Living next door to bigotry in Malaysia

Nation-building obviously involves the participation of everyone in Malaysia, many of whom are ordinary people from diverse backgrounds.

They include people who run the government machinery, keep the streets clean, build roads, teach our young, treat the sick, care for the homeless, preserve the environment, catch thieves, protect our national borders, and advocate for justice.

From time to time, we also get glimpses of ordinary people who have gone out of their way to help people in distress, misfortune and misery, irrespective of their backgrounds. In other words, the Good Samaritans who are Malaysian at heart.

Many of these deeds tug at our heartstrings simply because they are an expression of humanity, compassion and empathy. These human facets are obviously precious.

Equally important, such goodwill and kindness have a positive effect of building bridges across ethnic and religious divides that are crucial in multi-ethnic Malaysia.

Trust, mutual respect, kindness and dignity seek their rightful place in a caring society.

So, it was refreshing to read a news report not too long ago about an ethnic Chinese man called Dicky being offered help by an ethnic Malay mechanic, Abang Usop, after the former’s motorcycle broke down late at night.

Abang Usop went to Dicky’s rescue even though he had already gone back home after a hard day’s work.

The mechanic refused payment after realising that Dicky was short of cash at the time.

In a TikTok posting, Dicky shared the incident with his viewers, from whom he received gifts amounting to RM1,600. He did not keep the money but instead donated it to Abang Usop so that it could be used to help others stranded by the roadside.

The encounter gave rise to a warm relationship forged between two strangers.

Another incident involved two young Chinese men who helped to push a motorbike of an elderly Malay woman that was stalled on a busy road. It rightly earned praise from many netizens for their kind-hearted gestures.

Siti Normala Adrus, or better known as Mak Jah, runs a roadside stall in Puchong Permai. She has made a commitment to provide meals to schoolchildren for free every weekday in honour of, and as a promise to, her late mother.

Her generosity to the schoolchildren ignores race and religion. That is why her sacrifices reportedly gained support from her customers, as well as social media users.

As intimated above, these common individuals deserve to be celebrated, as their actions are as inspirational as they are humane.

That is why their deeds gained traction among social media users and other concerned people in Malaysia, precisely because these were valued moments that put a shine on an ecosystem that has been stained by bigotry, fearmongering and selfishness over the years.

It is also possible that there are those in Malaysia who crave such feel-good stories because they believe that ordinary people are generally capable of living harmoniously in the absence of politicians who profit from socially divisive manoeuvres.

Indeed, the conduct of the Good Samaritans sharply contrasts with that of some politicians who make it their raison d’être to instil fear and foster suspicion.

Even corruption, which is religiously practised by some politicians of various political hues and other greedy individuals, has been unnecessarily ethnicised. To be sure, corruption is not an inherent trait of any particular community.

Malaysians may have achieved independence, but certain people seem unable to free themselves from the colonial divide-and-rule strategy. This approach has been used across most political parties in varying degrees for many years.

The talk of social cohesion among certain quarters tends to veer towards the unity of one community against the supposedly suspicious and feared ‘others’. Unity couched in the language of identity politics is counterproductive.

People of diverse backgrounds should instead be unified around noble causes, such as justice, progress, accountability, national integration, and the fight against corruption and discrimination.

Unity is not a slogan. It is a lived experience.

Poverty, as we know it, does not have race, religion or region. The pain of poverty is inflicted on anyone and anywhere.

And yet, state assistance and funds are generally parcelled out to the respective communities. Put another way, help for the needy should be ethnicity and region-blind.

Problems arise when there is a perception, real or imagined, that less attention is given to a particular ethnic community in, for instance, access to education.

There are sections of society that appear to have a skewed ‘sense of belonging’ to this land.

Certain cohorts seem to live in their own silo, giving the impression that they prefer a contemporary Malaysia inhabited by only one majority community.

The way they talk at times makes you wonder whether they regard Sabah and Sarawak as part of the larger federation. Their insularity is jarring, to say the least.

A number of them insist that the ‘others’ still have their original homelands to go back to, if push comes to shove – even though the latter have no connections whatsoever to those ‘homelands’.

As we usher in Malaysia Day, ordinary people should continue to fight hate speech, discrimination and bigotry. These do not deserve a place in our diverse nation.

The Good Samaritans and other well-meaning patriotic ordinary people sit well with the notion of a better Malaysia. – Malay Mail

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