The distinction of humanity: Race

Nowadays, it's hard not to be able to discern people who are of a different skin tone as ourselves and perceive them as outsiders, intruders or even worse, adversaries. In Malaysia, race has dominated the political scene even before independence. More often than not, political interests are motivated by expedient politicians who preach racial harmony but practise racial dichotomy. It is disheartening to know that even several years after the golden jubilee of independence, we have not moved forward as a united front, but rather a hodgepodge of divisive entities. This is not what the father of the nation- Tunku Abdul Rahman- had had in mind when he and several other leaders successfully brought independence to the country. Indeed, it would be naive of him to believe in perpetuating peace in Malaysia, especially with exclusive privileges allocated to a certain race, for he and others did not foresee that their successors would carry out such flagrant abuse of power. Now, I'm in no way insinuating that the aforementioned race does not deserve or that the privileges have been granted unfairly. Conversely, I believe that the founding fathers of malaysia would have had the best interest of its people in mind, only to be betrayed and thrown into political abyss by the very people that they nurtured in the political scene. More importantly, the issue of special privileges has been the point of contention and tension of many issues.

The keris has been wielded several times at the UMNO general meeting by prominent leader who claim to be the voice and protector of their people. Brain drain has become increasing rampant in the country because top scorers of the other races have been denied scholarships by the government on the basis of their ethnic groups. Political leaders rally for support on the basis that special rights will be removed if the opposition alliance takes over the government. When i took a cab from home to sunway, the malay driver repeatedly told me that the chinese and indians should not question the malay privileges. Only recently, the retired Dr. M made a speech in Johor, rallying support in his bid to force the incumbent prime minister to resign. What's more incredulous would be the content of his speech, which stated unambiguously that the 'domination of malays shall vanquish if nothing is to be done to overthrow the incumbent.' Also, part of his speech entailed the non-exclusive races losing respect for malays and even climbing all over their heads(metaphorically speaking of course). His hypocrasy aside, we can infer that the race card has now evolved into a political trump card- an ace of spades as i would call it. A caucasian permanent resident once remarked 'M'sia is the most racist country i've been to. Race is relevant from the political sphere to filling up forms which usually have a section on race, which reads 'Malay, Chinese, Indian, Others'. It is utterly disappointing that view, judge, treat and discriminate people because of their skin color and not because of the virtues that they possess. We have failed as a nation because we cannot seem to proceed without racial issues being continuously raised for self interest. Some fail to look beyond race to achieve greater good, others merely seek to extend tensions that have been built up surreptiously all these while, most of which wish to ignore the ever-widening chasm between races. Sure, we might have achieved steady economic growth throughout the years, so some might argue that status quo should be retained. But, what eludes these exponents of democracy is the fact we could have progressed much further than where we currently stand IF the goverment had practiced a just and efficient system. Yes, i said efficient system(of governance): public transport is haphazardly operated(maybe because proton can't sell its cars anywhere else other than here and wtf our monorail system is KL should be named 'Minirail' instead because it can only carry around 100 people), government departments move at snail pace, roads aren't properly maintained, allegations of corruption are endemic, government linked companies only hire based on skin color etc. I would get sick enumerating everything.

Likewise, America, touted as one of the most democratic nation, is currently having to accept that racism is still prevalent in its society, especially during the run in of the democratic party's presidential candidate selection. The two survivors of the democratic campaign are pioneers in their own way. One is a female candidate, the other a black male candidate, both of whom are to be the first of their kind IF eventually elected as president. I would like to highlight the turmoil caused by snippets of racial sermons that have been preached in pulpits of churches, because these are telling evidence of the remnants of slavery practiced by the people of a country which claim to be the most liberal of all. Many voters can yet accept a president of a previously enslaved race, and they cite none other than his skin color as a reason to not vote for him, despite his efforts in bringing together differences that once set the people apart. Why? Because they have been stricken with myopia that prevents them from looking beyond skin color, as is the case in our country. Liberal, the U.S might be, free of racism, it definitely is not.

Cynics will disagree that much can be done about the current state of matters, but it is precisely this kind of attitude that will impede any kind of progress that we hope to achieve, be it now or in the future. Prescience, i might not possess, but it does not take a genius to predict what the future holds for our truly asian homeland.