of sino-malay relations

Some people may recall the incident that altered the way our country has been governed. The so-called unspeakable date in which racial hatred washed its heed upon our streets. You know what I mean.

The fact that, it is 2011, and Malaysia has been prospering for more over 50 years, show that there are still a sense of racial harmony in our state, but to what extent can we gauge our compromise for the other race, or is it only an outer fabrication?

The problem that Mr. Najib has bestowed upon us is to find a medium ground for all the races in Malaysia to correlate and coexist with each other. As a matter of fact, that isn't something new, as Tun Abd Rahman and Tun Mahathir all aspire the same things, albeit with different taglines. Nonetheless, the phrase 1Malaysia is still catchy. Back to the problem, the government want us to be tolerant and understanding. We get that.

But, the thing is, up to certain point, there are still resentments in society that quietly linger amongst Malaysians of different race towards the other. Why? It's only human nature.

Human nature seeds to the fact that there must be a preferential treatment towards someone/something that has the same racial/religious/social background as we do. It's a proven fact. It doesn't mean that someone is a racist.

Example 1, a Malay would rather buy a halal food from a Malay than from a Chinese, this is because, even though they acknowledge that the food is halal, there's a biased judgement that supersedes the quality of the food available, likewise for Chinese and Indians.

In order for Mr. Najib to break the cycle, he has to start from the roots, not only promoting the concept superficially, and selling the slogan so 24-hour retail shops can use it and have a dig at the Selangor State Assembly, but utilize it to generate TRUSTS from each other.

Rather than forgetting East Malaysia (or West?), lets embrace them, and use them as an example on racial relations are partaked in their daily lives. They don't have any discriminatory feelings towards one another, because they are plural society that respects one another beliefs and create no prejudice towards one another. This is because their culture is inter-mixed, Sarawak for example, has Ibans that marry Chinese, or Malays that marry Melanau creating another sub-culture of people that intertwine in both worlds.

Not saying that mix marriage is an essential tool for better understanding. Just earmarking that an intertwined culture and the possibility of a Malay wanting to celebrate Chinese New Year the way a traditional Chinese family would do is scarce, because they are afraid it's un-Malay like (and most probably afraid of Bah Kut Teh).

Happy Chinese New Year my Chinese friends!

(I would love to join a Chinese New Year celebration)