JANUARY 2 — It’s Malaysia. What’s Malaysia? What’s your Malaysia? Does your Malaysia matter?
Sweet. Confusion reigns.
Trying time to write a resolution on New Year's Day with huge uncertainties hanging over a nation about the what, who and how.
Therefore, conditions are perfect!
An abstract resolution for a select number of Malaysians, those inclined to celebrate the abstraction which is Malaysia.
I humbly submit apologies upfront as today's column identifying this resolution lacks even more specificity than usual.
The trade-off for efficacy and avoiding the usual bashing for having liberal values, like loving multiculturalism.
That’s the what, which Malaysia is preferred, mine which brandishes the best of a dysfunctional people holding the same passport, or the other one, the bleaker unitary control-freak regime built on propaganda of fear of losing too much by loving those we know too little about, our fellow countrymen.
The besieged claim behind every act, celebration, policy, development or innovation is a sinister agenda to undermine our fixed way of life, the better life.
A life determined better by decree. An unquestioning society obsessed with homogeneity.
One in every five news pieces in Malaysia centres around it or lurks menacingly at the fringes, about how threats are abound to the old ways.
Multicultural Malaysia — nine out of 10 asked — points to nasi lemak, holiday traffic crawls and sporting medal ceremonies, as what is inclusivity for us.
But none of these encapsulate what is sama rata, sama rasa. Truth is Malaysia’s an undefined mess with a disorganised balance.
We began with communal silos within a compromised nation unassisted by divisive constitutional articles.
Our multiculturalism, its strength, is a feeling without dimension.
Time together means something, an unspoken common history which is oral rather than in our textbooks — ravaged by propaganda.
So, it gets stronger by the year, by the decade, however much unwelcome propaganda seeps into our together fabric.
It’s not my imagination.
We see it but struggle to draw it. Visitors sense it, the blindingly different sitting harmoniously in unison.
Not all that Tourism Malaysia pours into its cheesy pamphlets are overstatements. Malaysians not numbed by the fear of losing themselves get up looking forward to it, daily.
Here’s where I meet the orthodoxy.
Multiculturalism does mean losing parts of you. The others — strangers with their laughs and tears — get into our lives and when they do, we give up some of the rigid homogeneity.
Banana leaf with lamb varuval means one less nasi padang meal. Visiting an unfamiliar place of worship does validate the venue. Letting go or letting in, the same?
As such, the fear mongers have a basis. Miscegenation without assimilation and institutionalisation of arts and literature foreign here 300 years ago spills over, reduces absolutes. Blurs lines.
The what is imperfectly surmised.
To the who.
They that defend this uncertain multiculturalism.
Certainly not our politicians. Two kinds of politicians we presently elect.
One who disdains the mixing, so they are a dead road — they also choose to leave parts of themselves dead. The other group appreciates our diversity, our perplexities, it's just that when asked to defend multiculturalism they run for the hills.
Openly multicultural politicians expire prematurely at the voting booths. The qualified multiculturalist politician thrives, even if the temptation is to call them permissive cowards.
They take the votes from our plurality, because they claim they are not the orthodoxy, but at the same time allow diversity to be punched bloody on stage, because they fear the orthodoxy accuses them of heresy.
It is unfortunate that multiculturalism is left to private citizens to protect only because they do not lose elections since they do not try to win them.
But they lack an incentive to defend multiculturalism, or do they?
It is conceptual, which is why it is for a select number of Malaysians, a minority from those who love our multiculturalism. The majority just want the parades and fireworks, rather others preserve them.
It gets tiresome to shame people to act.
However, be aware, everything which is happiness can go away overnight without vigilance. Choose the hill worth dying on. Or timidly, like the many, live and die without choosing.
Which leaves the how. That’s the resolution.
I am not sure how many of us want to hold up our diversity, our multiculturalism, but it is under threat constantly.
There are an infinite number of actions.
From who you invite to your home for dinner to stand up in social media for a less anal nation, every day offers opportunities to engage.
To bring like-minded people together and to support each other.
To not cower in shame when orthodoxy shuns us. To believe in your own judgement rather than to adopt ones handed down to you by the absolutists.
The how is myriad.
It requires a realisation that more needs to be done and that no gesture is too small. Even mixing up the tracks for a karaoke night with friends underlines a commitment to diversity.
Broadening the types of people in our lives, our work and leisure.
As promised, the how is not about details as much as about intent.
To intend diversity, hail it, include it and rouse it from the bosoms of our countrymen.
Since leaders feel ethnic phrases in their salutations are effort enough and evade brave discussions about why Malaysia is all of us, not just some of us, private citizens have to sustain faith in our differences as a source of strength through voluntary acts to uphold our multiculturalism.
That’s the resolve asked.
Get up and act like your inclusive Malaysia matters.
Take the scorn and dismissiveness. Smile, nothing annoys naysayers more.
Go to sleep resolved. Wake up and repeat till the year is done.
I assure you, by every preceding action Malaysia becomes clearer.
Hey, it’s not a resolution if it’s easy or obvious.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
