Saturday 17 October 2009

..i am racist..


..children do not know the difference..
pic from exif photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/exif/..thank you exif..
..the caption was exif's.. a teacher from Kluang, Johor..


..I have become more racist these days..and I cannot help being so..5o years onwards from our first general elections..independence and the end of the emergency, the only tune our political masters kept on singing is about the double 'r', race and religion.. old coots like me had been reconditioned to be a little bit racist..my children and, without doubt, my grandchildren, too..

..yes, we have become a dynamic nation..our economic growth is the envy of neighbours..we have our submarines and even dared talk about nuclear energy..

..but along the way, we have lost a lot of things..mostly the ability to laugh at ourselves..we became kiasued in our compartmentalized lives tinged with racism..we dare not laugh at our little differences..afraid that it might hurt misplaced sensitivities..for, indeed, we have become hyper sensitive..to the colour of our skin, and the nature of our customs..we dare not even dare called Tanjong Keling, Tanjong Keling..afraid that it might hurt others sensitivities..shall we now renamed Masjid India, Masjid Malaysia?

..time was I can called an apek, an apek..and he will shouted back, 'hey, melayu' as a rejoinder.. and we thought nothing about it...we cannot make fun anymore of our idiosyncrasies and differences..

..somewhere along the way, we blundered..big time..and I dread thinking the legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren..they have to make their way out of this mess themselves.. somehow... they have to crawl out of those thick shells that we have cocooned ourselves in..


5 comments:

rizal hashim said...

It's something that my wife and I discuss almost on a weekly basis...perhaps we should have an integrated system in the national schools, Pak Mat?

Instead of separating Sek Agama from the national schools, why not reinforce or strengthen the national schools with religious teachings of the various religions as well?

National schools should have the best syllabus, just like Govt hospitals are equipped with the state-of-the-art technology and best specialists!

In America last time, they had the bussing system...where students of the various ethnicities were sent to the same school outside their residential perimetres...

Granny Hani said...

as always,enjoy reading whatever u wrote about..
keep it up.

Unknown said...

lc...satu sekolah untuk semua, lc..nothing short of that..as it is, chinese to their chinese primary schools, indians to their tamil primary schools..and the malays with their jenis kebangsaan..we are segregating them from young..and we expect them to mix as in 1malaysia..?

cikgu hani..thank you, cikgu..you are welcome anytime..

Lee said...

Hello PakMat, well spoken.
It is always the politicians wanting to gain political milage they poison the people's minds.

I grew up with Malays, my home always had Malay friends, boys and girls going in and out, buka fridge minum ayer and their greetings to my parents, "hello uncle, hello aunty", and my "apa khabar Pakcik", or "makcik"....

We never thought we were different....least of all me as I had more Malay friends than other races...that ahemmm, include Malay girls....

And then one day, it all ended. Pity.
The politicians fail to see beyond their noses what a strong nation Malaysia can be when everyone is equal. Tunku's dream....

Here in Toronto there's a huge Muslim population, in Canada about 1.2 million....
and there's a TV series called, "the little Mosque on the prariiri", and its about Muslims adjusting themselves in a small Canadian town, and produced by a Muslim lady....and it pokes fun at themselves as Muslims as well at others, and its really hilarious.

It is more popular than some other TV sitcoms too, and widely viewed in US too.
Pity it will not be shown in Malaysia.

Yes PakMat, here we can laugh at each other, joke and tease as we are all equal under the eyes of the law. We are Canadians first.

Applying for jobs here, it is against the law to ask for your Nationality, race, age and marital status. Only when employed we have to fill in the required documents, and no need to mention race or religion.

And yes, your time, my time we can tease each other nobody takes offence, it is sad that it has become so today, thanks to the politicians.
You stay easy PakMat, best regards....Lee.

Unknown said...

Uncle Lee..Malaysian can never hope to reach Canadian status..no thanks to the politicians who 'could never see beyond their noses'..they could not also planned beyond their 5 yr term..for they're vote driven..not raayat driven..this 'my race better than your race' thing is gonna kill us someday..take us to an abyss so deep we can never climb back up..
..thank you for the pointer on the sitcom 'Little Mosque on the Prairie' . I'd checked it on Youtube and am enjoying it..you r right..this series will never see the light of day in Malaysia..we can't have muslims poking fun at themselves..