Friday, January 08, 2010
don't ever lose hope
"Vincent, how lah? What's wrong with this country? Still got hope meh?" Labels: current issues, malaysia
"There's always hope. Don't ever, ever lose that."
Never mind about all that has been said about those acts of terrorism. Let's face it, anywhere else in the world, we would label the perpetrators terrorists. Loads of things can be said about them, but instead, let's focus on what is said about this whole issue.
Many of my friends, on Facebook, on blogs, discussing this issue - even on Malaysiakini and every online portal out there have been categorically dissing UMNO, BN, Najib and Hishamuddin. I don't deny that they could have handled it better. Heck, they should have handled it better, especially in the lead up to today's events.
But to pin the blame solely on UMNO is akin to saying that supporters and leaders of the Opposition party would have acted differently given the circumstances - is malicious at best, and worse - extremely delusional.
People all too eager to make this a political issue have to wake up and realise this is a community problem, a society issue that could have been resolved (granted, not easily) with proper discourse. To make it a political issue would be highly criminal - that is to say that if we were to swap governments tomorrow, this problem would go away automatically - that is wishful thinking that in the long run is more dangerous than the situation we are in today.
Joining a Facebook group called "AKU BENCI UMNO & BN" is equally criminal because it shows how narrow minded we are into thinking that this problem will solve itself in the next elections.
This has nothing to do with political affiliations - and to prove it, I challenge all of you reading this to a simple experiment. Open your Facebook account and count how many friends of other races you have. Then, if you are Malay - select 5 of your most Melayu friends (if you are Chinese, pick 5 of your most Cheena friends). You know, the ones who spent their entire lives in sekolah agama, then went to MRSM, then UiTM and is now working with a GLC. Similarly, a Chinese boy who went to Chung Hwa all his life, then went to UTAR and now works at his father's business. Count and see, how many friends of other races they have.
My record - one of my friends, Chinese bloke with 400 friends and NOT A SINGLE Malay or Indian friend. He went to a Chinese school all his life, then went to Singapore to study, then UK and is now working in a typically Chinese firm.
How can we tolerate (for the lack of a better word) and how can we understand other races if we don't know them? We can't blame people like my friend because this is how society moulded him to be. They had no opportunity to mix and to learn from other races and other cultures.
We, as relatively educated and supposedly more cultured citizen - it is our responsibility to show these people the beauty of diversity. Instead of pinning the blame on an easy scapegoat, we should wake up and work harder to promote our diversity.
This is an appeal to the rational citizens in my country.
Start with the man in the mirror.
Go out there, learn a new culture today.
We cannot lose hope. We must never lose hope.
Vincent, why we have to keep on compromising? Wake up !wake up my baby, this time should step up and fight for our right! tell the " Malay Babi" we are the "Ketuanan" here also!
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January 09, 2010 4:43 PMDo you not see the irony?
Btw Vincent, how come you are always being called babe/baby ah? lol
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January 11, 2010 9:56 AMbut then, we can also blame the government, saying that because there are still sekolah aliran cina or tamil or keb. or itm , we are segregated from the start.
rez: Good to see you blogging again. Don't stop.
dils: I've said before, that ideally, if I had any say in this I would abolish all those schools (vernacular schools, sekolah agama, UiTM, etc..open it to everybody) But I also acknowledge that this is a democratic country and that it would be political suicide to do that.
