Toot…

I remember it was sometime shortly after New Year’s Day that I was standing in Toys ‘R Us, in front of the small stacks of Rubik’s Cube, considering if I should buy another one. There’s no longer a discount, and it was RM 7 more expensive than when I got it shortly after Christmas.

So while I was still struggling if I should get myself another Rubik’s Cube, an old lady come by and was looking at the stack of cubes as well. She said she’s trying to get a toy for his grandson, who grows up in Australia, but is back in Malaysia for a visit with his parents over the holiday season. She then was asking me if a Rubik’s Cube is a suitable toy for her grandson. I replied that it’s really a fun toy, but usually people gives up before learning how to solve it, mentioning that it is interesting to see a reemergence of Rubik’s Cube, since that it’s such an old toy that my uncle used to have one when he was young. (The cube is still in my grandmother’s house, with the stickers peeled off and replaced at wrong positions. Oh the horror…)

So as we continue our little chit chat, she asked where I’m studying, which I replied accordingly. As expected, the next question was if I would continue staying in Melbourne after graduation, or I would return to Malaysia. I replied that I have planned, at first, to work at least a few years, but I was not too sure about that plan then, but either way I will return to Malaysia, eventually.

Then she asked, “why would you want to come back to Malaysia? We are being treated a second class citizens here“. She the went on and on about how good her daughter’s life is in Australia, how people are being treated equally, how things are more advanced there… all of which I just listened, with a smile on my face, trying to be polite. (Yeah, right… Hean? Polite?)

Suffice to say, she is of Chinese and so am I. But I am a Malaysian, who happens to be of Chinese descent.

I am not fond of classifying people too generally. To me, it is merely a matter convenience to classify people by descent, other than medical reasons. But the convenience ends there. It is unacceptable, to me, to assign descriptions such as intelligence, ideology or capability, to groups of people based on their race alone. What annoys me very much is that even among Malaysians of my generation, I still see a some racist tendencies.

There was once, I was having lunch with my coursemate and he started the joke saying that “this is a very racist joke that I heard from a friend”. Even admitting that it is a racist joke, he still continued with it:

Superman, Flash, a smart Malay and a dumb Malay all rushed to a pot of gold at the some time. Who will get the pot of gold?
Answer: The dumb Malay.
Reason: You see, Superman and Flash are imaginary, and they don’t exist, so that’s why the dumb Malay got the pot of gold, and you can infer the rest.

The reason why I am telling you the joke was not to get your laugh. For those of you who laughed, you need to reflect on yourself the next time you say that you are not a racist. I was frustrated by this joke.

The reason why I quoted this is for comparison because, I think, a seemingly harmless statement of “we are being treated like second class citizens” is merely a racist remarks in disguise, as well as a blatant disregard of the essence of democracy and our constitution.

No, I am not here to defend that Malaysian is free from the grip of racial politics. No, I am not here to say that our constitution implements equality for all citizens regardless of race. And yes, I am saying that I do not agree with every articles in our constitution.

Our constitution endowed is the right the vote for the leader we want. The elected parliamentarians or assemblymens would then form the government and the opposition. One can only wonder, if the Chinese are being treated like a second class citizens, then is it by the government or is it by people of other races? Presumably they mean the government, the exact government that they voted to power.

I admit, there are still obvious cases of racial inequality in Malaysia, such as in the economic equity target for Bumiputra, the distribution of scholarships, the discounts for houses, just to name a few.

Ideally, race should be a non issue in Malaysia. There should only be a “us”, not “us and them”. What should matter are education quality and level, income distribution, health and standard of living. And yes, ideally, religion should not be an issue.

Perhaps my idealism is naive. But I really hope that someday, Malaysia will be free of racial politics. The common denominator for all of us should be we are Malaysians. Some of us just happen to be the be of certain descent. And some of us just happen to be mongrels. We may be different, but we are still the same. We are all Malaysians.