Racism: Who Decides Who Are The Supremes?

The "Ahmad Incident", as most Malaysians (especially with the Chinese Malaysians) would know, was something outrageous and scandalous that it just have to conquer the headlines of every major newspaper for a week now. According to Ahmad, who was turned into a notorious superstar courtesy of this incident (otherwise just another unknown politician from some part of Malaysia), the Malaysian Chinese are just "SQUATTERS" and we do not have any rights whatsoever in this country called Malaysia.

Well, as a Chinese Malaysian, I'm not sure whether to take up my placards and head out to Dataran Merdeka to protest (everyone's favourite past time these days) or to just sit at home, sipping on my coffee as Tony Bennet serenades me with his sexy voice, with the papers in my hand and laugh at Ahmad's foolishness and stupidity.

Our ancestors (both Malay and Chinese) might be rolling in their graves this very minute over the foolish remarks made just to get the 5-minutes of fame as they believed in living together in harmony everyone are like siblings to them. Looked at how many Chinese children being adopted by Malay families and raised as their own and vice versa. Maybe that "someone" who wanted the 5-minutes of fame (he got his fame alrite, although not unlike that of Britney Spears'... famous all for the wrong reason) should go back to school and study his history again. No offence however, I do think our history books in school should undergo a review again as I have no idea what are we feeding our kids these days in history classes...

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" - Galatians 3:28. This is what i believe in. This is how the Christians view it. We are all the same. You cut us with a knife, we still bleed the same red blood. We still feel pain. We still eat and sleep just like everyone else in this world, regardless of our skin colour. Whoever came up with the term white, yellow, black etc., was obviously ignorant. Probably he was uneducated as people in those eras, back when women were only chattels and any dissenters were "the child of the devil", so that is quite a legitimate reason. But what reasons or basis does Ahmad have to have come up with such irresponsible remarks?

The world will remember how Martin Luther King Jr led the march for freedom at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC on 28 August 1963. We will remember how bold he was, standing in front of the crowd, which represented the whole of the United States of America, defying the Caucasians and slave owners, the elites and the powerful to deliver one of the best speeches in history, what we know as "I Have A Dream".

"I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" - one day, right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers".

He represented the voiceless and powerless to deliver their pleas to the whole country to forget about the colour of their skin and the different cultures they have. We too, should be thinking the same as well. Who are we to determine whether our race is the supreme one or not? Are we sinking to the ranks of Hitler, who was willing to exterminate the Jews and other minorities so that the Germans (then), whom he believed to be from the Aryans, will be the supreme race on Earth? Are we willing to kill each other just to prove who's the stronger and who's the weaker?

I love this place called Malaysia and its diversity in life and culture. It was not easy for us to reach to such a state, where peace and mutual understanding prevails over us. My playmates from all races in primary school became my close friends in secondary school and we are still close friends, always looking for opportunities to have our "gossip" sessions either in mamaks or other coffee hangouts.

I have also seen and learnt a lot from my stint in the Asian Law Students' Association (ALSA) as well, which consist of 11 Asian countries as members. We do talk on "sensitive" issues but we do not resort to insults and arguments like what we see today. (No pun intended, but most of us are 20 years younger than most Malaysian Parlimentarians...)

Therefore, who are the supremes? The Malays (Hidup Melayu?), the Chinese, the Indians? It is not for us to decide, but for God to decide. Somehow, my gut tells me if God were to speak out, he'll say, " From dust you came and to dust you will return." - Go figure.

(no offence intended. Please don't lock me up in Kamunting...)