If Malaysians are in the same boat, why rock it?
AT this time of the year, it is a tradition for people to draw up a list of personal resolutions for implementation in the course of the next 12 months or so. I have been doing exactly that myself for many years. Unfortunately, a lot of those resolutions were incapable of being implemented.
I have learnt rather late in the day that it would be more productive to concentrate on the resolutions which are doable and practicable, forgetting about any one that borders on the woolly thinking. Malays call this angan-angan Mat Jenin.
For 2020, I have several wishes. Wishes, I said, not plans, because I know I cannot complete them personally. Here goes:
Crocodile-human conflict
One wish (repeat) – the subject of my column a fortnight ago – is about the need for the state government of Sarawak to declare war on man-eating crocodiles. These reptiles are no longer an endangered species; they don’t need to be totally protected by the International Convention in the Trade of Endangered Species (Cites) and by our own Wild Life Ordinance, 1998. Their population in our rivers is exploding out of control. It is the humans in the state who are the endangered species indeed.
Political behaviour
My second wish: Malaysian politicians of all descriptions should stop playing the race/religion card. It’s just used to acquire power by hook or by crook, and once that power is obtained they clutch to it.
In the end, it’s the ordinary people, especially the party supporters, who will suffer the side effects of racial and religious politics – longhouses break up, tension persists amongst relatives, childhood friends become foes, buddies backstabbing and denouncing each other in public.
The irony is that while animosity has been sowed among their followers, the politicians themselves can reconcile whenever it suits them. They call it political convenience. Friends today, enemies tomorrow, and bosom buddies the next day. All for the sake of power and position.
Politicians trying to create a country dominated by the power of one racial group and one religious faith over the others should think carefully of the consequences of their acts. A country inhabited by people of various cultures and who profess religious beliefs of their choice cannot and should not be made into a ‘theocratic’ state.
The zealots must take into consideration the interests and feelings of all citizens, especially those in the Borneo states.
East and West Malaysian rapport
I wish that there will be less anti-West Malaysian sentiments amongst Sarawakians. Personally, I have not heard of anti-Sarawakian sentiments expressed openly. But I have read the electronic postings on this issue and I don’t like them.
At first, I thought this was a passing fad, isolated cases, not a reality. However, over coffee-breaks or lunches at seminars and workshops that I attended in the past couple of years, I discerned a different attitude of Malaysians towards one another. It is not the same as the feeling we used to know during the early years of Malaysia.
I don’t know how this deterioration has come about. Some psychologist should make a study of this phenomenon. Is it stereotyping or just a fad?
I hope it is just one of these and not something more sinister or insidious.
In the early years of Malaysia, I spent a lot of time in West Malaysia, mainly in Kuala Lumpur, I must admit. I made friends with many Malaysians from different ethnic origins. They were – those of my friends anyway – not racists or religious fanatics at all. Where are they now?
I have heard it said that times have changed since then. If that is correct, then they are not good changes at all. We need changes for the better considering that we will hit 2020 next Wednesday!
Group to promote rapport
I wish that some group would be formed by the moderates in Sarawak and Sabah: Malaysians who would like to continue living and working in this country, and thinking of the future for the next generations, and not of the next elections. Not just a Facebook chitchat group, nor a highly partisan political group, nor one with ulterior motive, but one made up of Malaysians who are genuinely concerned with the deteriorating relations between West and East.
Give this idea some time and space to develop during the course of next year – during the Chinese New year visits and every time you talk to anyone about the future of the Federation of Malaysia – the bigger picture.
There are already several groups of people with moderate views on matters of religion and race in the Peninsula. It would be a good idea for such like-minded groups at both ends of Malaysia to establish contact as soon as possible.
It’s vital that ordinary Malaysians take the initiative, indeed the lead, to promote person-to-person relationships before the current situation gets worse. Count me in. I would join such a group and contribute as best I can in terms of ideas and ideals.
The federal and state governments are doing things on the political level. Let them sort out their differences while ordinary citizen groups establish rapport and understanding. We don’t really know why the two governments – federal and Sarawak government – have been at loggerheads for so long now.
They politicise almost everything except the solar eclipse on Boxing Day.
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