JULY 16 — It’s all too easy to start a riot in Malaysia these days — just mix a little R&R (race and religion) into everything and anything. Oh, and make sure you post it on Fb, Twitter and WhatsaApp. It’s guaranteed to explode.
Enough has been said about Low Yat. In addition to being (in)famous as a place for getting good bargains on gadgets, it can now go down into Malaysian history as the May 13-that-could-have-happened. Everybody is breathing a sigh of relief that it didn’t. And so start the inevitable round of analyses, pondering, posturing and gesturing. Everybody has an opinion about it.
So while one section of society vehemently denies race has anything to do with it, the other side just as loudly asserts it’s (oh, so obviously) all about race. Of course it’s nothing to do with race — it’s just a petty crime blown out of all proportion. Of course it has everything to do with race — just look at the Malays bashing up the Chinese, and the Chinese swindling the Malays.
In the aftermath of Low Yat 2015, what’s next? We can complain, commiserate, deplore, defend what happened or didn’t happen. We can set up royal commissions, taskforces, investigative committees. Of course we can pass laws making it illegal for anyone to be “racist”. Or we can just arrest people who talk about race matters on the Internet. Better yet, just shut down all the social media platforms if there is a way to do it without starting another riot.
Certainly we should have a go at revamping our education policies. We can always attend each other’s open houses come festival time. Oh, and don’t forget we must show the obligatory multi-racial videos and giant billboards advertising smiling faces to make us feel slightly better that we are all one big happy Malaysian family. We can erase the word “race” from all our official forms. How about we make it official policy to marry outside our own “kind” and create “true Malaysian” babies (though honestly, for me, that raises a rather disturbing spectre of Nazism’s failed attempt at creating the perfect race).
Racist. That’s an ugly word. Race. Now that’s not an ugly word. The problem is we tend to mix them up. Like it’s so easy to mix up wombat with pig. There is a difference, and it’s not just in the spelling. It’s a pity such an innocuous word like “race” has now been turned into a dirty offensive word that is capable of literally making people’s blood boil and spill over onto the streets. Yet put simply, race just means a group of people distinct from other groups because of lineage, genetics, culture, geography, history… whatever. It’s just an identity we carry as a... Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asal. It’s the skin we are born with. No amount of legislation, compulsion, activism, moderation, government or individual self-effort can change that.
Racist on the other hand is an attitude. It’s thinking, even if we don’t say it out loud, that we are “better” (read: more holy/less sinful, more right/less wrong, more privileged/less qualified, more hard-working/less lazy, more this/less that) than the “other” who isn’t the same race “like us” for whatever reason, justified or unjustified. It’s what we “clothe” ourselves with on top of our skin. Now that, like our everyday wardrobe, we can change.
I wonder can’t there be a Malaysia where it’s OK to say I am Malay, Chinese, Indian or Orang Asal, where we don’t need to kid ourselves about creating that elusive “Malaysian” race which extinguishes who we are inherently? Where, despite being of individual races, we can, one and all, truly feel (not just say) and act like we are not racist? Where it’s totally irrelevant which comes first — am I a Malaysian Chinese or a Chinese Malaysian? Why can’t I be both? Since what’s relevant is that inside my Chinese body flows the same red liquid called blood that is in that Malay pak-cik, the Indian “ama”, and the Orang Asli abang, though we may all be scientifically classified under different code-types.
Perhaps if we remember our basic fundamental make-up more often, if we can acknowledge that we are all sinners in one way or another on this planet called Earth, then we may all be more inclined to behave graciously to one another, without the need of political niceties or legislative controls. Perhaps with the right heart-attitude, we can actually cry and laugh together. Perhaps there will come a day when we can choose not to begrudge what we each have or don’t have as a race.
Yes, a lot of things are “not fair” in Malaysia when we look through our own race-coloured lenses. Yes, many things could be better said and done. But perhaps we can learn from South Africa where instead of revenge and retribution, the blacks chose to tread the difficult path of confession, forgiveness and reconciliation with the whites who were their enemies.
Like the Malays say every Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin. Like Christians are commanded to “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you”.
Perhaps then we can truly love one another as ourselves. As Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Then and only then will there be no more racists. Will love really solve all our race problems? Well, at least it cuts to the root of it all, which is the human heart. I know it’s a simplistic solution, but far from simple really. Because it starts by recognising the problem isn’t with the government, politics, social inequities, culture, religion or Internet. Those are just “by the way” peripheral stuff. The real problem is us — you and I — not so much that we hate, but rather that we have failed to love.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
