MALAYSIANS FIRST
JOHOR Gerakan delegate Tan Lai Soon caused a furore recently when he remarked that other than the native peoples (Sabah and Sarawak) of this country, all the other races are pendatang or immigrants.
He later retracted his remarks and apologised but was reprimanded by his party nevertheless.
In any case, Tan will most likely get away with it as have other politicians or political party members who have been careless
and unthinking in making insensitive statements treading racial lines.
As long as they have not violated any laws, there is nothing much that can be done to deter such behaviour.
The real question is, how do we deal with individuals, politicians or otherwise, who think that being careless and insensitive is the way forward to become a more open society?
Firstly, let us be clear that being open and mature are two different things.
As much as we should promote open discourse, we must also have a level of maturity to articulate it.
Facts should be presented as fact, nothing more or less.
It must not be twisted, glazed over or blurred to serve one’s argument or perception to influence audiences negatively.
Even more irresponsible is when facts are woven with sensationalism, hearsay, half-truths or even lies to influence and incite audiences.
Such behaviour should not be defended as an attempt to be open. It should be pointed out for what it is: careless, ignorant and irresponsible.
While openness provides the conduciveness for discourse to take place, maturity should provide the ability to control one’s inclination to claim superiority in any discourse where clashes of opinions are inevitable.
Maturity would also provide wisdom for individuals to weigh the mannerisms, intonation and surroundings in which an opinion is to be conveyed or expressed accordingly.
Without maturity, wisdom would be absent and, more often than not, short-sighted or opportunistic
notions will take over, simply because the public tend to have a reflexive reaction when such irresponsible ideas are presented to them.
Proponents of such behaviour continue to apply it because it gives them a faster and easier road to popularity.
Having said that, isn’t it time that we stop talking about which race is supposed to be superior?
For Malaysia to grow sustainably and be the only place for all of us to call our home, where we can live in peace, harmony, comfort and not have any part of society left behind, would it not be more important for us to talk about how we should respect each other, what are the good values we should have as citizens in our journey to be a better nation, and the qualities of leaders we want to empower to lead and govern us?
Whatever advantages or disadvantages that are affecting a race must be dealt with for the sake of the future of Malaysia and not just because of a demand or dissatisfaction.
If any race needs be given an advantage to achieve equilibrium in our society, we should understand that it should not be due to preference.
However, to accomplish this, we need more maturity and wisdom, rather than unbridled openness and reckless behaviour.
So long as we keep taking racial jibes at each other, on the pretext of being open, then, what eventually will happen is we will lose all mutual respect, common sense and clarity in our thinking.
Are we that naive as a society to think that this is the right path for the nation’s progress?
Towards that end, people must stand up and reprimand any party or individual whose thoughts lean towards one-upmanship, even in instances where they choose to keep silent.
Sometimes, what we need is not more laws to change things.
Perhaps, we need more people to have clarity in thoughts and actions, with priorities and what to focus on for the country to progress, so that, in the end, the ignorance about mutual respect and racial insensitivities will be a behaviour that Malaysians despise.
Sugiman Sabri, Alor Star, Kedah