National Integration: Tell Me About It!!!

Yesterday, we organised a forum for our members where one of the panelist talked on National Integration. As I sat there listening to him, I thought that his views are, to people like myself, of least importance. In fact, I thought of it as a view of a Malay man who is, behind all his words, still afraid of losing his special Bumiputra priviledges.

You want National Integration? Here's my 2-cents worth of it...

On Race
I am a true bred 100% Bidayuh. My husband is half Baba-Chinese from Malacca and half Tamilan Indian where his grandfather came from Tamil Naidu in mainland India in the 1900s. What does that makes my kids? Indian? Bidayuh? Chin-Dian? None of the above. They are, to me, Bidayuh (50%)-Indian (25%)-Chinese (25%). And if I have my way, I would wipe out that 'Race: Indian' indication on their birth certificates and put it Bidayuh-Indian-Chinese. And what gives the government the right to call my husband an Indian in his birth certificate. He is neither Indian nor Chinese but BOTH! Then he should be considered Chinese-Indian. For a man who resents some of the cultural attributes of both races, maybe he should be given the choice to put whatever he wants - MALAYSIAN, perhaps.

On Language
I speak Bidayuh Bukar-sadong, my mom's dialect and because having brought us up, that was our main means of communication. I also speak Malay - both Bahasa MAlaysia, from my formal education, and local Malay from my interaction with friends. On top of it all, I also understand some of the local Malay dialects spoken in Kedah/Perak, which is my husband's version of BM. I understand some Hokkien, as that is the main Chinese sub-race in Kuching and which are what my Chinese friends mostly are. I also know basic French from my days in college.

However, I do not understand my dad's dialect of Bidayuh Singgai. This is because my dad himself speaks my mom's dialect and no one spoke the dialect to us when we were young so we do not learn. Of course, I understand a handful of the necessary words but that is about it. Don't blame me for not learning, as some of the elders would do when they find out I do not know the dialect. It is of no fault of mine that I am clueless about the dialect. As one of the participants of last night's forum said: The responsibility falls on the parents to teach the children.

Of course I learn English from school and becuase it is the second language we spoke at him, thanks to dad.

Now with my own kids, I speak English and Bidayuh Bukar-Sadong and my eldest daughter is learning BM and Mandarin in kindergarten. Being a quarter chinese, we also use some Hokkien at home to get her familiarised with her (late) grandmother's dialect. Indian? Sorry but the responsibility of teaching her the language befalls on hubby and if he himself do not speak it, so what can I do.

So you see, national integration is more than special rights, or polarisation, or cultural policy.

To be successful, national integration starts from self. Whether one is a Malay or Chinese or Indian or Bidayuh is irrelevant in this age and time. What we need is the one-ness in feelings and thoughts of being Malaysia, or wanting to be identified as a Malaysian, of dying as a MAlaysian.

But how can we when we have this thoughts and attitude that, when it suits us, 'I am a Malay so I can/ cannot...' or the occasional 'So China-man one ...'.