts.”
“We sacrifice much of Javanese culture and heritage to be Malay. As Malays, we continue to sacrifice to be Singaporean. As Muslims, another set of sacrifice,” he added.