Last week I was a Bedouin restaurant in the KL suburbs and I was intrigued by the dynamics of the interaction between the waiters serving our table and the guy manning the counter. They seemed to be switching back and forth in a mixture of Arabic and English with a third language I couldn’t quite place occasionally thrown in.
“Where are you guys from?” I finally asked one of them.
“I’m from Yemen, my two friends are from Syria and Pakistan,” he replied enthusiastically.
I nodded wisely as if in sudden comprehension of the horrors they must have escaped just to come to live and work in Malaysia.
The exchange reminded me of the words of another expat/refugee – an Iranian musician who told me: “You in Malaysia, you don’t understand how good it is here. I don’t know why some people want to follow my part of the world. Don’t allow Malaysia to be spoiled by chasing extremism of any kind.”
I wish I had that kind of power, buddy.
And yes, I am keenly well aware that for all our gripes, this is still a fantastic place to live in. And also that it won’t continue to be one forever if we allow ourselves to shoot down those who challenge us to aspire to greater achievements while we simultaneously build up a negative self-image.
What’s clear is that we need better leaders, leaders who don’t go around squandering our advantages and fritter and waste our opportunities.
The old man on top has always thrived on undermining the confidence of his own people and stigmatising others while presenting himself as a saviour. Yet while his reprehensible “Malays are lazy” rubbish may have helped him in the past, he has played a role in inculcating a crutch mentality that is preventing self-reliance.
I was impressed when Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad came out to speak boldly yesterday about Dr M’s attempted whitewashing of his presence at the Malay Dignity Congress earlier this month – “a race-based gathering itself is not racist until it is used as a platform to create hate against other ethnicities,” he said.
That’s good leadership – if everyone is clear and vocal about the truth only then can we remedy our weaknesses and build on our strengths. Malaysia has always had, and continues to produce, talent. In droves - but we are also driving them away at increasingly fast speeds.
One of the core problems is a collective inability to challenge ourselves to move in the right direction. A few weeks ago actress Maya Karin was slammed for a tweet which basically highlighted the inability of a Terengganu girl to comprehend even the most basic English.
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Of course, she was slammed for having the temerity to point out that what was once a Malaysian strength (the ability to compete and excel in the truly international language of English) had slipped away, now a damning indictment of the failures of our once powerful education system.
But actually she was spot on – in some ways the rest of the world is passing us by. People in countries like Myanmar and Cambodia are hungry to speak English, while we thump our chest about our own tribal languages (and yes I mean Malay, Mandarin and Tamil). It really doesn’t have to be an either-or situation.
In fact, it must not be allowed to descend into one.
During the Zakir Naik provocative rant in Kelantan, it was obvious that the sage of comparative religion was talking to an audience who didn’t really understand him. And yet they give him support because for some - religion is the ultimate trump card in the game of identity politics.
Sounds like an unfair stereotype? Try getting around good ol’ Kelate speaking only English and see how far you get.
The thing is – enough Malaysians embody a multilingual, multicultural approach for us not to get sucked into the rhetoric of ethnic champions and religious bigots. But we have to be vigilant not to fall into the traps.
The trap of thinking like Superman Hew who is constantly trying to jack up China (and he’s not the only one). Who can forget his imbecilic claim that the South China Sea belongs to Beijing?
Those people don’t respect you la, bradder.
The trap of thinking like minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman who was exposed with Gojek and trying to promote Indonesian interests over our own and got a dose of the "brotherhood" during the Indonesian crowd violence. Which was only like the tenth time over the years their people have shown us unacceptable levels of hostility during sporting events.
Those people don’t respect you la, bradder.
Our strength is our diversity. It’s one of our greatest assets. We are in the same boat with each other.
We have so much potential for greatness. We can see it in the bravery of people like Nicol David and Pandela Rinong whose hunger enabled them to make difficult sacrifices abroad in pursuit of excellence.
But most of the "greatness" in today’s Malaysia is a sham. It is a propped-up, heavily-sponsored reflected glory with the odds in its favour. Corporate Tan Sris who were handed keys to the kingdom. Academics with honorary degrees.
No wonder their "greatness" on the Malaysian stage turns to meekness on the international one.
I say it again, Malaysians are in the same boat with each other. Not the Indians nor the Chinese nor the Indonesians nor the Palestinians nor the Ceylonese Tamils nor our former colonial masters the British.
Those who have been envious of Malaysia’s peace and prosperity must be laughing at us squandering our golden opportunity to set our country to rights after the shambolic excesses of the Najib regime.
Please remember that those going around promoting hate speech on the basis of race and religion are the ultimate jaguh kampung, with power enough only to threaten other Malaysian citizens.
I won’t forget our emasculating handling of the Kim Jong-nam murder. We allowed the N Koreans to bully us and followed it up this year with the early release of the Vietnamese and Indonesian women who had a hand in his death.
What sort of message are we sending to the world today? That Malaysia is a mouse, ready to be walked all over on the world stage because not enough of its leaders have the conviction to speak the truth about our weaknesses, nor the courage to build on our strengths?
MARTIN VENGADESAN is a Malaysiakini team member.
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