Malaysia: Race & Racism

Lately, there's a lot of Malaysians screaming about wanting a Malaysian Malaysia, where everyone is treated equally regardless of their race. "Bangsa Malaysia" is said to be the new race to replace what we've been calling Chinese, Indians, and Malays.

Well, I am definitely happy to know that race will slowly play less of a role in determining government allocation of funds. Like any other developed country, I support fully the need to help the poor regardless of their race. This is in fact a much healthy scene for Malaysian's political, business and social landscape for it will help to further reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor.

So, Bangsa Malaysia seems to be a good idea. But is it easy to just disregard race?

From my observation, it's not easy.

Just look at the popular independent news site, malaysia-today.net. Even the many people who are championing about having "Bangsa Malaysia" as our new label to all Malaysians are still using terms like Malays, Chinese and Indians in their blogs and comments. But does this mean that these people are racists? No, not necessarily.

See, there's a huge difference between race and racism. Having race that differentiates us in culture, religion, and ways of life is totally fine. There's nothing wrong to acknowledge that someone is from another race. Anyways, if race really doesn't matter to us, why are we still calling people from Asia as Asian and Westeners as Whites/Europeans? And if race really doesn't matter, I'm sure today we are calling ourselves as "earthans", or anything close to it. So, this is race, and acknowledging that we're of different races should not be a problem.

But racism?

Racism is no way close to just acknowledging race. Racism is when one race feels that they are superior than another. Racism is when one race thinks that the others should bow down to them. Racism is only for sick-minded people like the KKK's. So, racism is a No-No - definitely.

In Malaysia's case, I think there is no need for us to try to come up with one race name like "Bangsa Malaysia" or "Bangsa Melachindian" (well, I don't know if that name even sounds good) to replace our already established Malay, Chinese and Indian.

Yes, there's no need to do so. Why?

Because it's just not realistic and it is impractical to do so. Just look at America. After so many years, they're still calling themselves African-American and (Caucasian)-American. But this in no way makes them racist. Like I said earlier, one becomes a racist only when he/she thinks that his/her race is superior than another.

In Malaysia, we should not allow racism to plague the country. No one race is superior in Malaysia. Even when the Chinese are good at doing business, they can never claim that they're a superior race compared to the Malays or Indians. If the Indians are better in being dermatologists, so be it. Just because the Chinese and Indians come later, doesn't make the Malays any better than the other races. We're all equal. Everyone in the country should treat others equally fair and just.

If there should be any discrimination made, that will only be the rich, and the already-established companies (by taxing them more). Poor ones, and smaller start-up companies, regardless of the race of the individuals involved, should be helped.

Seeing ourselves united as purely Malaysians is definitely the best way to go. But as far as eliminating race labels is concerned, I think it is not practical. My 2 cents is this - we won't be able to just throw away the Indian, Chinese and Malay labels because it is evident that we have been created with different features.

And that, too, is why God has created us with different races - for us to get to know, trade, work, and tolerate one another. If we're all created with the same features and attitudes, how boring do you think this world would be?

I Need Some Personal Check & Balance

Check & balance is a must. For Muslims, one of our check and balances should be Allah, where we know that He is watching us all the time. Even when no one is around, He is around to ensure we don't dare do evil. For a student like me, I also think I need a few personal check and balance factors to keep me rolling on the right track in terms of studies and my part-time job.

Being a human full of imperfection, I find myself sometimes lazy and procrastinating. Some recent events really taught me on why personal check and balance is a must. One day I overslept where it almost costed me my part-time job as a lab assistant in our Petroleum Engineering department.

With my strict (but fatherly) boss being my personal check and balance factor in my daily life as a student here, I'm glad now I care and appreciate more about the job that I have. Should I lose this job, I'd lose so much of my side income it might even affect my studies.

To make this story a lesson, I should say that all of us should recognize and ask - what has been our personal check and balance all these while? Such check and balances would keep us away from being complacent, lazy and inefficient. They push us to the limits where we would work our hardest to appreciate whatever that we have now. And pushing ourselves to the limit is a must for personal growth. Otherwise, 5 years from now, we will still be at the same level as today.

Cheers.

Government VS Political Party

Dear Malaysians,

I do not know if this is too basic of a knowledge that I'd sound stupid trying to explain it. But from what I have observed, it seems like a lot of us (to my surprise, even the hosts on national TV) do not really know how to differentiate between a government and a political party.

First things first. BARISAN NASIONAL (BN) IS NOT EQUAL TO THE GOVERNMENT.

BN is a coalition of parties. Inside BN, there's UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, and another 10 parties.

Other than BN, we have Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), and Democratic Action Party (DAP). These are of course just the famous few of many more parties that we have in Malaysia. And these parties have different ways to look at and deal with national issues.

Government, on the other hand, is a group of people/ministers formed by either a single party, or a coalition of parties. A government handles national matters and spends taxes paid by citizens and corporations to execute national plans. During election process, the citizens will look at all of the parties' offers on how to deal with national issues, and choose the party that we think have the best offer to form the government.

Therefore, a government can be formed by any party contesting in an election. It doesn't matter, BN, PKR, DAP, PAS, all of these parties can form a government individually or mixed. Our problem is, after having BN being our government for the past 50 years (and for the next 4-5 years), a lot of people seem to have been confused when to use the term government, where most of us call BN as the government. If in the next election PKR, DAP and PAS wins simple majority in the Parliament, then please, once and for all we need to stop calling the BN coalition-of-parties as the government.

So, in the recent election, it was not the government who lost the four states... BN lost the four states to the hands of PKR, DAP and PAS. And if we love BN, we should say we sokong BN instead of we sokong kerajaan.

I just hope this clears up if not many, some of the people's confusion. To be honest, I am somewhat disturbed when people are even using the term government when they are actually referring to the BN coalition (this was on national TV, during election).

To those who just learned this difference, please do educate your friends as well. Thanks.

The Way of a Good Friend

I could not emphasize enough on how important friendships are. Some of us do claim that we make a good friend, but probably we should start evaluating ourselves whether or not we've been nice to our friends all this while.

I don't have a list of what will make a good/loyal friend, but what I'm going to talk about here is on how some "friends" do actually talk behind the back of another friend. Okay, let's assume that there's three people, A, B and C. They're all close friends.

For some reason, A doesn't like B, so A tells C how B is behaving this and that way and how A is disgusted with B.

Now, if we are C, how would we react? I figured out that there are four possible ways to react to A's comments:

First, is the worst (hopefully not the most common) reaction of all. C joins A in his/her arguments and C adds fuel to the flame (Despite having a good relationship with B). And in the end, they both agree that B is bad. But in front of B, they act all nice. Nod if you know what I'm talking about.

The second possible reaction is the same one as the first one, but this time both A and C doesn't want to talk to B even when in front of B (Yes, showing your dissent is actually better than actually having a talam dua muka [double-face])

Third, is quite neutral. C listens, and ask some relevant questions, such as what proofs A has to prove that B is a bad person. Or C could just listen and keep silent.

Fourth, is the way good friends actually are. No matter what A said and no matter what B "did" in the story, C will just listen and in the end say things like "I don't know if what you're saying is true, but B is my friend, and so far I haven't had any problems with B. B's been a good friend to me. So I'd probably just give B the benefit of doubt". Or if the time and place is not right to argue on the matter, C will just listen and not reply, but inside C is giving B the benefit of doubt.

Now, which type of friend are you?

A New Chapter For Democracy In Malaysia

Yesterday was HISTORICAL for Malaysians.

The BN coalition has never been denied it's two-thirds parliamentary seats for the past five decades. For the first time ever, this 12th election has shown how the power has been given back to the people. The prime media describes this as the "wave", "sentimen", or "tsunami".

Apart from losing it's two-thirds parliamentary position, BN also lost four states, on top of all parliamentary seats in Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur being taken away (except for Setiawangsa). These four states are Penang, Kedah, Perak and the most unexpected of all, Selangor.

Prior to election, when the opposition claimed that they are going to deny BN two-thirds of the parliamentary seats, honestly, for several reasons I was a bit skeptical of the opposition winning 75 of the 222 seats. It just seemed like they have to do too much work to achieve this.

But instead, the public have proven that I was wrong.

I am writing this only because I am so amazed at how Malaysians are brave enough to actually be ready for a change. This is because, making a decision to change itself is a really hard process. It needs a lot of courage, determination and trust to change. It is not that easy.

If Malaysians are brave enough now, that only means we've become more mature, and thus a lot more things can happen in the future for the benefit of all. The possibilities are endless. For this nationwide courage, I congratulate all Malaysians.

Whoever lost or whoever won, I should say that all of us should look at this change from the positive side of it. All sides must have tried their best, so there's nothing to regret for. I'm sure it must have been hard for BN to lose four states in one election, but I myself as a Malaysian citizen believe that this change is also good for BN because it lets not only BN, but also PKR, DAP and PAS realize that the political parties do not have the power - the people do.

Therefore, any party governing any state in Malaysia will serve the people better in the coming years, knowing that they will lose the people's trust if they ever fumble. And at the end of the day, isn't it true that the people will get the most out of this change? And shouldn't all political parties be happy when the rakyat wins, for all of their missions are to serve Malaysians in the best way possible?

Therefore, I'd rather consider this as a victory for all of us. Malaysians, let's work together despite our different views to create a better nation.

Al Jazeera Reports on Malaysian Election