AUGUST 28 — Nation-building obviously involves the participation of Malaysians, many of whom are ordinary people from diverse backgrounds.
They include people who run the government machinery, keep the streets clean, build roads, teach our young, treat the sick, care for the homeless, preserve the environment, catch thieves, protect our national borders and advocate justice.
From time to time, we also get glimpses of Malaysians who have gone out of their way to help people in distress, misfortune and misery, irrespective of their backgrounds. In other words, the Good Samaritans who are Malaysian at heart.
Many of these deeds tug at our heartstrings simply because they are an expression of humanity, compassion and empathy. These human facets are obviously precious.
Equally important, such goodwill and kindness have a positive effect of building bridges across ethnic and religious divides that are crucial in a multiethnic Malaysia.
Trust, mutual respect, kindness and dignity seek their rightful place in a caring society.
So, it was refreshing to read a news report not too long ago about a Chinese man called Dicky being offered help by a Malay mechanic, Abang Usop, after the former’s motorcycle broke down late at night.
Abang Usop went to Dicky’s rescue even though he had already gone back home after a hard day’s work.
The mechanic refused payment after realising that Dicky was short of cash at the time.
In a TikTok posting, Dicky shared the incident with his viewers, from whom he received gifts amounting to RM1,600. He did not keep the money but instead donated it to Abang Usop so that it could be used to help others stranded by the roadside.
The encounter gave rise to a warm relationship forged between two strangers.
Another incident involved two young Chinese men who helped to push a motorbike of an elderly Malay woman that was stalled on a busy road. It rightly earned praise from many netizens for their kind-hearted gestures.
Siti Normala Adrus, or better known as Mak Jah, runs a roadside stall in Puchong Permai. She has made a commitment to provide meals to schoolchildren for free every weekday in honour of, and as a promise to, her late mother.
Her generosity to the schoolchildren ignores race and religion. That is why her sacrifices reportedly gained support from her customers as well as social media users.
As intimated above, these common individuals deserve to be celebrated as their actions are as inspirational as they are humane.
That is why their deeds gained traction among social media users and other concerned Malaysians, precisely because these were valued moments that put a shine on an ecosystem that has been stained by bigotry, fearmongering and selfishness over the years.
It is also possible that there are Malaysians who just crave for such feel-good stories because they believe that ordinary Malaysians are generally capable of living harmoniously in the absence of politicians who profit from socially divisive manoeuvres.
Indeed, the conduct of the Good Samaritans sharply contrasts with that of some politicians who make it their raison d’être to instil fear and foster suspicion.
Even corruption, which is religiously practised by some politicians of various political hues and other greedy Malaysians, has been unnecessarily ethnicised. To be sure, corruption is not an inherent trait of any particular community.
Malaysians may have achieved independence, but certain people seem unable to free themselves of the colonial divide-and-rule strategy. This approach has been used across most political parties in varying degrees for many years.
The talk of social cohesion among certain quarters tends to veer towards unity of one community against the supposedly suspicious and fearful “Others”. Unity couched in the language of identity politics is counterproductive.
People of diverse backgrounds should instead be unified around causes that are noble, such as justice, progress, accountability, national integration, fight against corruption and discrimination.
Unity is not a slogan. It is a lived experience.
Poverty, as we know it, does not have race, religion and region. The pain of poverty is inflicted on anyone and anywhere.
And yet, state assistance and funds are generally parcelled out to the respective communities. Put another way, help to the needy should be ethnicity and region-blind.
Problems arise when there is a perception, real or imagined, that less attention is given to a particular ethnic community as regards, for instance, access to education.
There are sections of society that appear to have a skewed “sense of belonging” to this land.
Certain cohorts seem to live in their own silo, giving the impression that they prefer a contemporary Malaysia that is inhabited by only one majority community.
The way they talk at times makes you wonder whether they regard Sabah and Sarawak as part of the larger federation. Their insularity is jarring, to say the least.
A number of them insist that the “Others” still have their original homelands to go back to if push comes to shove, even though the latter have no connections whatsoever to those “homelands”.
As we usher in the 69th Merdeka anniversary, Malaysians should continue to fight hate speech, discrimination and bigotry from having a place they do not deserve in our diverse nation.
The Good Samaritans and other well-meaning patriotic Malaysians sit well with the notion of a better Malaysia.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
