Apr

12

Imagine

April 12, 2007 |

malaysia-flag-bw.jpgJust imagine. It’s not difficult, I assure you.

Just imagine a nation with its diverse peoples. A few hundred years back, the inhabitants of this nation were native peoples who lived in the forests.

Then one day, a visitor from a neighbouring nation came. He saw that the land was good and he decided to bring his people to this nation.

Imagine over time, his people grew and grew, and began to dominate this nation. Soon, the visitors became the Majority.

Thus, the Majority came to rule the Nation.

After ruling the Nation for some time, new visitors came. The new visitors came from farther away, and they brought trade with them. They also brought something else. They brought religion.

Soon, the Majority adopted the new religion and continued to rule the Nation.

Now imagine other visitors coming to the Nation. This time, they came from a land even farther away. And this time the visitors brought with them weapons never seen before in the Nation.

At first the Other Visitors came to trade, but soon they decided to own the supply of that trade. Hence, they decided to conquer the Nation, and they did that by forcing the Rulers of the Majority to submit.

The reign of the Other Visitors lasted for a very long time. In that time, the Other Visitors discovered that they needed more hands to toil and mine the rich lands of the Nation. So they decided to welcome visitors from other lands to work for them.

Over time, many other hands came to the Nation, and they soon became a considerable minority in the Nation.

Imagine this. The Minority were good workers, and the Other Visitors were very happy with the situation. They had affordable foreign labour to work for them and they earned large profits for their home nation.

After some time, the Majority wanted to be free from the grip of the Other Visitors. Indeed, even the Minority were tired of being exploited by the Other Visitors.

Hence, the Minority joined hands with the Majority to fight for freedom from the Other Visitors.

The Other Visitors were very clever. Imagine the scheme that they came up with. They agreed to free the Nation and let the Majority rule so long as the Other Visitors could continue to exploit the Nation.

Whilst fearing the Minority, and at the same time desiring to be free, the Majority in turn demanded for terms from the Other Visitors. The Majority wanted the Other Visitors to set rules against the Minority.

With nothing to lose, the Other Visitors agreed with The Majority. Thus, the Majority has more privileges than the Minority in the Nation.

Imagine now, the Nation was ruled by the Majority. They dominated everything in the Nation except the economy. Somehow, the Minority was better at business and they flourished.

And so, the Minority became part of the Nation and they helped to build it over the years. Naturally, they wanted to have a say in the government of the Nation, and so they participated in elections.

One day, they won enough votes to challenge the Majority, and the Majority panicked. The Majority panicked and started to run amok and started to attack the Minority. And things got ugly.

The Majority and Minority fought each other as if 2,000 years of civilization meant nothing to them.

Imagine, after things settled down, the Majority blamed the Minority for causing the fight in the Nation. And because of that, more rules were set against the Minority. This time, the Majority also wanted to dominate the economy.

Very soon, the Minority was marginalised. The Majority helped themselves to the Nation’s wealth and discriminated against the Minority.

Thus, despite helping to build the Nation to what it had become, the Minority were treated as second class citizens of the Nation.

Just imagine the situation that the Minority faced. What must have been going through their minds. How did they feel? Did it make sense for their children who were born in the Nation?

Just imagine. Just pause for a moment to imagine what it must be like to be a Minority in the Nation.

* * *

Now imagine.

Now imagine the Majority are called Chinese, and the Minority are called Malay.

How does that feel?

It feels a bit unsettling, doesn’t it?

Perhaps something is not right. Perhaps we need to look into ourselves and be honest with ourselves.

What is wrong with the picture you have imagined?

* * *

I have written this story for many reasons.

I have written it because I love this nation that we call Malaysia.

I have writtten this story because I want to be a part of Malaysia.

I want to live here and not go to another land. I want to live here, where I was born.

I want to be treated as an equal in my own country.

I want to have the same opportunities like everyone else.

And just like everyone else, I want my children to grow up in a country where they will be given a chance to grow, to learn, to work and to earn just like everyone else.

I want my children to play with others, regardless of their race, as if they were brothers. As if they were “abang-adik”.

I was told by my father – who has spent three quarters of a century in this country – that he recalls a time when he was young, when the Chinese and the Malay would treat each other like brothers.

I want my children to grow up like my father did.

And I want to spend the rest of my years in this country like that, too.


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2 Comments so far

  1. Bob on May 31, 2007 11:02 am

    There are only 4 major people groups in Asia Pacific, viz the Chinese of North Asia, the Indians of South Asia, the Caucasians from Russia & Australia/NZ, and the Polynesians.

    When the Chinese & the Indians met, some settled down, some got raped, etc, and a new people group known as the Indo-Chinese came into being.

    Guess what, these people live in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, etc. Then there was also direct settlement by the Chola kingdom in Kedah from 300 AD onwards, until they were destroyed in circa 1100. When the Thai Kingdom destroyed the remnants of the Chola Kingdom in Kedah, these persons moved southwards. (They could have also moved southwards b4 that too). These people migrated to Indonesia too.
    The polynesians also had a footfall in Taiwan, they too made their way here to this beautiful melting pot.
    Now we have Polynesians, Indians, Indo-Chinese, Chinese living on this archipelago. Into this mix came the Caucasians too.
    Only major people group that was not present in significant numbers were the Africans.

    Long story, all of us were here. Most have assimilated into the people of this land, whilst a new batch of immigrants came during the British times.
    Recently even more immigrants are coming from Indonesia, etc. The joke is that these 1st generation born in M’sia, by virtue of the constitutional definition of race/religion, have better privileges than non-majority race 3rd or 5th generation people. These 1st generation persons are of Indonesian, Pakistani, etc origin, and some of them have the gaul to think that they should have more privileges than those of us, who do not belong to the majority race, but whose roots are M’sian upteen generations ago.

    Problem is that among the 1st inhabitants of this land

  2. Bob on May 31, 2007 11:04 am

    Sorry the last sentence should have been erased/edited out.

    Anyway, its time we did what ur old man said. We should go back to the familial relationship. We all belong to one large family of Malaysians as envisaged by our founding fathers.

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