a:
1/
Malaysia is a constitutional ethnocracy - racism is official, and formal. And it comes from a historical strategy for managing xenophobia. This is not meant to be offensive language, as it is mere structural fact.
The aversion to (i) non-Malay culture changing the definition of Malay culture, and the aversion to (ii) non-Malay powers gaining power over Malay powers, was at the root of the Malayan constitution ( simply grandfathered into Malaysia's ).
Such annotation does not please everyone.
2/
1. Being hurt by words describing facts, becomes a matter of language preference. Other "polite" words may be used to describe the same facts. These linguistic devices are already studied in culture and society.
2. If Malaysians don't acknowledge its legal, structural facts, we will just spend more time arguing instead of focusing on GDP. We must "own" our racism and xenophobia. Or we must come up with new language that embellishes imperial structures without hiding what they are.
3/
3a. This completely introduces contemporary Malaysian values : on aggregate we are less interested in material developments, as we are also interested in language, customs, supernatural entities, and the influence of supernatural entities, upon public norms and ethics in general.
3b. We also take pride in being polite. ( The pros and cons of which are the subject of an entire note I made about cancer. )
4/
4. Back to the original question : Malaysians, for all their linguistic agility are very poor technicians. As a result, flowery language often causes arguments about what flowers mean, and sometimes people think a flower is a weapon, while others think the same flower is a living organism which embodies an etheral value or a national value.
5. Flower fights will proceed. As in pillow fights.
6. And so will flowerfighting. As in firefighting.
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