JUNE 12 — There’s this video-clip of Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz being interviewed for her opinion about the inclusion of different races in political parties in the “new” Malaysian scenario post GE 14. Living up to her reputation as Iron Lady, Tan Sri was brutally honest, pulling no punches, and pre-facing her comments by a typical (very Malaysian) response “ Please lah... What’s the problem?” , she expressed “the silly notion of multi- racial...” and finished with the punch-line “it’s you inside, thinking Malaysian... As long as you are thinking we need multi racial, you are not accepting people as Malaysian.”
Now that had me wondering, what on earth does she mean? I think judging by the silence of her interviewers which greeted her answer, they also were stumped. After all, most people think the obvious solution to eradicating racism in our society is simply make sure everything we do involves all the races in the country. From celebrating festivals to shooting local movies, to admission of university students, to employment opportunities etc etc. Just include the anak negeri, the Melayu, Chinese and Indian into whatever we are cooking up. And presto...we get a nice “multi-racial” politically correct ‘rojak’ everybody should be happy about.
But the reality is it’s not that simple. Look at the various reaction over the recent issue of opening up UiTM to all races. Actually it isn’t even something new at all, as such calls have been made way back in 2008, and again in 2014. My journalist daughter opined that “perhaps the core of the issue, which no one is really addressing, is our irrational desire to cling to our communal roots in a multi-racial society. This applies to Malays, Chinese, Indians, and Sabahans and Sarawakians.”
Indeed that’s putting the finger on the hot button – the desire to cling to our racial roots. But is it irrational, really? Sure, we “should” desire and insist on equality for all people, that’s a universally accepted guaranteed right, right! Certainly I don’t deny that’s the ideal to work towards , so that all races can live well in an egalitarian society.
But the truth of the matter is many people continue – and will continue – to live in racial “silos”. The last that I looked up there were at least 150,000 who signed the petition against opening up UiTM to non-bumis. And 11,000 objected to an Indian being appointed Attorney-General. I didn’t have the energy or inclination to sift through the reasons for so many objections, but I hazard a guess the majority called for protection of a certain race and religion. Is it irrational to think that way? That depends on what your eye sees.
It’s not that we don’t want equality, it’s simply that we fear having less when we give up what we already have or are used to having. That means I lose when I let you win. So 1 Chinese or Indian occupying a college seat on merit means 1 less bumiputra getting in. I give you extra 1 portion of pie means I have less to eat for myself and my kind. That’s a perfectly rational argument, simplistic though it may be. Wanting to protect our own ‘turf’ isn’t irrational, it’s a basic survival instinct.
It’s no point saying I shouldn’t feel that way, because I am what I am – we have our own individual specific ethnicity – we are born as an orang asal, a Malay, Chinese, Indian. The fact that I was born in Malaysia doesn’t take away my Chinese – ness. And that’s what my Malay neighbor sees at the first sight of my face before we get beyond the preliminary hello.
All this talk about being multiracial is nice sentiment, but it can’t change our racial DNA an iota. The problem isn’t in the race or the religion. The problem, as always, lies with humans – it’s the “you”, the “me” inside . At the heart of it is what’s in our heart – fear and a lack of trust in others that are ‘not my kind’. So if the AG is an Indian and non-Muslim to boot, the Malay’s chief concern is that the position and rights of his race and religion in this nation will be prejudiced . Likewise an Islamic scholar who is a reputed ‘progressive Muslim’ shouldn’t be in charge of education, no matter how good his credentials are, just in case he (somehow) indoctrinates our impressionable Chinese/Indian youngsters to become potential jihadists. So too a Chinese shouldn’t be writing a book about the greatness of her Christian God, because it would (presumably) weaken the faith of others and cause them to turn apostate.
Ultimately, it’s the “us” versus “them” mentality. Because we suspect/expect once we ‘give in’ to those ‘others’, ‘our’ rights, privileges, entitlements, faith, etc will be eroded or worse taken away altogether, and we (read our kind) end up losers. That’s a perfectly logical humanistic conclusion, and that’s why we are still struggling to come to terms with this ugly thing called racism. We can shout all we want about being a tolerant multi- racial society, but the noise is just a surface camouflage . We dance together in our various beautiful traditional costumes and call that unity. No need to even bring up open-house festivals with the obligatory photos of all races eating together. Those are but physical nice ‘show-cases’ for tourists to ooh and ahh over. That’s not to say we don’t have a great time, we most certainly do, we enjoy and pat each other on the back, and congratulate one another on our multi-racial harmony.
But when the music fades, and the festivities end, I venture we will continue to struggle with/against each other, if we don’t deal with the root cause – the fear factor and the trust deficit in our own hearts against that ‘other’ ...anak negeri, Malay, Chinese, Indian. That’s how I understand Tan Sri Rafidah’s statement that all this multi-racial talk is “silly”; the key, as she puts it, is in “thinking Malaysian”.
I guess that means it’s ok for me to continue to be Chinese, since I have 100% Chinese genes, I can go ahead to do “Chinese-y” stuff, but instead of comparing and obsessing about winning or losing an issue vis-a-vis other races, I don’t need to get all defensive about being Chinese. Nor do I need to think, wait, is this multi-racial ? So if a non-Chinese Malaysian has got what it takes to get a job done, that’s the person I should automatically support. Even if it means that may well work out to be ‘unequal’ for my kind, and one less Chinese gets a bite of the cherry, pie or goreng pisang.
A good place to start “thinking Malaysian” would be if we can all stop being so calculative and jittery about special rights, religion and everything else under the sun. I get especially impatient every time certain ‘sensitive’ subjects crop up. Doesn’t the fact that there are already specific safeguards in the supreme law of the land – the Malaysian constitution no less – count as an adequate guarantee? Then we might as well tear it up to recycle paper, since it’s seemingly not enough to secure our trust. Nowadays all it takes is someone to start a petition supporting one thing and straight away an opposing petition will pop up the next minute.
Please lah.... when can we grow up and stop treating each other as the bogeyman? If we can choose to see beyond what’s in it for ‘us’ only, put ourselves in the ‘other’ person’s shoes, maybe, just maybe, we can grow to love “them” a little bit more, and fear them a little bit less. Who knows, we may even mature to a stage where we would literally sacrifice ourselves for them, if it ever comes to that. Then and only then perhaps we can claim and say we are truly Malaysian, instead of settling for just being multi-racial.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
