"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason"
-Abraham J. Heschel
If we keeps on labeling one of our brother as an outsider, an outsider he will be.
Lately, we Malaysian likes to call names. One of the famous one is 'pendatang'. Why are we so insecure in life sampaikan we have to constantly rebranding ourself to something that we thought inferior than others. "Hey, I am better than you la Ah Seng, I am bumiputra you know, you are just pendatang.. balik naik tongkang la". I can accept it if this come from someone uneducated. But hell, our very own elected representative Yang Berhormat and ex-Yang Berhormat and Datuks said this so openly. Geezz.. Then you agonizing why Chinese have their own Negarakuku song, do not vote, do not join the armed forces to defend our their your country, do not hire Malays in their company... why in hell should they if all this while you treat them like 'pendatang'? Timm kaiii? mkau chou aaa?
I may be naive, I have limited resources as I am Sekolah Kebangsaan product you see... did the Chinese rob the Malay or bumiputra to get rich? One of the wealthiest Chinese, the classic rags to richest one that we know is late Lim Goh Tong.. the casino king. We read his biography about how hard he have to work to build his empire. And along the way did he somehow rob a Malay? Can you give me one name of any Bumiputra or Malay yang being denied his right supaya mendiang Goh Tong berjaya? Can you?
One of my Chinese friend was excellent in Math.. so genius that everytime we had Add Math test, she will always get 100% mark. Wonder what she ate. Did she somehow denied me my hak bumiputra to get her full mark? Did I feel cheated? Hell, no, because if I have to trade my life with her to get the full mark I'll kill myself. While we other girls are busy comparing and exchanging boyfriends, she's daydreaming about algoritm. Oh no, alpha theta phi are not hot and certainly never sexy. And she can never beat me in Bahasa Melayu though... ;)
As genius as she was, she was not accepted to local universities. I feel so guilty of being accepted instead of her as our SPM results are almost the same, at last I get A1 for AddMath (SPM result doesn't care whether ur A1 is 100 marks or 90marks - which i believe is mine). Ini pun thanks to her for tutoring me in exchange of a perfume. haha.. Her family somehow predict this anyway and already saved a fortune so that this Amoi can study oversea. Her family was not that wealthy and her education cost her family a lifelong luxury. So, today, here we are, me with my predictable government job, she with her hi-income oversea job, currently based kat Japan. So, salahkah kawanku si Amoi ini apabila pendapatan dia melebihi pendapatan aku seorang bumiputra ni? Patutkah aku menghalau Si Amoi ini naik tongkang?
I believe my Chinese friends, Indian Friends, Eurasian Friends all deserve to call this land their home too. Our weaknesses, our failure, shouldn't be blame on others just because they have different gene and successful. The road to success are not easy for them too. Why should we cut the cake according to race, according to religion? Does that make us a better person? A patriot? Guaranteed ticket to heaven?
All this unjustified hatred, that we pass on to our childrens , how many of us can honestly say that we are in this pathetic situation because of our 'pendatang'. And what does that word means anyway?
What a sad gloomy world...
Hi there, I'm happy to be your frequent visitor, not the first and the last. Actually I got your link when reading through all the comments the infamous Syed Akbar's The One and Only Problem...post.. As most the comments were sent by anonymous people, and yours was only a few comments below mine, so, one click ahead and voila...i'm here, reading your first serious post and concluded that my knowledge is no more better than yours.
ReplyDeleteBut today, I did not agree one your title here, historically, we were the descendants of three brothers, Sam, Ham and Yafith bin Nuh from the time after the great flood.
We are not one race, but one kind, mankind, as there are two other kinds, the djinns and the angels. And in the story of mankind, human begin to move to other places from Babylon thus evolving into many races according to the different climates and geographical challenges.
For example, the Japanese was once the people of the river, who came to the riverside, catch some fish and eat them raw. But as the time past by, this race had gain technology and became a great race. But they are still following their genetic inheritance to eat raw fish. Only now they have become modern, and open big restaurant, but deep down inside their chromosomes, they still crave for raw fish. And then other races learnt eating sushi from them.
That is acceptance. If you follow the trail of human gnome project, we malays are originally from the Papua islands, then to indonesia, and now coming home to the main land of Asia. On the edge of Asia, at the end of the main land, we begun our story building a nation about 600 years ago. But then, there were two big races, Chinese and Indians, that we had to clash with them at this end of the big land of Asia when the British brought them here. If we had chosen to spill blood, then war will it be, but we malays like to mingle and mellow with people, so we accept them. If and only if we can attract them to the one and only religion of malays, I think we would never had all these issues. But we are so "kedekut" with our religion, we never invited them all to the mosque. After hundreds of years, here we are, the generations that have lost in the clash with these two great races, economically and educationally simply because poor management of the land.
I hope one day we will all wake up from our great slumberland and start doing the right things.
http://tinyslave.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-would-also-like-to-write-about.html
Dear zen non,
ReplyDeleteAha, now i remember that post. ;) Glad i leave a comment there.
I browse thru your blog too and read that article about the origin of men. While your version was from historical angle with dash of religion is very interesting and widely accepted, I also pondering about the scientific view ( terlampau banyak tengok Discovery Channel ;))
Btw, I chose the title not literally meant that we are all the same race.. it's just that despite that differences, we are all human. Thus the title. Life is precious and no other human should be outcast just because we are genetically different.
if all of us do a bit in correcting our preceptions and our misunderstanding - it ll go a long way. is it too late? ntah lah.
ReplyDeletesigning off - a malaysian who is nearly giving up.
Allrite..I got what u mean. Our blood are all red.
ReplyDeleteAnd science can only say that much, thats why we need reference sources from the Creator to understand more. Can you believe Darwin's theory?
I hope you don't. Then, take this...
"Science is a study of natural phenomenon." First sentence in our form 1 science school book. No kidding, purely Darwinism.
Yet I haven't found the name of the Creator of Heaven and Earth in all levels Malaysian science text books. Or at least we called Him, The Creator, but that name even cannot enter into our text book. I wonder why must we submit to the other religions. Is this racial tolerance or hiding the truth from being told to the masses?