IPDA has many many functions and talks that we are 'encouraged'(ie., FORCED) to attend. The latest one was one that made me feel like standing up and debating with the speaker. It was a forum on 'Bahasa Melayu dalam era globalisasi' or something like that. It was talking about how the Malay language should be emphasised and used in today's modern world, instead of us resorting to English.
Which is fine with me. IF not for several facts. If our country wants Malay to be the 'language of unity', first and foremost, CHANGE it to 'Malaysian language'. This was done before, but due to blablabla it reverted back to 'Bahasa Melayu' instead of 'Bahasa Malaysia'. Why? A name may seem insignificant, but in actual fact it plays a big role. I would feel proud to say that I'm speaking Malaysian. Wouldn't you?
Besides that, the forum speakers said that 'we are one', 'we are all Malaysians', etc etc. Tell me, do YOU feel like a Malaysian? Can you ever proudly declare, "I'm Malaysian,"??? I can't, however much I love this country. In the end, I'll have to declare myself a Chinese. To remember that I am a Malaysian and not a Chinese is proving to be the impossible. The fact that I am Chinese is constantly pounded into my head on a daily basis, whether in IPDA, in Jitra, in PJ, anywhere in Malaysia, over the internet, over the TV, when filling up documents, you name it.
Why must everything be Chinese, Indian, Malay, OTHERS? In my opinion, the 'OTHERS', the aborigines are the ones who are pushed aside. Being the minority, this is likely to happen. I wonder if they can ever call themselves Malaysians.
As Merdeka is approaching, I wonder if the Sabahans and Sarawakians feel embittered over the fact that Merdeka is given such hype although they do not have a part in it. Why do 5 year olds know all about Merdeka, but nothing about Sep. 16, Malaysia Day? Is Merdeka yet another ploy to keep us remembering who we should be grateful to?
Sabah and Sarawak are dubbed the 'katak'(frog) states. You know what? They have a right to be kataks. In a country that promised them so many things and yet landed so much crap on them, I too would question many things.
4 comments:
hi jo
im not sure why you are feeling more chinese than malaysian.
yes sabah and sarawak are under-privilleged in our underground tier system. although i cant comment too much here.
'others' is to facilitate the filling up of forms and making statistics i think. because yes, there are so little of them in the country, relatively, as compared to the major races in the country.
*i can't believe im actually justifying on behalf of them!*
my take on the speaking of BM issue is this: i have no qualms whatsoever to mendaulatkan our bahasa but i personally feel, it is english that is at the critical stage now for our malaysian students, in the education system. bahasa is spoken and used fluently by our students, but not all speak fluent english, and that is sad, because it's being a problem as m'sia is in the globalisation stage.
that's my 2 cents worth. :)
Hey Melody,
Because that's what Chinese in Malaysia are.. Chinese. Haha. I mean, we are never allowed to forget that fact, if you get what I mean.. won't/can't go into the details..
I'm questioning the reasons why we have to fill in the 'race' column in nearly every document we have in Malaysia. But we'll not touch on that further. =P
Japan and South Korea are examples of countries that have thrived and flourished without English. So what Malaysia is trying to do is to emulate them, to push English aside, so that outsiders have to learn our national language when they come in to Malaysia, and not us 'giving in' by speaking English to them. But.. as long as.. *my blog post*, I don't see it happening..
This calls for an intensive debate so let's not go into it. Hahaha!
haha. yes, i can kinda foresee that happening.
nevertheless, glad that "things are going uphill " for you :)
continue to be firm in the Lord and so doing, encourage others along their spiritual walk as well. God bless :)
Thanks for your encouragement so far Melody. =)
God bless you too!
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