I love Malaysia, where else can you get good food, great friends and political scandals?
well, to be fair, you have those in other countries as well, but to me, the difference is that its not MY good food, MY great friends or MY political scandals (im sure i will have a few in the future)
This love is tainted however. Tainted by perception and racial tension. before last year, i did not notice this. i did not know what an indian Macha was. i just thought that indians were indians and that they made good lawyers. similarly, i thought chinease were chinease and not "lala" and the malays were malays and not "rempits". i felt sad that this bubble burst.
I was never one to judge a person based on anything. Race, religion, sexual orientation or sense of humour (im sure einstein could not crack a joke if he wanted to), but lately, i find myself looking at machas, lalas and rempits more often. A part of me thinks i was blind before and that i finally woke up. Another part of me thinks that society is blind enough to ignore the entirety of a person and quickly smack labels in people's heads like they label meat in supermarkets. "Austalian beef" , "indian beef, hell, we're even racially branding our MEAT now.
Is it wrong to start smacking labels on a person's head the moment you meet them?
first we have to think of WHY society smacks labels on people in the first place. FEAR. fear of the unknown. think about it. if you were at a store shopping for shoes, then you spot one really unique pair that you think would match your new jacket. you are so happy to have spotted it. your hands shiver as you grab it, feeling the shoe beneath your palms. then the moment of truth comes. you turn the shoe over to check its price tag, only to find out there IS no price tag. suddenly, you lose all interest in the shoe and walk out of the shop. Deciding that the shop owner is a scumbag who cheats and you dont feel safe buying a shoe from that person, as much as you dont feel safe buying food from the foodstalls beside the streets in KL. No one can blame you...but those were still REALLY nice shoes.
To me, i think its alright to label people as long as you have a correction pen to change and correct that label after knowing the person you labelled for a little longer. First mpressions cant be helped and i believe that they do hold some merit. However, dont let yourself tie another person dont with labels as much as you should not let other people label you. Dont judge another person due to their label, cuz for all you know, you may have "asshole" labeled on your own forehead! ;) i know i have "crazy, unstable and radioactive" labelled on my forehead, so i dont judge the dude at the LRT station who sings songs and dances with wild curly uncombed hair. mainly because i know he copied the hairstyle from lady gaga.
in this fab country, we have a moto. "ONE MALAYSIA" loud and proud and upright. people think its stupid cuz they dont believe it will ever happen. especially not to a country which, geografically is not ONE at all! but i think it is possible. Not by forcing people to think of each other as the same, but to know that we are all different and accept as well as love that fact!
Just the same as how the majority of the society think that lady gaga is weird and a lil' bit nuts, but still listen to her music and support her! Have a little faith Malaysia. It will take ya a lllloooooonnnnnggggg way ;)
adios till later.
