On Moaning and Groaning

Last Sunday went to a wedding across the channel in Butterworth, one of my cousin's children got married and it was a beautiful event held on a narrow street and taking over half the block of houses on both sides of the roads. What is positive is the fact that there were a Chinese house or two that was affected by the event which meant that these Chinese neighbors had to sacrifice their parking spaces and even entrances to their homes for the day and it being a Chinese New Year and all this was out of the ordinary. Such communal inter racial cooperation in times of need is a good index for racial harmony in this country. Later i saw the Chinese neighbors attending the wedding feast themseves and noted the close neoghborly rapport between host and guests and it was genuine and heart warming. This should be happening all over the country!
In the evening sat and had a drink with my cousin Rahim along the sea wall at Padang Kota Lama (The Esplanade). We discussed about what I learned at the wedding and Rahim set about putting his perspective over the racial issue. He said there three types of Chinese in this country, one those that will have nothing to do with the Malays, if not down right detest them, they will not learn or speak Malay and will hold their loyalty to being Chinese if not to China itself. Then there are those who will tolerate the Malays as friends in business especially, they need eachother to survive. Their relationship too is not genuinely true like you and I, most of the time it is pretense, just for show, can do without and then there are those whose relationship to the Malays are genuinely unquestionable. They speak Malay, eat like Malays and often enough think even like Malays, these are rare and few, found mostly along the East Coast especially in Terengganu and Kelantan.
There is no blame here for the Malays too have their categories of racial attitudes and apptitudes towards the Chinese, their preconceived ideas and hidden animosities. These are those who will not walk through a predominantly Chinese onclave or heaven's forbid enter a Chinese home! Then there are those who value the Chinese prescence in their midst as an unfortunate necessicity again in terms of business. Friendship hinges upon close business contacts and the need for trust in eachother abilitty to deliver. Once this has been established over the years there will develop an even closer ties which in the end will become almost unseperable in most cases. For inter racial relationships developed through sound business connections is one of the most secured relationship as it is based on immediate material need for survival.
Offcourse the Indians too have their three basic groups and simmilar idiosyncracies but what is most worrysome in most cases is the fact fact that there are constant influx of immigrants into the various racial groups from their native countries like China, India and for the Malays to some extent, Indonesia. These new faces and their inffluences are the ones that can affect the racial harmony among the local groups of races. These do not care if they speak or not the National Language or who or where their loyalty lies so long as their motives and intentions for being here are met with. The Chinese from China will hook on to local Chinese and often enough create a nationalistic impact on the locals giving the locals false hopes and promises of support and into the fate of thier status here in their own state. Those with money will provide financial backing to buy anything and everything making use of the locals as a front in carrying out their ventures. The same with the Indians and to some extent the Indonesians. Malaysia is the land of the opportunist and never short of opportunists who will sell their mothers to get what they want, this is our faults and weaknesses.

When taking the Island of Penang as an example sooner or late the Malays here will be squeezed out of the state to make way for the so called development that caters to the rich and those who have their strong foreign investors. Economically this is a great scenarion but if we care about Malaysia's long term racial harmony, this scenario is a blue print for disaster when it all saturates and fermentation sets in. The Batu Uban village is a great example, set amidst tall new high cost condos and government buildings the village is the epitomy of what is happening to the Penang Malays and their lot. Politically they have been cowed by the loss in the last general ellection of the Barisan to the Opposition parties, not that the UMNO led government of the past did much to priovide any security measures to counter the Malay loss of face and their homes and livlihood despite the fact that the Prime Minister was from this state. The excuse was simple, Penang was under the rule of the Gerakan Government conveniently working in tow with the Barisan Nasional and how did that benifit the Malays of Penang when Gerakan was predominantly a Chinese politcal entity. No matter how genuinely sincere they may be the Chinnese will never go all out to protect the Malays cause, Never! Wake up and smell the Belacan!
Thanks to the Gerakan Party of old however, that the piece of land located in what used to be called the Sungaig Pinang Kampung Selut (Sungai Pinang Road, Jelutong and River Road vincinity) area was developed with low cost houses for the original Malays who lived there. The land which belongs to the MPPP(The State Council) was given on lease to the residence for 100 years?? and the itme is fast approaching for the lease to end. What happens thirty years from now? Will the present government tear down all the existing Malay houses and build more flats and condos to house Who? More foreigners? For sure as hell Penangites are not producing babies at such a rate that it will overpopulate the state! Penang people are not that stupid as to have too many children in light of the way the economy is headed, not even if they try. So where is the population growth coming from?
These are few questions we need to address ourselves all of us Malays, Chinese and Indians and the rest that make up this country. It is a question of National Security that we all need to answer, where do our priority lies, not to mention our loyalties and our commitments.
Who Are We?? At the end of the day we will have to answer to our children one day when shit hits the fence and they find themselves squeezed beyond patience. At my age of sixty and looking back at the rapid demise of this island it is sad, it is not only the loss of environment and space but the decay of its society when it comes to racial and religious tolerance and understanding. Those living in denial on this island will one day have a rude awakening that no amount of political or religious doctoring can cure. And then it is all too late and all the profits made in the so callled economic and developmental programe is burned to the ground and the nation will be left licking its wounds from the fall-outs.