it's raining in Kuching

It is raining right now in Kuching. I have nothing to do this afternoon other than spending time with my laptop.

I went to Sunday mass at a church this morning. Before you make any conclusion or have any funny ideas, I just went there as an ‘observer’ and not as a follower. Btw, I am a tourist. Unless there is an edict to say Muslim must stay outside the 100 km radius from a church then I should be fine. Tomorrow there may be an edict that say otherwise, who knows!. To dispel any doubts that you may have right now, I can confirmed that I went out of the church with my faith as a Muslim fully intact and stronger than before.

No, I am not going to talk about faith. The whole afternoon I have been thinking about how to be a Malaysian.

What is the meaning of being a Malaysian? Apart from decorating our cars and house with Malaysian flag during the Independence Day, do we earn the right to call ourselves as Malaysian? Is it a birthright that by virtue of being born in Malaysia and we carry the Malaysian identity card make us a Malaysian? Unfortunately (or fortunately based on which perspective you look at it) the answer is yes to all the above.

However, how do we live up as Malaysian? The polarization of race though we fail and/or hesitant to admit it, the issue is still exists. We can sweep it under the carpet but in future the carpet may not be big enough and those that been swept under it need to be put up somewhere. I wonder where the 'somewhere' going to be.

There are constitutional provisions, the alleged ‘social contract’ and other conventions or understanding supposed to be adopted by our forefathers. It was said that these elements have been embedded in the rubric of our society and some even says that it has achieved a divine status and cannot be changed.

The constitution is the supreme law of the land and it must not be contradicted. But we forget that constitution is made by men. The constitution gave broad guidelines of how men should conduct itself and do not serves to regulate the minute details compared to Codes. Furthermore, it is men who should give the soul to the constitution and not vice versa. More often than not, we use the constitution to divide rather than to unite (for example in the case of education in vernacular school and the amalgamation of the syariah and civil courts). ‘Social contract’ and ‘conventions’ on the other hand should reflect the society of the day rather than the past. How it is possible for the current society became a party to a contract for an ‘agreement’ or ‘understanding’ made by the previous society.

The slogan of Bangsa Malaysia had been left to a mere rhetoric without any serious effort to achieve it. It is perhaps due to our inability to be crystal clear on what is the definition is. I would gladly hear any attempt to define ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ as I am surely unable give one. The definition I supposed will be influenced by one political believes philosophy, ethnicity, and even upbringing.

Are we satisfy that we live as Malaysian Malay, Malaysian Chinese, and Malaysian Indian (and the list goes on). The ‘pluralistic’ of our society is our 'commodity' in the international arena; a good example of how we can live harmoniously with each other. How far is this true is perhaps debatable.

I guess nobody can talk about race nowadays without risking from being labeled as racist, ultra or extremist and host of other labels that people can think off. The bright side of this perhaps that after 51 years of independence, the vocabulary of Malaysian had improved so much that we can think of plethora of labels that we can tagged on to others. It is amazing to discover the power of education can do to a society. We are profiled based on our thoughts, action and even of our inaction.

It brings us back to the question of how do we live up as Malaysian. I supposed that to be a Malaysian (by no means have I intended this to be exhaustive), we need to think and act like a Malaysian; not as a Malaysian Malay, Malaysian Indian etc but as a Malaysian. We need to embrace the idea of Malaysia first and ethnic second or forever we will live under the façade of ‘unity’ in diversity. The fulcrum of our action should lead towards the betterment of our nation and not towards certain quarters (or individuals for that matter).

This is not ‘I have a dream’ wish. It is just a hope for a change in paradigm and to implore for a revisit to the ‘conventional wisdom’ of our society.