We have an extremely odd relationship between ourselves, our race and the race of others. While walking down Bridge Street in Manchester with a senior friend of mine who was a practicing lawyer in Chesire, we spoke about similar things. The matter of race, language and religion is something of similarity between current problems in Malaysia and those in England.

Here, the English are desperately scrambling to deal with the threat of unwarranted and under-appreciated immigration. The sum result of this manifests as social change. One that bends the norm, to that of multiculturalism, the requirement of learning, tolerance, political correctness and most importantly the need for both conscious and subconscious awareness for the surrounding humanity.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, nearing 60 years of independence and possibly centuries of multiculturalism we still face problems that are juvenile in nature, fears that are phobic and lacking reason, demons that remain unconfronted and discrepancies that remain unaddressed.

The subject of race is viewed as poisonous by both sides of Parliament. It is played to a tune dictated by the cabal whose interests lie dormant and hidden, in order to foster and promote differences that equate to division. This colonial classic, aims to ensure a conquering sense of control, obedience and an unbroken line of power.

When people ask me what the social demography of Malaysia is, I respond quite simply and refer them to America. We are nation of many different people. Some who were originally here, some who moved here and some who even moved away.

However, we cannot use this argument of there being native peoples and foreigners in order to foster a state dominance of one social group or culture over the other. That is very simply childish, and should not be entertained.

Even if similarity and uniformity of beliefs, culture, values and aspirations are strong, surely a difference in these properties are stronger? We must start cherishing differences by appreciating these as no mere tools of novelty, but pragmatic methods that would stimulate thinking, contemplation, introspection and personal growth.

Pride and prejudice is our downfall. Like America our people are vastly different from each other, but unlike America, our strength does not lie in our differences. In fact, we have turned difference in race, into our greatest weakness.

How is it that when we are overseas, we are proud to be called Malaysians, yet on a domestic platform this term is reserved for political satire or confined to jargon? There have been numerous instances where we have argued as to how we define ourselves. Does ‘Malaysian’ follow race or does it follow after religion? The answer is simply neither.

One must first define himself or herself as Malaysian. In fact, this concept was introduced to most Malaysians even in school. The concept of ‘Negara-Bangsa’ is so keenly preached, but not practiced. The sole reason behind this is ignorance, or selective ignorance.

If we cannot define ourselves, as Malaysian first, as equals with one another, all with similar privileges under the rule of common law, we will never advance from our current state of affairs. Let me clarify for you, we are in a pretty miserable state of affairs.

To me, this inability to exist as a collective people is the current Malaysian dilemma.

Fearing more than realising

The reason behind this ignorance is fear. Humanity is a being who thinks, yet the paradox is that he fears more than he realises. We fear things that we don’t understand, we fear things that we struggle to comprehend and we fear change, or perhaps keeping up with change.

This is a collective struggle that we must face as a people, united. However, even if this unity exists, our progress in dispelling these fears are limited to our collective beliefs and our ability to think at that given time and place.

It takes leadership, one who begs to differ, who envisions a drastic change, who envisions something better than what we have now to break stagnant societal beliefs or principles. Such illuminated individuals are gems. As nature intended, it takes a long time, under great pressure and depth for such gems to manifest.

In 1948, Harry Truman issued an executive order deeming the equal treatment and opportunity for all individuals in the American armed service without consideration of race, colour, religion and national origin.

In 1962, James Meredith became the first black student to enrol at the University of Mississippi. More recently, the American people chose an African American to hold office as the 44th president of the United States.

We must question ourselves; In an immigrant nation like America, how is that a white president demanded equality for blacks and minorities? How is is that a black student made it to university in spite of social revolt?

And how is it that a country which had a 63 percent Caucasian population elect their commander-in-chief from the ranks or a minority politician? Such events are extraordinary. It takes leadership, a whole lot of guts and principles to guide a people. We may be lacking this, at a personal and/or governmental scene.

We apparently have a lot of ‘leadership’ and ‘guts’ in the country from the ranks of the government and the opposition ‘leaders’. However, on the matter of principle, one is far from impressed.

More recently, the golden child of Malaysian politics, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), formed a coalition with two other opposition parties, of whom one is a splinter group. The failure of Pakatan Rakyat is due to the collapse in party ties stemming from ideological differences relating to Islamic law.

Yet, the DAP still forms a coalition with Parti Amanah Negara without consensus on the said matter, instead relying on consultative voting, if the matter of hudud comes into question. This is populism and political power play instead of democratic principle. A principled DAP will not have entered a coalition with any party that refused the simple stance on Hudud, that it had no place in Malaysian law nor life.

There are even worse examples. More recently the PAS president claims that the DAP is in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), for the sole reason of backing Chinese control of the economy. This is first class political satire, not to mention seditious and an unfounded allegation against the DAP. One questions why the media even has time for an intellectually mundane old man seen within the PAS presidency.

I take no favour of the government instead of the opposition, as I am politically neutral and instead rely on a conscientious ideological third voice. I criticise and condemn the opposition far more than the government any day for the sole reason that they represents the greatest potential seen in the last decade. By opposition, I exclude PAS.

This is fact.

A Malay family sitting and having a meal in a Chinese shop doesn't mean anything. An Indian person visiting a Chinese family over festivities doesn’t mean anything. A Malay family, visiting my house over Deepavali doesn’t mean anything. These have no meaning as long as the personal thinking of the individual is that of cultural and communal distinction. Its very plain and simple. It’s so simple that it is sad.

Illusion giving us a sense of belonging

We sometimes rely on illusion to give us a sense of belonging to our country and roots. To me this illusion is powerful because it gives one an ability to presume that life is as it is, that this is the best it would get and everything is going to be fine. This is untrue.

To change how we see the world, and how we see each other is a tremendous challenge. Frankly, all odds are against us, if we seek to attempt this, but by golly its definitely worth trying!

The first step is to accept that race is a social construct. Race is merely a classification of people, a process of categorising people according to certain traits. In science, we call this the phenotype. We come in all shapes, sizes and colours but our underlying structure is the same. This, we consider our genotype as being human.

Nature fostered all life on earth, yet only one species is intellectual enough to subvert entomology into a device of division, suspicion and hysteria. Our decision to make an assumption or presume without knowing another person’s character, on the basis of race is incorrect and has to stop, no matter how small or large that assumption is. You may realise that you've stopped doing it, but everyone else hasn’t, that is part of our struggle.

Malaysians tend to talk all about racism, but do they understand what racism even means. Forget about Indian kids not getting into medical school or the Chinese trying to rule the country via proxy. Can we define the presence and the meaning of intrinsic and extrinsic racism? It is difficult in Malaysia because it has partly become a norm. A norm of incorrectness that has long gone unchecked.

I’ll give you a few school time examples - Chinese kids are good at maths, Indian kids tend to fight, Malay kids fall asleep in class. We tend to slyly laugh about this, but the net accumulation of small insults such as this over time amounts to a profile of values and characteristics that are permanently pinned onto innocent young people, and in time, adults.

So when these kids grow up, the Chinese run the economy, the Indians are hired guns while the Malays are easily robbed and enslaved. These petty ideas have been exploited time and time again, by irresponsible individuals to indoctrinate unnatural weaknesses and fears within us. This is what keeps us divided, suspicious of each other and lacking trust. In other words this form of social engineering, is only to our detriment.

Our strength is our ability to have an opinion

The second step is to be brave and think. Our greatest strength is our ability to have an opinion. Though this is may be a relatively new concept to the vast majority of people in the country after years of being fed inaccurate information, know that an opinion once formed is not changeable, for better or worse. Hence, we need the right mix of information, thought, behaviour and mindsets in order to foster correct opinions.

This is a particular challenge among those who are older than us, those who refuse to engage with us and those who have not the awareness of an alternative state of mind. This generation and group of individuals will die off and become extinct, the challenge is to ensure such venom is not passed to the next generation.

It worries me greatly, when I see young people rallying behind bannered bigots in the name of supremacy and nationalism, because the direct implication of this is a philosophical and mental handicap placed within these kids. To them, the ethnocentric view of protagonising their social group is a method of belonging.

It is a form of relief, where by one is sheltered from the complexities of social life with other races. This is the most basic form of security, tribalism, and we see this in many communities. We must reject this in ourselves, and reject anyone else who sends out the message of condoning or glorifying the grounding of young people to race and religion. Instead, liberate them!

The third is to have faith, not in theological, ecclesiastical or mystical form, but in one another. This is the greatest challenge, as one must be resolute in his belief, while withstanding the trials presented by those who are less aware. Only by faith in one another will a social change occur, and this will take many years.

This is of great potential in our country, and we see this almost every day. We see it in Calvin Woo, who provides educational opportunities for young people, the volunteers of the Zarith Sofiah Foundation and the ‘Need to Feed the Need’ (NFN) community who provide social and welfare support, the ‘Teddy Bear Doctor’ who provides healthcare for the needy and homeless in Kuala Lumpur and in many other local heroes.

However, how much significance do we place on such events? Is it worth a glance and a smile or is it worth reflection that would change how we deal with daily life? That is perhaps a personal question. The strength of our union is only superficially in our economy or law, it is strongest in our allegiance and loyalty to each other.

It sounds cliche you may even dismiss my words as one of those ‘feel-good’ pieces in a rage of cynicism, but I assure you, our primary link with each other is our identity as being Malaysian. Without it, we are divided and thus our current dilemma.

So what does it mean to be Malaysian? One could go with a jovial approach - A Malaysian has to say “Lah”, eat Nasi Lemak and love Lee Chong Wei, or one could go with a technical approach - Being Malaysian is defined by my citizenship and the rights and liberties granted to me selectively. Maybe we should adopt a racial approach where I am Malaysian because my race denotes Malaysian.

The fact is that none of these definitions would take us anywhere. I feel we are too awkward with each other to even open an academic dialogue on the merits of civil rights and citizenship. The truth is, nation building 101 hasn’t necessarily yielded a nation. Our relief from this is awareness and personal growth. Our delivery is via the brotherhood that should exist between us.

I am hoping this isn’t always fable.