Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Colors InDifference


Just sit back, read and think.(it ’s gonna be a long one and hopefully give some food for the thought)


Ethnocentrism and racism, two words that may give close meaning but not quite the same one. The focus meaning of ethnocentrism is that judging other ethnics are less superior and only one ethnic is powerful or superior to others. Racism in other word is the prejudice towards others race. Ethnic and race bring different meaning in our world. There are many races and ethnics and none is superior to the other.


For example, racism is strong in USA, where the Black (afro American) and the white hate each other for decades. Aryan brotherhood is an example of ethnocentrism where they hate others ethnic and only see theirs is the best. The Zionist(Israel) who had been destroying Palestine for the land of so called the chosen race in this earth. So I hope this brief example can give some overview about the definition of these two words.


Why I brought this? We all acknowledge that we live in a country where there are many races and ethnics live together. In 13 May 1969 , our country had seen the conflict between races (Malay and Chinese) and I can’t say that the factor to that miserable bloodshed was ethnocentrism(because I did not live in that era yet) but from what I heard, learn and read , maybe just maybe one of the factor contributing to that was ethnocentrism.


From that day and beyond, our country had seen a lot of changes in hope to mend the broken relationship and some steps had already bear the fruit. Still, racism exists in our community today. Although the level is not that alarming but if we all don’t do something about it, in the future, we gap will be wider and when that happen, only God knows what will the consequences will be. The Malay are still skeptical with Chinese. I based this not rely solely on my mind but we all can see around us. Read the newspaper. The Chinese too still have some negative feeling toward Malays.Yes, maybe some people might argue that this is all about political but if the hands that manipulate this issues carelessly might turn ugly. Why the skeptical still exist?
I did not have so much experience on this matter as I came from a state where the population of Chinese and Indian still low compared to others. I came from a strong community of Malay where Malays strong in every corner. Still, I can see that almost all the big business are owned by the Chinese. The Chinese as we all know conquered the business sector in this country and that’s why if graduate students to have more chances to get into employment it is better to have extra language such as Mandarin so that they can work with the Chinese. Why I said that racism still exist(although not that strong)?


For example, did you see many Chinese people work in the government sector or the police or army? You can count them if any. Why? Maybe the Chinese might said that they prefer to work in business area or some other factor. But one factor that we can’t neglect is that maybe, because in the government sector there are many Malays, the Malays people didn’t want other races to join them. i just speculate on this or maybe other races felt that they can get along if they join the government sector.The same goes in the business industry. Lets’ walk into Plaza Low Yatt and count how many Malays become traders there. There same situation happen. Why it is hard to mix around other races? I too did not mix well with other races and yes, I admit I still skeptical about other races. One factor maybe because of religion but if we think deeply, no religion banned their followers to hate other religions not to say races right?


So what about ethnocentrism? It is exist in whether it is small or not. Kelantanese were branded as ‘bekeng’ , ‘garang’, ‘gedebe’. Some are like that but not all. I admit Kelantanese were very proud of their heritage and land. We might sound ‘gedebe’ at some point but that’s just because of the way we talk and the upbringing.We have to admit that Kelantanese were hardworking and likes to travel.We can found Kelantanese almost everywhere in Malaysia. Hell, in this university there are many students come from there.


How we cope with this? It’s all about education. This goes with the concept of ‘Satu Malaysia’. We have to learn to accept and tolerate with each other but the steps to achieve it gonna be a long and hard. It’s not something we can achieve in a matter of second. These steps taken by the government had to understand by all people.The concept of ‘bangsa Malaysia’ and ‘masyarakat Malaysia’ might sound the same but it is not. The basic one is that we have to think and refer to our religions. Islam said we had to accept other and respect other religions and races as God creates many races with many kinds in this world.The world had gone smaller and smaller each day. Globalization is just one steps outside our doors. If we can’t settle some serious issues within our own community how’re we going to face bigger issues regarding globalization?


In the end, one have to stop and ponder, is it our perception correct? Is it what our mind perceived right with ethics and moral? I’m just saying this from what I read, see, learn and hear. Others might argue with me. Others might agree with me. Whatever the thought, let’s hope our country did not turn out to be like USA where they are divided almost in everything.

3 comments:

  1. kre kite ni berbeza gak la wrna..
    sorg putih sorg pink2 coklat..
    huhuhuhu

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  2. they say "parochialism" runs deep amongst kelantanese...but 2 be fair to them, kelantanese r very successful in all things, gud n bad(?)..i once had a kelantanese gf, my god, she's outta this world..hehe

    ReplyDelete
  3. farah - hahaha.pink2 coklat tue.tp takpe, hati ttp same/

    pro kelate - that's right kelantan people are very successful.outta this world?hehehe.deep man,

    ReplyDelete

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