Malaysian from Malaysia

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"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr.

After the 8^th of March, I naively thought that everything in Malaysia was a bed of roses. I had every reason to believe so.

The bodyguards of UMNO, i.e. MCA and MIC, were disgracefully thrown out by the people. Now MCA needs to think twice before claiming it represents the Chinese community. MIC suffered the same fate. 13 Indian MPs were elected into the parliament and only 3 come from MIC.

PAS, DAP and PKR have officially formed the Pakatan Rakyat, which set the path for a two-party system in Malaysia. Pakatan Rakyat is not racially based, i.e., theoretically, you can join any of the parties under Pakatan Rakyat regardless of your race. The recent classic example would be the dissolution of 1 MIC branch where 110 former members of MIC became PAS supporters.

To show that Malaysia is going towards non-racially based political landscape, we have the first Indian speaker in Perak, and a Chinese speaker in Selangor. Half the Exco members of Selangor are non-Malays; while, though DAP holds the majority seats in Perak, a Malay MB from PAS was appointed instead. The notorious NEP will be reviewed and replaced by a new policy that will not only help the poor Malays but all poor Malaysians. Penang will no longer dish out state’s contracts to cronies and the well-connected; all contracts will hereon be subject to open tender.

We read from the blogs that people are seeing things beyond races: regardless of whether it is a white cat or black cat, as long as it can catch rats, it is a good cat (YB Teng, I think it was you who brought this idea up during one of your ceramah in Klang). I have read articles written by Malay brothers that they are prepared to accept a Chinese or Indian MB if that is what it takes to make sure that the state is well governed and the people’s money is securely protected.

Based on what I could gather from the internet, I slowly feel the movement that Malaysians are seeing themselves as Malaysians, not as Chinese, Malays or Indians – just Malaysians. The truth is, in Malaysia, we may speak different language, profess different religion and eat different food; but outside Malaysia, we always call ourselves Malaysians. I am not a Chinese in China, I am a Malaysian in China. I don’t read news about China every day but the first thing I do after I turn on the computer is reading about Malaysia.

After the 8^th of March, I have this vision that all the citizens of Malaysia are regarded as Malaysians. Diversity is not our weakness but is where our strength lies. Malaysia is the only heaven on the Earth where you can speak Hokkien to your grandparents in the morning, speak Malay to the government officer in the afternoon, speak English to your colleagues in the evening, and speak Mandarin to your children at night; or eat nasi lemak as breakfast, rojak and cendol as lunch, bak kut teh as dinner and roti canai as supper.

I was on MSN with a good friend of mine and she asked me what I missed most in Malaysia. I said it was the food. She asked what food I missed most. I said “a lot”. Then I made a list of food that I missed the most: nasi lemak, bak kut teh, asam laksa, roti canai, otak-otak, char kuey tiao, cendol, nasi goreng kerabu etc. Then I realized the food I loved (and therefore missed) were not all Chinese food – they were a good mixture of multi-racial food. In China, can you find a Chinese who loves asam laksa and bak kut teh at the same time? Clearly, I am not a Chinese from China. I am also not a Malaysian from China. I am a Malaysian from Malaysia (or so I thought).

Just when I proudly (or naively) imagined myself being a Malaysian from Malaysia, something happened this morning that poured a bucket of cold water on my face to wake me up from my day dream.

This morning, I received a package sent by a Public Mutual Fund agent (thanks Dad for arranging this for me). I was asked to fill up, sign the form and then send the executed form back to Malaysia. Yes, I wanted to open an account with Public Mutual Fund so that they could help me invest my money.

In the form, I was asked about my full name, IC number, address, salary, marital status and… race.

I have to tell them whether I am a Melayu, Cina, India or “lain-lain”. This woke me up from my day dream. I really felt like tearing up the form into pieces. I was really pissed.

All I wanted to do was to open an account and invest some money, why do they need to know whether I am a Melayu, Cina, India or “lain-lain”? What the heck does my race get to do with the money I wanted to invest? Is it because if I am a Melayu, my fund manager will be extra careful with my money; and if I am a “lain-lain”, then my fund manager can simply throw my money into Klang river?

I showed that form to my Australian and American colleagues and they simply couldn’t understand. “Why do you tick ‘Chinese’ when you are a Malaysian?” the American asked.

I don’t know. I really don’t know.

The next time you are being asked to identify in an application form whether you are Melayu, Cina, India or “lain-lain”, please think of this article.

Wake up, Harnniann, we are still very far from seeing ourselves as Malaysians from Malaysia.

Me and my colleagues

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