we declare Your Perfection above and beyond all: we have no knowledge whatsoever except what You have taught us. No doubt it is You, and You alone that is all Knowledgeable and all Wise. (al-Baqarah, 32)

Friday, December 7, 2007

A Bridge Too Far

Notice : There are 2 things that you need to know if you plan to read. 1)The following entry contains sensitive (controversial even) issues that people may disagree with or find offensive. Read at your own discretion, and please accept it as the writer's personal opinion. 2) Its a long (and fairly formal) read.

If there was something that is the pride and joy of Malaysia, it is it's multi-racial populace and all of which, live in harmony. Unfortunately, some recent turn of events revealed that this is no longer the case....or perhaps it was never the case in the first place. Perhaps there has always been a rift between the races, only now its fast becoming a canyon. Now, I'm not usually one to comment on things like this. I hate politics through and through but. Racism, however, is against one of the tenets of being najibu. Therefore conflict between races, especially among Malaysians deeply troubles me. I've been thinking on this issue a lot and I think that without actually realizing it (or meaning to do it) people have been putting up a wall between races brick by brick.

No non-sense

The phrase 'non-*insert noun here*' is frequently used in this country and is largely accepted by most. I don't know what most people think of the phrase but to me, its one of the phrases that I have always disagreed with it's usage. When you say, for example, 'non-muslim', its like saying theres the Muslim, and then theres everyone else. Sure, people might argue that its much easier to say it that way because Muslims are the majority in this country but it doesn't hurt to acknowledge that there are people with other religious beliefs, which btw, isn't called 'non-Muslim'. I love my religion, and I think other people love their own religion as much as I love mine. So for me, this has got to do with respect. If we don't show people the respect they deserve, how could we expect people to respect us in return. Without mutual respect among people, conflict is surely abound. Call me overreactive, but hey, its my opinion.

Pride and prejudice

Our people are much too diversed and much of them live in their own flock. There nothing that can be done about this. Its only natural for people to stick in grous that they relate to most. The problem is when theres too strong a presence of racial pride. Unless we want to widen the gap between people, these feelings have got to go. No one race better than the other - all of us should be considered equals. Although this is what I want to believe, I know for a fact that its almost impossible to get everybody to think this way. Its sad, but its true. The only thing worse than this is that some people have bad perception of people who are outside of their ethnic races. I've heard parents not allowing their child to mingle around with people of a different ethnic race. Under such circimstances, the child will grow up to have a certain prejudice towards other ethnic races and later in his life teach his/her child the same thing. Its a never-ending story.

One race to rule them all

It is my dream to see every Malaysian as...well, Malaysians. If we could somehow do away with the race thingy.. The way things are now, the different ethnic races in Malaysia will always associate themselves with something different. The Malays will believe that Malaysia is righfully theirs. The Chinese will see China as the country where they originated and as for the Indians, India. Yes, we can clear the this by merely adding the word 'Malaysian' before their ethnic races but I don't think that solves the issue. If we were able to somehow consider 'Malaysian' as a race instead of a nationality. Frankly, I don't think its gonna happen. I know, its not as simple to do as it is to say and political issues certainly won't allow this to happen anytime soon. I did say in the first sentence that its my dream didn't I? Thats what its likely going to be - just a dream. Even if it won't officially happen, I do hope there are other Malaysian who see things this way.


This is one issue that has been I've been debating alone inside of my head. As such, theres plenty more that I can write but I should just leave it at that. On a side note, I am perfectly neutral from a political stand-point. Everything that I have written are wholly that of my own thought and therefore does not reflect my affliction to any ideologies, factions or secret societies of sort. If anybody actually reads this piece of writing and finds it annoying or offensive, I sincerely apologize. I do not condemn other peoples thought on the matter, nor am I saying that they are wrong, I merely stated what I disagreed with and what I think could be better. Again, I truly apologize if I offended somebody in the process. Peace be upon you all.

-Najibu

2 free comments:

Anonymous said...

i like what you said. i've been thinking about this too... especially since we're back on national soil. when will we be Bangsa Malaysia and not be categorised as bangsa cina, melayu or india etc.?

in nz, people would ask me if i'm chinese. my immediate response would be "no, i'm malaysian". and then i thought, i could have said "yes, i'm chinese but i'm from malaysia". but the thing is... i didn't.

Jarod Yong said...

Throughout the generations there exists some sort of division between us...
Something that makes us classify our nationality differently...
There are many factors to this...

But I believe that the new generation is sick of it & do have a desire for one nationality...
This may happen...
Takes vision... determination... and most of all, sacrifice...

 
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