Everyone's talking about 1Malaysia, whether if it's successful or not. I don't care much, because unity is not something that can be done in a short span of time. Neither can it be massively changed by the government, because it all starts from within. Look at the US. Hundreds of years of racism before it has been subdued such that they could accept a Black president. even by then, there are still traces of racism there. Look at Malaysia, a baby country in terms of Independence. We might still be young, and fortunately, we're not like in the olden US where we purportly beat the other races just because we can't see eye to eye. Oh well, that happened once many years ago, but not much of it currently.
And stop singing praises for the rubbish Singapore. Even their own nationals are complaining about foreigners. Singaporeans can't stand foreigners who outperform them in almost every aspect. Yeah, the country who accept the "best of the best" because those who had become citizens had children who can't even perform well. Hence they kept "importing" because their education system is a failure. But oh well, what can I say when Malaysia's education system is always "sub-par". And some thoughts came into my mind. Malaysia kept exporting workforce to Singapore, so does it mean our education system is better? Haha, I know it may not be true, but slowly ponder over it before chanting the "Singapore is always better" just because you can't do well in Malaysia. Everything has its pros and cons, hence everyone has their own preference, and because you had a certain preference doesn't mean you had to impose it on others.
The problem is, racism is not something to hide about. Unity can only happen when there is acceptance. We must accept that we are different. To accept and understand our differences, so that we could tolerate each other. That's because racism does not stem from skin color alone. We can have the same skin color, but the language we speak, the culture we practice are still entirely different at times. There's no point saying that we are color-blind or poking our eyes so that we are ridiculously blind and loving each other. If looked from different perspective, our children are not color-blind, it's because they are going through the same growing process and have the same "culture". As they grow older, they live through different culture and they grew out of the unity they had during childhood. What we do not know, we had always fear. I remember the times when different friends have different views of other religions, learnt from their parents, that Muslims pray to the walls, the Christians pray to a tormenting tool and consume symbolism of blood and flesh, and the Buddhists or Taoists pray to spirits living in a statue. You see how ridiculous and scary this can sometimes get when you don't understand each other's faith and culture?
And I liked the quote from my friend, not sure if it was his inspiration or quote from somewhere, but it goes like this:
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Have you ever wondered why a nun can be covered from head to toe and she’s respected for devoting herself to God, but when a Muslim woman covers,she’s viewed as “oppressed” ? Or why a Jew can grow a beard and he’sjust practising his faith, and when a Muslim does that, he’s an "extremist"?
It's all in the state of mind. I'm not advocating for the practice of a single culture. That would cause lots of bloodshed at least, in the short run. And we might even end up like the Indonesians, looking so modern and united, but irrational in thoughts at some time. Protesting is not the way out if you had no other solutions apart from "Kill" or "Step down". Just like how the Indonesians perceive our country as unstable and undemocratic, with puny students refusing to voice out opinions, we perceive them as hooligans and a violent country, with some series of misfortune of natural disaster. Yeah, no thanks to the mass media. For me, I'm being fair and just. Foreigners, including Indonesians, are a risk of source of Tuberculosis. TB cases was almost nil with our medical system until the need for foreign workers brings in the need for foreign TB. And also the syndicated foreign beggars especially from China, but that will be another post by itself. But I'm not saying it's all the foreigner's fault, or everyone of them brings the disease, it's the system's fault for failure to screen for TB properly.
That being said, 1Malaysia spirit can only be achieved when there is a single common goal. It had been that way for as long as history had foretold. Countless nations had risen from it, and so did Malaysia. For Malaysia, it was the Independence back then, but now that it's long over, perhaps we'll need a new common goal, be it economical or political. At least, that is what I see in Singapore. They are united more by an economical objective as you see them chasing each other's tail in the rat race. I once disliked our PM when he introduced the National Service when it all seem like a money-making opportunity (plus the space-tourism gimmick, and frequent purchase of 2nd hand military equipment at exorbitant prices), but since becoming our PM, he seem to have a better vision of where Malaysia should head to. Whether it succeed or fail, only time will tell. And so does the 1Malaysia plan. At least it wasn't a religious front with intensive bribery behind closed doors, being 2 contrasting views.
And I'd rather hope that 1Malasyia plan succeed than fail. :)
