In attempting to define the concept of ethnicity of the Malays, Jimmy Puah came up with the set of criteria that can be easily acquired by anyone to become a Malay. He likened the Malay concept to the French, not in relation to citizenship, but to an ethnic group in which people like Zinedine Zidane would still be considered French of Algerian descent.
In so doing, he contradicted what Article 1 of the French Constitution says: It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion. So, from that angle alone, the French and the Malays in Malaysia are worlds apart, in all sense of the word.
Nonetheless, the concept of race in relation to the present borderless world is becoming increasingly irrelevant and ambiguous. In France, the child whose parents are citizens will still be French, notwithstanding that the father is of Chinese origin from Hong Kong while the mother's ancestors were born in Korea.
In Malaysia, the ethnicity of a child is still required to be determined. And what that will be depends on factors which are not easily understood by the citizens of Malaysia. For example, a Eurasian female married to a Malay can become a Malay. On the other hand, the child of a Chinese father married to a Malay is still a Chinese. In some cases, that again depends on who the maternal grandparents are.
Fathima Idris pointed out that, in the context of Malaysia, adopted children take up their families' particular race. She wondered if this existed in other parts of the world.
As we can see above, due to the complexity involved and the futility of the result, most advanced countries do not attempt to determine the ethnic origin of its citizens. Suffice that they will stand up to protect the honour of their country.
Thus, it would seem that a race ought to be left to the horses and athletes.