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08/09/2013 11:40 AM
The Great Malaysian Story | Azrul Mohd Khalib | The Malay Mail Online
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/azrul-mohd-khalib/article/...
08/09/2013 11:40 AM
The Great Malaysian Story | Azrul Mohd Khalib | The Malay Mail Online
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/azrul-mohd-khalib/article/...
Perhaps we imagine ourselves to still be in a time when our masters were white, wore pith helmets, and ordered scotch by banging on the table and saying Hey, boy! Kasi satu lagi, ini macam! Cepat! Bodoh! (a line forever immortalised in a late 80s drama Tuan Brown). Only when we wake up from the nightmare, do we find that our masters are now of brown skin, still drink the occasional tipple or two, hiss at things like pluralism and compete to see who is holier by persecuting people of other ethnicities and faiths, and sexual minorities. Maybe we see these masters when we look in the mirror each morning. The players have changed but the game and storyline remain the same. Our silence allows for a minority to continue to seek and hammer their dominance over everything from national politics and governance of our country to deciding whether the air around a char siew pau seller stall is halal and safe to breathe. I loathe loonies such as Ridhuan I-am-so-Malay Tee Abdullah, his pal Ibrahim I-am-more-Malaythan-everyone-else Ali, and old-time favourite Rais Yatim (who cautioned Malay girls against inter-racial marriages, and once stated that women wanting to go abroad should obtain permission from either their company, husband, brother or other family member to protect them from becoming drug mules) but I have to acknowledge that they too are part of the Malaysian story and the fabric of our society. Much as we want to, we cant write them out or ignore them. If you are not angry yet when these characters open their mouths, you should be. These are the sort of people who are writing our story. Problem is we are allowing them to. They, and we, are responsible for the Malaysia we have today. Tunku Abdul Rahman once recommended that we encourage interethnic marriages. I think he had the right idea. The more diversity we see around us and in our families, the less we think of the need to be racially superior or that we are special and somehow divinely chosen. We must throw away the go-along-to-get-along mentality and realise that a new Malaysia must involve throwing off the chains of racism. Not everyone can migrate and escape to Australia, Canada or some other country if and when things get ugly or Talibanised. Most of us are in this country for the long haul and we are going to be building families and communities together. The concept of the nascent #SaySomethingNice 17-day campaign that was announced last week is rooted in precisely that. Recognising that there is a need for change and working towards it together. We certainly need more than 17 days but some of us need to start somewhere and this is as good a start as any. We are now at an existential point in the countrys lifetime. We need a new narrative for Malaysia. A new story. One that is not determined on whether the writers are Malays, Chinese, Indians and Lain-lain. But writers who identify themselves as Malaysians, writing as Malaysians, for Malaysians. People who dont give a flying cow what ethnicity a person comes from. To quote Zafirahs note, we can either conform or refuse. With luck, our sons and daughters will do what she did: toss the racism and bigotry into the garbage, take the good stuff and walk forward colour blind. Are we going to write the Great Malaysian Story? Or allow others to write it for us? Have a great Merdeka weekend! * This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
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08/09/2013 11:40 AM
The Great Malaysian Story | Azrul Mohd Khalib | The Malay Mail Online
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/azrul-mohd-khalib/article/...
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08/09/2013 11:40 AM