How to
instill nationalism among the Malaysian? It’s a rhetorical question that
everybody knows the answer but easy to be overlooked at some point.
Nationalism
has nothing to do with races, about privileges or about rights. Half a century,
many of us still stumble and unable to grab the real essence of nationalism.
What
might sound like nationalism to the other part of ethnics might be different
for the other part of the ethnics. Being a multiracial country such as
Malaysia, it is easy to get misdirected from the real point.
First
of all, in order to nurture nationalism in the real picture, all races must try
to live and integrate together. Not only literally but in real everyday life,
just like what is stated in the concept of 1Malaysia about acceptance.
Acceptance
has nothing to do with toleration. As Malaysians we do not tolerate, instead we
accept. Just like the bond of marriage, you can’t live with someone for the
rest of your life simply by tolerating but accepting your partner’s strength,
weaknesses and unique quality. Instead of complaining about differences, we
should try to make the differences as a bridge to learn new things that gives
benefit for the rest of the citizen.
Just
like the food that we ate in our everyday life. We got lots and lots and lots
of delicious food that even when we go to other countries that we think much
better than Malaysia politically or economically; we still crave for the food
here. Even foreigners who had been here before and went back to their country,
would say that they always look forward to come back here for the sake of the
delicious food they tasted. It’s a true story that most of the Malaysian who
migrated for a long time ended up went back and settling in Malaysia for the
sake of the food. Nothing can beat the Malaysian food.
Though
it might sounds irrelevance to relate nationalism with food, it still rings a
bell. Nationalism is all about love. With so many choices and variety of
delicacies around us, the citizens somewhat will have the sentimental value
about being a Malaysian and certainly it makes Malaysia is a country worth
living in. Just like how much we enjoy eating Yong Tau Foo and loving it; we
should have the same feeling towards the originator of the food and be blessed
that if we are living in a mono ethnic civilization, we would not know how Yong
Tau Foo tasted like. Just like we don’t know how Naan Bread, Manok Pansuh,
Pecal, Satay and many more delicacies derived from different part of ethnics in
our country. So next time when we eat something, please have it in our heart
some love and gratefulness that Malaysia is a prosperous country where food
plays an important factor to unite the people together.
The
next point is upbringing. The parents must have an open mind and leave the
racism outside the door or getting rid of it at all. A child would look at the
world from their parents’ perspective. The last things to teach the kids are to be judgmental and do the stereotypical labeling. Nationalism has no
label. Labeling is the nastiest things to do towards other people. It is
important to tell the children that if the individual acts unacceptably, it has
nothing to do with their skin color or the type of their blood. Instead, they
do bad things because they chose to be bad or something forces them to be bad.
The
children must be exposed to their surrounding as early as they could question
things around them. It is important for them to get the fact right when they
are still unaffected by differences. They must know it is okay to hug other races
just like they hug one of their own. Just like it is a respectful thing to
accept a food offering from their friend from other races instead of throwing
it away in front of their friend. The simple gesture that we do every day will
help molding the children’s mind later on. So it is important to let them
understand about respect in early days of their life.
Most
Malaysian indeed loves to be a Malaysian but somewhere along the line, this
country might not be pretty as it seems. There is always a dark side on
everything. Injustice does happen and frustration might occur since nothing is
perfect in this world. But it is not impossible to mend things though it might
not be the perfect piece, it still can achieve the acceptable level. The most
important thing that most Malaysian must remember is that, Malaysia is the
place where we were born, where we grew up, where we received education till we
can expand our potential and become somebody that can work on our own without
having to depend on other people. More than 50 years had passed; we manage to
govern our own country without interference from the outside. That’s the
achievement that we should be proud of.
Being a
nationalist citizen also means being educated because the education is the only
way to save people from humility and inferiority. Learning the history is
important, but learning within the history is also very important. The true
history is not only about the glory but about the reality because there is no
right or wrong in life, it just differences, whether in ideology or in the way
you look at things. Just like as mentioned earlier on, people do bad things not
because they are evil by nature but sometimes, it’s the only way out. What
looks like black to us might look like white to other people. Therefore, it is
important to be educated in order to enable us to understand what is going on
around us.
Education gives us conscience, gives us the
ability to think. It allows us to be aware, to understand, to look at things at
various angles and be rational and flexible. For example, the least educated
might not be able to comprehend the beauty of opera and why the singer sings so
weirdly. But if they learn that it is difficult to sing and control your vocal
to sing and it takes a lot of effort to gain the ability to actually control
your voice so that it doesn't break and ruin the piece. They too would
understand and try to appreciate it.
So
instead of brainwashing people by telling them to be appreciative towards this
countrymen or that legendary warriors for their effort in freeing the country
from colonization and meeting their tragic end in the hands of the enemy, we
should start by educating this present generation the meaning of their
existence in this world which is to make the Malaysia a better place to live.
Give them goal and objective to achieve and make the country proud be it in
sport or academic or even business. Give them support be it motivationally and
financially. So that they know what they do does matter and then, the
nationalism or the love towards the country will come naturally if their needs
and dream is not denied and being fulfilled. You could never bit the hands that
feed you unless the hands are also abusive towards you.
Last
but not least, nationalism can only takes place when rigid thinking, blinded
fanaticism and over excessive paranoia
are eradicated from this land. We must have in our heart a trust towards
each other. We must stop thinking that the world is going to get us if we let
our guard down. We must not think that we are so special that we deserve to get
all the privilege. Being a Malay doesn’t mean we have a right to get things
easily without really have to work hard for it since the government will help
us anyway, Being a Chinese doesn't mean you have to be cunning in every
opportunity that you get, being an Indian doesn’t mean you can whine and grunt
about being oppressed by the other races but do nothing to change it, being
aborigine doesn't mean you just stay the way you are and live in solitary away
from the civilization.
Nationalism
is not the same old story about being obsessed towards our leaders, it is about
doing something to show our love in every opportunity we have towards our
country. Nationalism is not a political agenda, it is a public agenda. It unites
people together and erasing the boundary between us. Nationalism can be shown
in every way in our daily life. The tears of joy of singing the Negaraku song
when we won the Thomas Cup or the feeling of pride when seeing the Jalur
Gemilang on the top of Mount Everest or standing and gathering early in the
morning to watch the procession of the parade during Independence Day or simply
by eating the Briyani Gam at the mamak restaurant across the road and say “what
could be greater than this, to be able to eat delicious food anywhere and every
time I want, only in Malaysia.”
Peace,
love and respect. That’s all it takes for nationalism to take place.
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