A Half-Full Toast to Malaysia

 I've been so busy these past two weeks but I still want to maintain my routine of blogging weekly. Today has been hectic but I don't want to delay my blog post for the week.

Today is Malaysia Day, which is a public holiday--something which was started not that many years ago. Malaysians generally love their country even though everyone has their pet grouses. We love our food and we are proud of the fact that we are multiracial. 

But as I've mentioned before in another blog post, when you ask a Malaysian what do they think of their country and government, you can roughly expect the answers to fall into 2 categories: half-empty or half-full.

The former group thinks that we have not realized our full potential and have squandered many of our unique advantages; the latter thinks that we have done better than expected given the circumstances. But there is another more fundamental difference of opinion: we cannot agree on what kind of Malaysia we are building. What does mean to be a 'Malaysian'?

Many of the old-timers claims that racial unity used to be better, during the period before and right after Merdeka. Yes and No. Yes, because during that time, we were 'united' by a common official language: English. And those who wax lyrical about those days are mostly English educated 'Malayans' who chose to interact using a 'third-party' language and culture. English is more easily accepted as neutral medium of intercourse between the educated classes of the different races because it was and still is considered modern and progressive.  

So to many, the idea of being a Malaysian, is to be like the educated 'Malayan' of old. And yes, the English-medium schools were great places to forge unity among the different races because everyone proudly and willingly agreed to interact through a common foreign culture, adopting their liberal norms and values.

But when Bahasa Malaysia was chosen as our national language, many lament the fact that we were losing a competitive advantage.  Many also view it as a language of a lower stature, suitable only to be used in bazaars among the common folks. Even among the educated Malays, who are native speakers of the language, they too tend to adopt English phrases when they want to sound more uppity.

The second divisive element in Malaysia is religion. Even though we proudly claim that all religions are freely practiced in this country, we do have an 'official religion', which is Islam. We are a Muslim country, period. Some want to take it even further, suggesting that we should be an Islamic state, adopting syariah laws. That makes a certain non-Muslim segment of the population understandably uneasy. 

The third factor is affirmative action. Arguable necessary to help the natives who were lagging economically behind the immigrant races, it further divides the nation. Are they necessary? Perhaps. Have they been abused? Most certainly.  

The natives claim that they have been very accommodating to the immigrant races, while the latter feel that they have not been treated as equal citizens of the country. Half full and half empty again. 

Can our glass ever be filled? 

To many, they don't really care, because no one has died from thirst yet. So let's drink to that.