NST,Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Reading the letter, “No less a Malaysian” (NST, Oct 5), made me think of what it means to be Malaysian. I was born in Malaya and, together with millions of others, became a Malaysian in 1963.
I used English in all my 11 years of schooling and 40 years of working life. All these years, I spoke, read, wrote and dreamt in this language.
As my spoken Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese are weak, I am less at ease when conversing in these languages and dialects.
Admittedly, I am more comfortable mixing with anyone who speaks English, especially those with a good grasp of the language.
People of my generation mixed freely with schoolmates and were never conscious of race or religion.
Later as adults, we differentiated people as either good, bad or in-between and we did not determine these by their appearances, roots or faiths.
As for me, nice people enrich my life more than money can. As such, all good-hearted people look beautiful to me and good manners and courtesy matter more than titles.
Sadly, some of us can be shallow and quick to stereotype others. Let’s look at a Chinese Malaysian. A Chinese Malaysian can be educated in English, Malay or Mandarin and speak in these languages or dialects, practise age-old cultures, customs and traditions and can be a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist.
Many Buddhists are actually practise Taoism when they pray in Chinese temples, or Confucianism when they perform ancestral worship at the family altar.
A large part of Chinese worship is in continuation of age-old rituals, beliefs and superstitions that vary according to their families, clans and memories. Therefore, I cannot say what is a typical Chinese Malaysian is.
It will be harder for me to picture a Malay, who by definition is anyone who speaks Bahasa Malaysia, practises Malay customs and is a Muslim.
It does not seem to have anything to do with ancestry. In fact, large numbers of Malays are of a mixed blood and, as such, they can look different from one another.
Also, to me, Indian is not a race but people originating from South Asia, a sub-continent with hundreds of languages, thousands of dialects and a variety of cultures, customs and traditions.
Speaking of cultures and languages, these are something only the practitioners are proud of. The non-practitioners, such as tourists, will find them quaint.
Therefore, we should not place too much pride on our own cultures and languages.
Likewise, to be proud of our own country without good reason, other than putting others down, is just being obnoxiously nationalistic.
Instead, we should be patriotic by studying or working hard, be productive, contribute to society and charity, not litter or pollute, protect our environment and the weak, keep ourselves healthy and not drain the nation’s resources.
We should also show courtesy to all Malaysians, foreign workers and tourists.
We should not be proud of ourselves yet do a lousy job. Instead, we should be proud of our work and excel in our job.
If most of us can do that, even foreigners would be proud of Malaysians.
More often than not, many people who champion their race are a disgrace to their own race or religion. They choose the easy path to popularity even though it brings harm to all.
They succeed because humans are more emotional than rational. It is not helped by our education system where even graduates cannot think critically or express themselves intelligently.
Our focus should be on enlarging the cake instead of holding on to the same cake and portion.
We could have continued the path we were on in the halcyon days leading to and after independence in 1957. For those who long for the good old days, we can only shed a tear for a paradise lost.
YS Chan
Kuala Lumpur
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