Animal Planet

When I read the blogs and news websites these days… I get a surreal feeling.  Like what I am reading is not about the politics of Malaysia, but the politics of an orang utan tribe on ‘orang utan island’.  Actually, its even worse than that.  The actions of Ahmad Ismail are insensitive, uncivilised, and totally unacceptable.  The fact that the upper UMNO hierarchy has done fuck all to stop it shows how far up this uncivility goes.  This insensitivity which is the by-product of years and years and years of separate Pendidikan Moral and Agama classes at school. Years upon years of see-sawing between calling our national language ‘Bahasa Melayu’ and ‘Bahasa Malaysia’.

I am proud to call myself a daughter of Malaysia.  I have no problems explaining my ancestry to friends who are curious.  Yes, I am from an immigrant race, and always will be.  But am I a squatter?  My paternal great grandfather and his sons entered Tanah Melayu legally, sought residence legally and made money legally.  My maternal grandparents did the same.  As far as my lineage goes, all my grandparents were granted citizenship according to the laws of the Malayan constitution when it was formed.  So why squatters?  No one has the right to label me or anyone in my family as squatters. Malaysia is as much our country as it is yours.  Malaysia is OUR country.

Why the sudden outburst?  And why did I not write this earlier?  Well, initially I looked upon what Ahmad Ismail said and thought of it the way one thinks of an annoying mosquito.  It buzzes in your ear and you want it to go away, but you have better things to do than to take much notice of it.  But the response of the upper UMNO hierarchy shows how ball-less they are.  The situation has been futher inflamed by the tearing of Koh Tsu Koon’s portrait.

His actions, his speech and his refusal to apologise, is an outright provocation.  But should we be provoked?  Yes, we should feel outrage.  But what is the right way to react?  In my opinion, any reaction would be an acknowledgement of the racial differences in the country.  Which is not something we should be encouraging.

We should be ignoring him.  Forget about him and continue with our own lives.  Acknowledging his words would be giving substance to his claims.  Hold public protests if you wish, but not against his words.  Go forth and proclaim proudly that we are all BANGSA MALAYSIA.  Show the powers that be who we are, and who we want to be.  Show him that we, as citizens of Malaysia are all united AS ONE PEOPLE, and not as a million different races.  We need to put our differences aside to save our country.  We need to help each other and not let the government split us despite all their apparent efforts to.

Call me a hypocrite if you wish.  But know this -  Deep in my heart, I will always be Malaysian before anything else.