There is a professor from Sarawak who is saying that the Malays, or more specifically UMNO Malays, inherently hate the Chinese, but this view is so lacking in insight, that if you were to use it to explain the Malaysian experience, it will only lead to confusion rather than clarity.
According to the the professor : “In general, UMNO holds deeply negative and prejudiced views toward the Malaysian Chinese community, often viewing them as a threat to the Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) and national unity,”
This is a awkward and weak explanation, especially coming from an academician, because when you walk the streets, go to work, attend school, or travel across the country, hate is not what you will experience, either from the other races or members of the other racial parties. You might experience discomfort, suspicion, doubt, isolation, confusion, and perhaps even unfairness, but it does not amount to hate.
If you ask whether Malaysians are racist or not, you will only get confused, because the answer will be yes, no, and both yes and no—and it will change according to time and circumstances.
Even if right now, as you are reading this, you don’t feel racist, give it a month or a year, and that will likely change.
It is confusing to ask ourselves whether we are racist or not simply because the question itself is wrongly framed.
As a rule, racial relationships in our country are primarily based on self-interest, not racial affinity or inherent hate.
All of us, especially the Chinese and Malays, place primacy on race because that is the ground on which we can be successful and feel like winners.
In our country, most of us can only be successful, or feel successful, if our race is winning.
You can only feel successful is there are more people who you look down on than look up to . Some people don't like this definition, but this is the cold hard truth.
All of us want to be successful, so most of us want our race to win—and for our race to win, other races must lose. It is this desire for other races to lose, which arises from our desire to see our race win, which in turn arises from our desire to see ourselves win, is the reason that racial relationship in the country tends to be testy.
This is especially true for the Chinese and the Malays, who both think they can win over every other race in the country. As a result, they are locked quite fiercely in a competition to defeat each other and become the apex winner in the country.
Sarawakians are also a rising group who are beginning to feel like winners, and so they are increasingly feeling competitive against us here in Semenanjung, which is in turn, making the relationship between the Sarawakians and those of here in Semenanjung to become increasingly testy too.
Malaysians tends to see each other as racist, or feel that they are subjected to racism, only when they are locked in competition with another race.
Once one race decisively wins, perceptions that racism is increasing in the country will diminish or disappear—at least for a while—because once a race has decisively won, it no longer sees another race as competition.
This will only be temporary, however, because everybody wants to win. Sooner or later, we will be in competition again, and in Malaysia, competition is chiefly organised along racial lines.
I think one of the great delusions people like the professor from Sarawak suffer from is that they cannot admit that they see those from other races or ethnicities as competitors.
Because they are deluded in this manner, they expect those they are competing against to cooperate with them, even while they are trying to defeat them, because they believe they are not competing with or defeating anyone.
As a rule, Malaysians do not know themselves. That is why they tend to assume that the they love you and only want the best for you, while trying to defeat you, and expect you to cooperate with them and love them back, even though they just want to defeat you and feel successful at your expense.
Three quarters of the racial issues in Malaysia can probably be resolved if the the different races in Malaysia can just look into their heart and sincerely tell the other races that they see the other races as a competition, and wish to defeat them, because it is only if they defeat the other races can they experience success.
Competitor don't necessarily feel a deep sense of enmity against each other, if they can just admit that they are competitors, and arrange their affairs as competitors.
Enmity and tension only fester when you actually see another as a competitor, but a weakness of your soul does not allow you to admit that you see them as a competitors. Instead, you tell yourself that you are their well wishers, and expect them to cooperate with you to defeat them, while you engage with them as an ally, although you have the intentions and desires of an opponent.
Malaysians tend to manage this dichotomy in their intentions and relationship, by carrying such a unnatural and deranged notions, like it is just in the best interest of other races to accept their defeat at your hand, because you are just intrinsically better, and if they accept you as the victor, you will be be a good benefactor to them, and take care of them, better than they can take care of themselves.
It is the complication that arises when you arrange you affairs as friends and well wishers, although you are opponents and competitors, that then causes such feelings of suspicion, betrayal, treachery, ingratitude or frustration to cloud the relationship between the races, which will then cause each race to harden their opinion against another race, or assume that the other race is just against them, because they are systemically racist.
It is because we are ignorant and delusional in this way that racial tension remains a perennial problem in our land.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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