Melting-Pot Bubbling Over?

The PM’s recent speech to newly-appointed members of the National Unity Advisory Panel received a standing ovation.
Bravo to him.

I’m rather amused (and slightly sad) that we found a need for a ‘National Unity Advisory Panel’.

Our darling Pak Lah seems to have a real passion in setting up committees, commissions, working-groups and advisory panels, doesn't he?
I guess that's cool.
I mean, those are great indications of his hard-work, his efficacy and his wonderful contribution to the nation. Yeah… Go Pak Lah.

Right.
Back to the real world.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think ‘national unity’ in schools is in dire need of reformation these days. I’ve left school 10 years ago (and that’s not THAT long ago, people) but the changes I’ve seen are pretty obvious.

Why do you think the government is suddenly making policies and creating campaigns to ‘integrate’ the school children so that they don’t ‘segregate’ further?

I remember my school days, we all had gangs/cliques whatever you want to call it. But these gangs were not formed on the basis of race. Most of my buddies were non-Malays. In fact, there was a period where I was the only Malay in a group of Chinese and Indian girls. It never occurred to me that such a thing would be strange. We shared the same interest, spoke the same language (English + pasar Malay) and so what if our skin color was different. Big deal.

We had recess together without the Malay girls wrinkling their noses at Siew Mei's Tupperware and whispering “Eee… mesti makan babi tu…”.
I heard this line when I was eaves-dropping at my sister’s school. Muncung-muncung mulut dia, juling-juling mata dia jeling at the Chinese girl tucking into her lunch.

Why la, adik? You cannot eat next to a Chinese girl because she may be eating pork? Sheeshh...
Bukan dia paksa awak makan pork tu pun. You eat la your nasi lemak, she eats la her fried pork. Salah ke? Haram ke?

If you go to hotels and your Mat Saleh friend sips on a glass of wine, do you wrinkle your nose and move away? No, you don’t.
Why?
Sebab wine tu gold-colored and pretty to look at tapi babi tu gemuk, pink and hidung besar?
BOTH the babi and the wine are haram, you know.

Whoops.. Went out of topic there for a bit.
It’s just that it has always irked me that some Malays are completely disgusted by pork and will go out of their way to shun establishments with pork but are absolutely fine with wine and beer. There was one fella at my old office who went berserk when he found out our Chinese colleague was eating pork in the office pantry. But this same fella kept chugging down mugs of beer after work. Our obsession with the haram’ness of pork is just so weird. Other haram stuff are tolerable, but not the dreaded B.A.B.I. So weird.

Back to racial unity.

I had an eye-opening conversation with a bunch of schoolgirls about ‘being friends with other races’. I was quite stunned at the racism that they nonchalantly spouted from their Lip-Ice smeared mouths.

When did this happen?

During my time, and like I said, that was just 10 years ago, we were all friends.

There were many BFFs (Best Friends Forever) who belonged to different races. It was not uncommon to see a Chinese girl and a Malay girl holding hands on the way to the school canteen. It was not weird for Afifah to be giggling away with Punitha behind the bookcase in the library. No one blinked an eye when Haryati shared Yin Wei’s bottle of water. We were all just schoolgirls in the same school (I went to an all-girls school).

And we were all really close.
There was no need for political correctness.
No need to cater to ‘extra sensitiveness’.

We could joke and josh around and call each other names like “Melayu malas”, “Keling gila” and “Cina mulut busuk” without causing any damage whatsoever. It made our friendship stronger. We were THAT open. We knew no one meant any harm.
We were just being the cheeky kids we were.

Our different races and religion were subjects of curiosity but not animosity.

Joanne, a good friend of mine and a devout Christian, could ask me candid questions about Islam without having me jump and accuse her of ‘insulting my religion’.
We could question Devika “Kenapa tuhan kau banyak tangan?” without having her mother attack the school the next day.
We could ask our Christian friends about the authenticity of the Bible without having them scream that we were trying to convert them.
It was just us friends having friendly conversations. No big deal.

According to my parents, this was the way it was during their time too. My mom’s best friends were Chinese and my dad tidur-bangun with his multi-racial group of lads in RMC. These friendships have withstood the test of time and have never been sullied by the stain of racism.

Now I see most of the younger generation sticking to their races in forming groups and gangs.
When words like ‘keling’ are used, it’s said with malice and in a derogatory manner, not in humor or with affection, and thus, are never received as such.
We see fights and arguments being initiated by people who hold their race or religion high above others and stubbornly refuse to learn about other races or religions for fear of... of... of what, really?

It’s no wonder that we need governmental intervention to create and maintain peace in our multi-racial community… things have gotten pretty bad.

When was the seed of segregation and racism planted in our community?
How come the younger generations are so aware of the color of their skin?
Why is it so difficult for us to see the ‘integration’ that we are so fond of?
What happened?

I don’t have any theories. Just questions.

I’m really, honestly wondering what happened.

What can the man of good will do to combat deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by words and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by racial bias.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)