Caretaker Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi yesterday said that he would rather resign than sit at the same table with Democratic Action Party to govern the state of Johor.
Considering that DAP is arguably the main non-Malay party in the country today, some people, such as Tajuddin Rasdi, have interpreted Onn's statement as racist.
Some Chinese politicians, such as former MCA president Chua Soi Lek, have come out to defend Onn, arguing that his statement was political rather than racial in nature.
If you really want to split hairs, you can probably also argue that Onn cannot be said to be racist for holding DAP in such contempt because DAP does not represent any particular race. It is, after all, a multiracial party that includes Malay members, just as Onn himself is Malay.
But if that is the level at which we are going to defend Onn, then there is probably no point in continuing the conversation.
After listening to Onn Hafiz deny that he was being racist, I personally felt that rather than directing his opinion at DAP the political party, he was probably directing it at non-Malays, especially the Chinese, in general.
Why do I feel that way?
Well, it is because his denial sounded too complicated to me.
.
As a rule , I believe that accepting the truth tends to make you simple, while trying to avoid it often makes you complicated.
That is why I believe that although Onn might have said "DAP", what he really meant was "Chinese".
But if you ask me whether I think Onn Hafiz is racist because he said what he said, I have to admit that I am not sure.
Why?
Because when the question of whether Onn Hafiz is racist crossed my mind, the first thing I wondered was whether I myself am racist.
Now you might think that when I asked myself that question, I was able to give a quick and firm "no".
But after reflecting on my past history, I found that the evidence was not entirely conclusive.
What I mean is this: if you ask me whether I have ever attributed negative qualities to an entire race and resented them for those qualities, my answer would have to be yes.
I might not do it on a regular basis, but there have definitely been occasions when I have held resentment towards a particular race and attributed negative characteristics to them.
And if you ask me whether all that is in the past—whether I have completely recanted such views and become a fully non-racist person today—I am not sure I can honestly say that either.
It is like this.
I used to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.
Today, I do not smoke.
But if you ask me whether that means I will never smoke another cigarette again, I definitely will not say yes.
At best, I can only say that as I grew older, I have naturally stopped enjoying cigarettes as much as I once did.
But there is always the possibility that a day may come when I cannot resist the temptation to take a puff once again.
I think racism works in much the same way.
As I have grown older, I have become less inclined to hold racist views than I did before.
But you never know what the future holds.
Something may happen, and the next thing I know, I may find myself holding a racist views once again.
As a rule, I think the chances of me becoming racist, just like the chances of me taking a puff, increase when I am stressed, facing difficulties, or in pain.
It also depends on the crowd I keep.
With some crowds, it is easy to be racist.
With others, it is difficult.
When you feel particularly harassed when you are in contact with a certain group of people, I think the temptation to become racist, at least temporarily, is always there.
Considering how racially structured our country is—with neighborhoods predominantly occupied by one race, companies and departments dominated by one race, and schools and organizations made up largely of one race or another—I personally do not think it is possible for any Malaysian to honestly claim that they have never had a racist moment.
When you work in a toxic workplace, for example, that is predominantly made up of a race that is not your own, can anyone honestly claim that they will never conflate their stressful experiences with the race that predominates in their workplace?
At the end of the day, I do not think we can deem someone racist based solely on a few racial outbursts.
As a matter of fact, I think that in a multicultural country like ours, we need to give people some room to have racialised reactions without immediately concluding that they are racists.
The environment we live in is simply too racially structured for us not to have racial experiences, or not attach any racially charged meaning to those experiences.
When you grow up in Malaysia, you will almost certainly have racial experiences.
When you have a bad experience involving a particular race, you may find yourself attributing negative qualities to that race.
Likewise, when you have a positive experience, you may find yourself attributing positive qualities to them.
It can take years, even decades, for us to refine the sum of our racial experiences into a deeper and more mature understanding of what it means to live in a multiracial country.
That being the case, perhaps we should not be so quick to judge others—or even ourselves—for the racist moments that we may have.
In a multiracial country like ours, it is the sum of our racial experiences, not isolated moments, that should count.
Rather than judging a person based on how they react to every racially charged event in their life—which is bound to happen in a racially structured society—we should suspend judgment and examine that person's track record over a period of years before reaching a conclusion.
One swallow, as the saying goes, does not make a summer.
Likewise, one racist moment does not necessarily make a racist person.
To fully appreciate our multiracial environment, rather than constantly lamenting every isolated racially charged incident, perhaps we should normalise holding our judgement, and judge ourselves as well as others not by isolated incidents, but by how we respond to the totality of our racial experiences over the course of years or even decades.
So with that in mind, while I personally see Onn Hafiz's "I would rather not sit with DAP" remark as a racialized moment, like the proverbial one swallow, I do not think it defines him.
I think it is just one moment, and one moment does not carry any meaning by itself.
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