We have been conditioned think like racists
MMPublished: Feb 22, 2001 8:47 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
I sympathise with BA for what he and his friend have been through in their course of acquiring an education here ([#1]We are people, not animals[/#], Feb 17). And I am very ashamed that my fellow Malaysians treated them like that.
But in such a society as ours now, with the government seemingly permitting such brutality to happen to its own citizens, what more can we hope for foreigners? The society itself has been taught and conditioned to think that when you are different from them, you are an 'enemy' instead of somebody whom they can learn from. The society has been conditioned to think that 'I am better than you, so you must follow my lead; if not, you are my enemy'. It does not encourage people to respect individual differences and other values.
In my opinion, it is not much a question of whether one is black or white or yellow, but it is because of our own suspicious and lack of respect for other people who do not look like us or have the same culture as ours.
I say this from the experience that my husband and I have gone through. Even though to most Malaysians, Indians and Africans have the same colour tone, some Indians actually think they are better than Africans. Being an African, my husband has encountered several verbal harassments from Indians whenever he walks around KL.
I often tell my friends that you will not know your own people until you marry a foreigner or have a foreigner for a close friend. As a Muslim Malay married to a Muslim African, I sometimes find myself surprised by the reaction of people who see us together.
Surprisingly, it is not the commonly perceived as 'uneducated' kampung people who dismay me, but the so-called educated metropolitan urban Kuala Lumpur society. When we walk around KL, we've come to expect remarks like kopi susu and, more often, obscene words that you would not think could come out from a Malay Muslim adult. That Islam taught us to respect other people's right and treat all Muslims like brothers and sisters can be felt more in the kampung than our capital city.
The experience of a Malay lady I know who married a white man, who were bombarded with a bag of water while walking in their apartment compound, leads me to conclude that in our society, especially in KL, suspicion as well as lack of respect for other people's right and existence are very high, to the extent that we see a lot of immature acts almost daily.
My personal hope is that with the current movement going on and more freedom of expression such as that found in malaysiakini, changes will come which hopefully will make it a better life for everybody in Malaysia.
But in such a society as ours now, with the government seemingly permitting such brutality to happen to its own citizens, what more can we hope for foreigners? The society itself has been taught and conditioned to think that when you are different from them, you are an 'enemy' instead of somebody whom they can learn from. The society has been conditioned to think that 'I am better than you, so you must follow my lead; if not, you are my enemy'. It does not encourage people to respect individual differences and other values.
In my opinion, it is not much a question of whether one is black or white or yellow, but it is because of our own suspicious and lack of respect for other people who do not look like us or have the same culture as ours.
I say this from the experience that my husband and I have gone through. Even though to most Malaysians, Indians and Africans have the same colour tone, some Indians actually think they are better than Africans. Being an African, my husband has encountered several verbal harassments from Indians whenever he walks around KL.
I often tell my friends that you will not know your own people until you marry a foreigner or have a foreigner for a close friend. As a Muslim Malay married to a Muslim African, I sometimes find myself surprised by the reaction of people who see us together.
Surprisingly, it is not the commonly perceived as 'uneducated' kampung people who dismay me, but the so-called educated metropolitan urban Kuala Lumpur society. When we walk around KL, we've come to expect remarks like kopi susu and, more often, obscene words that you would not think could come out from a Malay Muslim adult. That Islam taught us to respect other people's right and treat all Muslims like brothers and sisters can be felt more in the kampung than our capital city.
The experience of a Malay lady I know who married a white man, who were bombarded with a bag of water while walking in their apartment compound, leads me to conclude that in our society, especially in KL, suspicion as well as lack of respect for other people's right and existence are very high, to the extent that we see a lot of immature acts almost daily.
My personal hope is that with the current movement going on and more freedom of expression such as that found in malaysiakini, changes will come which hopefully will make it a better life for everybody in Malaysia.
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