MANALAH KAWAN-KAWAN KU?

While waiting in court for my matter to be called up I started fiddling with my phone, as I am wont to do, and started scrolling through my contacts list. After scrolling through, I realized that I had very few Malay contacts in my phonebook which got me thinking and I started to make a mental headcount of the number of Malay friends I had, and by friends I don’t mean mere acquaintances. I began to struggle with the count after 8. I have a phonebook of almost 300+ numbers and I only had 8 Malay friends listed in it! My mind railed against the imbalance as I struggled to identify the cause.

During my school days I remember having lots of Malay friends whom I used to spend hours with playing “police sentry’, gala panjang, konda kondi, marbles and other youthful pursuits. However, as I delved deeper into my past I saw that by Form 5 I only really had 1 Malay friend, whose father was also a lawyer, which reminds me of a funny story. There were 3 of us sitting together in class and coincidentally all of us were lawyers sons. It didn’t take very much for us to engage in any manner of mischief and one day our Bahasa Malaysia teacher had enough and shouted “Kamu! Anak Lawyer! Ada Tuisyen!” to which we all replied “Yang mana cikgu? Ada tiga la!” causing said cikgu to storm out of the class in exasperation.

While reading law in England, I was friends with many Malays as we used to play football together and in particular with this particular senior named “Obot” because he used to act and move a little like a robot. I remember days of merry fellowship learning how to cook nasi lemak, taking part in buka puasa in University, going for open house in London and participating in the dikir barat for our Malaysian night. Lots of fond and happy memories and perversely I never felt more Malaysian than when I was abroad. I suppose as the minority in University, we banded together due to our roots and the many common factors we had in common.

Those days seem so far away now like a distant fanciful dream. If I could live and interact with mutual acceptance, respect and celebration of our differences and acknowledgment of our similarities and the ties that bind us in England, why does it now seem to be so difficult in Malaysia? These days, the differences between us seem to be irreconcilable. I read the papers these days and only see conflict, intolerance, hate mongering, racism and religious polarization. When a politician comes out in public saying that a particular race are merely squatters in the country of their birth how then do you expect the forging of a Malaysian identity or national unity when you are written off as being a temporal resident or worse, somehow “2^nd Class”. Unsurprisingly, in light of such sentiments, is it any wonder why our nation is suffering a brain drain of potentially crippling ramifications. I don’t have the page space or time to delve deeper into the analysis or reasons for our current predicament but I know that efforts need to be taken to ensure that race relations in our country need to be improved and strengthened, empty slogans and government funded infomercials proclaiming national unity are merely token efforts with no apparent value. Until we realize that we are all in the same boat and our futures are firmly interwoven, our relationships with each other will continue to be superficial and unfulfilling. Our country must evolve and the coming generations must join hands irrespective of creed, race or religion to forge a path for the future and fulfill our joint destinies and create a truly Malaysian Malaysia.

Its Raya now, and I should be enjoying lemang, rendang, bergedel and numerous other Hari Raya delicacies with my Malay friends but instead I’m at home writing this article and dutifully munching on my Hainanese Chicken Rice. Rather indicative of the present I would say. I have faith though. Im sure next year I’ll be gorged full of gorgeous Raya delicacies lying on my sofa snoring gently.

Submitted by

Gavin Tang