"We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately" - Benjamin Franklin.
What is actually the concept of 1 Malaysia? From my point of views, it's a slogan of unity for all Malaysian's races in many aspects - giving birth to a stronger nation. But, does this concept actually working? If you asked me, I will scratch my head and says "Seriously? I have no idea at all".
With all the racist issues out there, in real life or virtually (We can see lot of racism happening around in DoTA); how will this slogan be able to achieves its purpose?
I do have a multi races friends and it's fun to hang around with them. Sadly enough I knew a few Malay Nazi that always asking me around, questioning me the reason why do I hang out with other races? I mean, come on ... what with the silly question? They're my friends and do I need any other reason to do so?
Apparently, this scenario doesn't just applied to Malays, few of my Chinese friend were asked the same question by their Chinese Nazi acquaintances. I don't really know much about my fellow Indian friends but I'm pretty sure it happened to them as well.
Sometime it really makes me wonder, why all this racism still happening after over half a decade Malaysia achieves it's independence? Is it whats makes us different are our skin tones or maybe the shapes of our eyes? We do speak the same language, even thou I can't speak in Mandarin nor Cantonese and not even Tamil but I do understand a few words out of it - mostly composed out of strings of swearing but hey; I know a bit bout your languages too!
Surely, not all Malaysians have a firm grips of 1 Malaysia but that doesn't mean we can't hang out, drinks teh tarik at mamak stall, eat nasi lemak or even char kuew teow together, right?
Yes, I do agree with the fact that deep inside our heart there still be a feeling that we'll put our race in front of others yet again in my case, it is not really in a major ways.
Now, comes the big question - How do we put an end to all of these racism issues? Mingles around, get to know each others better; in a good ways. In the near future, I do hope there will be more multiracial babies are borned so that racism would not be an issue anymore. You can't be racist towards a multiracial person, dude ... that would be totally wrong.
.......
I need to find myself a hot Chinese girlfriend, for the sakes of unity of course. 1 Malaysia, we can do it!
Serious post requires serious comment.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to completely remove racism from the minds of people.
Your question doesn't just cover racism though, it covers also cultural and societal systems.
This concept of 1 Malaysia is clearly an attempt at a multicultural or melting pot society. To bring together elements of both the distinctly Malay, and distinctly Chinese (and possibly Indian elements), together to form one homogenous culture.
The attempt is flawed of course, as it lacks one main ingredient.
Propsperity. Not to say that Malaysia is poor, but it is not an international or regional economic powerhouse.
In South East Asia, Singapore gets that honor. China, Japan and South Korea would join them, if we expand the range to the entirety of Asia, and Australia would join that list if we expand further to Oceania.
Now, let's take a look at one country considered to be have a melting pot culture. America. On the face of it, Americans aren't racist against elements in their own country. Yes, there are plenty of racists, but they are considered to be in the minority. Racism isn't ingrained in mainstream society, even if they once had slaves.
Their civil rights movement in the sixties was integral to their fight against racism.
Now, what allowed America to fight racial injustice? Aside from the willpower, they had the money. America was prosperous, particularly after WWII. With people getting jobs, earning money, they had the opportunity to focus on social justice.
That's the problem with Malaysia now, with an average economy at best, combined with corruption, the middle class is strained, the poor are very poor, and the rich, very rich.
Naturally, these elements allow feelings of racial hatred to exist. Not saying there aren't rich racists, but it's easier to spread racism in the middle and lower classes, we saw this particularly in 1930's Germany where their economic problems were blamed on the Versailles Treaty, and the Jews.
Despite the fact that many Jews in Europe worked extremely hard, never broke the law, and were good people, it was easy to manipulate public opinion and cast them as a scapegoat for their problems.
This is more or less similar to what Malays and Chinese are doing in Malaysia right now. If you talk to some of the Malay or Chinese racists you know, and ask them why they hate each other, they will blame the other for just about everything, they ruin the country, they are thieves, corrupt, etc.
Race is a scapegoat when society isn't prosperous. When society as a whole is able to move past race, it will be when that society becomes prosperous.
There will still be racists, but they won't be so loud, just a thin minority.
In the end, it's all about the money. You know what they say, money makes the world go round.