The Malay-Chinese divide

Let the Malays understand what the beef of the non-Malays are. Let the Chinese also understand what the beef of the Malays are. And the same for the Indians and the people from Sabah and Sarawak as well, tell us your beef.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

My late mother could not start her day before her morning tea. If you tried talking to her before she had her first cup of tea she would be blur and would not be able to register what you are saying. In short, my mother was a tea addict.

I know many people who need their morning mug of coffee before their brain can kick into action. I, for one, would be very aggressive and short-tempered without my mug of coffee. This means we are coffee addicts.

For the last few weeks I have been skipping my morning mug of coffee and I suppose you can see that in the way I write. Anyway, today I decided to take my mug of coffee before writing this article so that I can tone down my aggressiveness and reduce my irritation. I am more tolerant and forgiving after my coffee and am not in such a hostile or quarrelsome mood.

There are others who need a drink (and I do not mean tea of coffee) the first thing when they wake up. And then they need booster shots the whole day until they hit the sack again. These people are called alcoholics.

The problem with alcoholics, though, is that they refuse to admit they are alcoholics. And herein lies the problem. When you have a problem and you refuse to admit you have a problem then it is impossible to solve the problem. That is why the first step to curing alcoholism is you must admit, “My name is Steve (or whatever), and I am an alcoholic.”

We have another problem called the Malay-Chinese divide. Actually, it is not just the Malay-Chinese divide but includes Indians and people from Sabah and Sarawak as well. But the Malay-Chinese divide is more serious.

We must first admit that this divide exists. As long as we continue to deny it, we can never get to the bottom of the problem. And the problem is we are in denial mode and we still insist that there is no problem. Hence we will never find the cure.

Why do we still insist there is no problem? It is very clear we do have a problem. We need to admit that we do have a problem so that we can sit down to look for the cure for what ails Malaysian society.

The Malays are not happy. And there are reasons why the Malays are not happy. The Chinese are not happy. And there are reasons why the Chinese are not happy. And the same goes for the Indians and those for Sabah and Sarawak as well. Everyone is not happy for one reason or another.

If we can just admit that we are not happy and then list down the reason or reasons why we are not happy then we may get closer to finding the cure to that unhappiness.

As it stands now, the Malays blame the Chinese for their unhappiness and the Chinese, in turn, blame the Malays for their unhappiness — while the Indians blame the British and those from Sabah and Sarawak blame West Malaysia.

Okay, what is it that all these people are not happy about and can we actually find a cure to that problem? I do not know whether we can find a cure but let us start with what is it that we are all not happy about?

The Malays feel that Malaysia is the land of the Malays and the Malays have been kind and generous enough to allow the non-Malays to settle in the Malay land but still the Chinese are not grateful and are demanding too much.

Is this a valid allegation? Can the Malays list down in the comments section below what are the things that the Chinese are demanding that can be considered excessive or extreme?

The Chinese feel that they are being treated as second-class citizens in the land of their birth and are regarded as not legitimate citizens of Malaysia. Can the Chinese list down in the comments section below what are the persecution and discrimination that they are being subjected to that downgrades them to second-class citizens?

And can the Indians and the people from Sabah and Sarawak do the same by listing down their grievances in the comments section below?

I want everyone to first admit that they are not happy and then list down the reasons for this unhappiness so that Malays, Chinese, Indians and the people from Sabah and Sarawak can understand what is the reason for the racial divide in Malaysia.

But we must first admit that we do have a serious racial divide. If we do not admit that then we cannot proceed to the next level. And the next level would be to identify the cause of all this unhappiness. Only then can we decide whether we do or do not have a cure to this problem.

I will publish all comments. But if you choose to publish hate-comments then we shall not be able to take this discussion forward and this exercise will just end in another slugging match.

Let the Malays understand what the beef of the non-Malays are. Let the Chinese also understand what the beef of the Malays are. And the same for the Indians and the people from Sabah and Sarawak as well, tell us your beef.

Are you ready for this? Or would you rather we just deny that a serious divide exists and then continue hating each other while declaring that we actually love each other?

The ball is in your court.