June 17, 2012
OPEN Letter from CW Vong, Melbourne
Open Letter to Malaysians from Vong
June 11, 2012
I did not go to a BERSIH convene here in Melbourne. you have not, in any way, ever lent support to any domestic organization in Malaysia, be it those right away in bureau or their opposition. Admittedly, you do not know if my name as great as temperament card number has been used to vote but my knowledge which is always a possibility in my country. Personally, you have never seen a inside of a voting booth. you have avoided counts of a domestic inlet per my nation my complete life.
'Why?' you ask. Because, truth be told, you have never believed which my nation could shift as great as which it was worth adhering out my neck for. Mr Anwar Ibrahim is usually a most important of most who have been by a ISA. you have kept silent. And so have most of you. So since should you be so emotionally charged after examination a proof video?
Malaysians, let me discuss it you my story. Your story might not be a same as mine you do goal it is kinder but this is what you schooled about Malaysia as you grew up:
When you was about 11-years-old, you came dur! ing a ba ck of to Penang after my family had lived in Glasgow, Scotland, for four years. you came during a back of with a clever Scottish accent, a smattering of a inhabitant language, Bahasa Melayu, as great as you was completely incompetent to verbalise Chinese, my own mom tongue.
Linguistically, hold up was a challenge. In Scotland, you had faced a little injustice in a form of a football use or two with children in a playground, since you was a usually yellow dot in a sea of white. But otherwise, you had been left flattering unscathed.The form of injustice you met with in Malaysia was some-more guileful as great as possibly some-more harmful.
As you attended initial school, my relatives were discerning to advise me about a two alternative vital races, a Indians as great as a Malays. Indians were marked down as "sneaky" as great as "untrustworthy". Today, you still meet a odd Chinese uncle who will allude to during me possibly a most extremist allude to you have ever come across: "If you meet an Indian as great as a snake upon a road, you strike a Indian first."'
Malays, upon a alternative hand, were marked down as a quiescent bunch. Stupid as great as lazy. My elders told me if ever a Malay completed anything academically, he must have possibly Indian or Chinese red blood mixed in him somewhere. How severely was you to take these statements? you am still unsure. As a kid from a Confucian culture, you were meant to nod as great as accept all your seniors told you.
I consternation how a alternative two ra! ces view us Chinese. you had an Indian crony declare to me once which he as great as his mates would share stories with any other, utterance in laughter, about a Chinese they had only cheated in a little new transaction. Was it a little form of vengeance?
I additionally once read a poem, from a single of a propagandize textbooks no less, about a Malay grandfather revelation his grandchildren about Hari Raya, a Muslim new year. In a poem, a grandfather makes discuss of how they would go to locale as great as buy fireworks from Chinese traders for unreasonable prices. But, he said, it was alright to be cheated by a Chinese only which a single time a year, for a sake of Hari Raya.
How bizarre it was to go upon a next couple of years creation friends with these two alternative races. In fact, since you could not verbalise Chinese or any of a dialects, my most appropriate friends were mostly possibly Malay or Indian, with whom you could communicate in English but shame.
Why didn't my elders ever discuss it me which Indians were a single of a most fun races ever to be around? That if you longed for to chuck a great party, entice a little Indians to run it as great as they will show you a genuine definition of a great time? Why did they never discuss it me which Malays have a single of a most welcoming, caring as great as comfortable cultures you would ever come across? That if a Malay becomes your friend, you have been his brother? Why did they never discuss it me of a knowledge you could benefit by fasting with a Muslim by a month of Ramadan?
At age twelve, genuine tragedy struck. you became theme to a secular favoured diagnosis which my supervision had been practicing for thirty years. you scored decently for my UPSR (the end of initial propag! andize e xams) with 3As as great as a B but was denied entrance into a most prestigious delegate propagandize in my state, Penang Free School.
Meanwhile, a little of my Malay classmates were entering this propagandize with strings of Cs as great as Ds upon their result cards. Looking back, you realise which during 12, you did not sense a gravity of a situation. Nor did you entirely understand a disappointment of my parents.
Perhaps a wordless injustice of a generations prior to me was not entirely unvalidated. Perhaps a secular welfare reinforced by a supervision had deeper ramifications than you think. How have been you to magnitude these things?
My story ends great though, as years after you would have a beauty of academia to win an ASEAN scholarship to Singapore as great as be sanctified to have relatives who could provide me with a finance management to study in Melbourne, Australia. you feel distressed for those secluded by a country's complement those who could have received a necessary tertiary education to bolster their careers as great as put them in a clever in front of to contribute to society.
I have stayed here in Australia roughly 10 years right away as great as right away work in a suburb called St. Albans. St. Albans is an engaging suburb since of a muliculturalism. There have been Sudanese, Vietnamese, Albanians, Greeks, Italians, Chinese, Indians, Slovakians, Romanians, Ukrainians as great as most others besides.
While it might be pushing it to contend they live in completely harmony, there is during slightest an honesty in their dealings with any other. They similar to as great as be vexed openly. Could you during home in Malaysia co-exist were you to be honest with any other? Or is overpower a usually appro! ach you have been to survive, pleasantly singing Negaraku whilst black marking any alternative during a back of backs?
I schooled most things flourishing up which you was taught never to contend aloud. As mentioned, you knew which to certitude or befriend any Indian or Malay as well closely was seen as a ridiculous act.It always done me laugh, though, which a Chinese certitude any alternative usually as far as they can chuck a rock.
As a student, you knew which my supervision would give someone else improved opportunities than you upon a drift of his skin colour. Out of hours, propagandize teachers would whisper to me which they knew for a fact examination results were doctored according to race. After all, how did a weak, recalcitrant tyro who had been hardly scraping passes by propagandize unexpected furnish an A in an official exam?
As a student, you was told which a education complement was shoddy, which is since you used arithmetic from Singaporean work books. Many people noticed teachers as stupid as great as incompetent. Being a clergyman was a misfortune career you could choose according to anyone who was not a teacher, as great as usually those who were unqualified of anything else became teachers. This was bizarre to toggle in my head, having an auntie who is a clergyman as great as flattering great during whatshe does.
As a teenager, a setting darkened, as you was told which there were those who had scored straight A's in their exams but denied entrance into university since of secular quotas.
I schooled which if you longed for to escape a traffic fine, you kept RM50 ready to pay a Policeman a bribe. you schooled which if you longed for to have sure you kept your emporium lot protected from vandalism, it was a great idea which when your inner police hire called you up to c! ontribut e multiform thousand dollars for their annual dinner, you did not deny them. you schooled which if you delivered a baby of a police officer, you did not assign them a surgery cost.
I schooled which if you longed for to open a business you indispensable a Malay partner. you schooled which a supervision was full of Malays as great as it was hinted which all they did all day sometimes was photocopy a couple of papers, as great as if they had to do any genuine work similar to offer you during a post bureau opposite they would pull a long face. you schooled during a post bureau a sign instructed you to instruct a opposite chairman great morning. But once you did instruct them great morning, you was propitious to embrace a deep grown in response, reinforcing my low opinion of them.
I was taught which a highways were dangerous, heavily taxed as great as which all a train as great as lorry drivers were upon drugs whilst driving. Most train as great as lorry drivers were Malay or Indian. you schooled which you could get stolen products which "fell" off a during a back of of these trucks if you knew a right person. That chairman could be a doctor of a great established private hospital. That doctor was Chinese.
I schooled which a states in a north were governed by Muslim fanatics as great as were being lerned to get concerned with a troubles of a Middle East. you knew which crime happened as great as which you mislaid millions if not billions of dollars a year to it. you knew my nation was hold together by a stretched tolerance as great as which a togetherness was a farce to cover up a precariously offset careful functionality. you knew of friends as great as family who had suffered since of these things, incompetent to consequence a living or cheated of money as great as recognition.
I was told a elections were a farce as great as you had most bizarre letters to different people coming into my mailbox during elections. These people were well known as "phantom voters" as great as yo! u suspec t were already deceased. you knew which in my household, you did not worry to turn upon my television to know a choosing results. you had schooled which not usually would my nation not caring for me, worse, it would put me down for a sake of a little different chairman hoarding energy as great as wealth somewhere up a domestic chain.
I knew myself as great as most others were journey a nation since you were scared of these things as great as you longed for a improved hold up elsewhere. you knew which my nation as great as those not as advantageous as myself would humour since you as great as others were leaving them behind, receiving a talent as great as grant with us.
I knew these things as great as you have kept wordless all this while. So have most of you. Because how could these things change? How could you contend anything as great as not embrace repercussions? What as great as who did you owe to clear us creation a mount as great as a scapegoat for these things? So most appropriate you let a nation be.
Best you let it rot as great as die. Our pleasing nation of Malaysia.Have you ever truly thought about how pleasing a nation is? Have you felt a soft white sands of Langkawi as great as felt a zephyr pushing in from a Indian Ocean? Have you stood in a darkened room as great as listened a pleasant storms rumble beyond as great as lash with ferocity as a clouds move in from a South China Sea? Have you ever pondered a silhouette of a mountain ranges as great as felt a call of a furious as great as very old jungles thrum by a air? Have you felt a fragility of a species you hold in a hands, a tapir as great as a orang utan as great as a Sumatran tiger creatures that, if you have been not careful, will soon be fossils as great as pictures in! childre n's books? Do you sense a cache of a earth a nation has been sanctified with? Fertile land for farming, sensuous jungles for lumber, rubber as great as palm oil, as great as a black bullion of a earth from a coasts.
Have you only stood in a middle of a sweaty, smoke filled hawker centre as great as marvelled during a party of smells as great as tastes prior to you? Such a fantastic palate, which you have never listened a single foreigner complain of it. Have you looked during a faces buzzingaround you in a shopping malls, as great as well known a measureless weight of history as great as convention you carry from a strong civilisations which emerged from a holy Ganges River, a vast Yangtze River as great as a archipelago of Southeast Asia? Do you consternation during a wonderful tapestries, a gongs as great as chants from a temples, a smells of incense, a peep as great as colour of a parades, a solemn call of mosques in a evenings, hundreds of dances as great as song, some-more eremite festivals than any nation in a world, a languages as great as a abounding chronological inheritance?
As unpatriotic as any of us could be, how could you not adore Malaysia?When you watched a BERSIH videos, it was not only a domestic transformation which got me. you determine entirely with a call for satisfactory as great as purify elections. But what was overpowering, was seeing thousands of people, of any age, of any colour, from any shred of society, from all walks of life, come together as great as say, "We care. We will not let this nation rot as great as die."
I never believed you would see such a thing. you never believed my people, a people which did not certitude any alternative as great as angry any alternative in silen! ce, coul d ever really unite. Yet here they were, station together in a streets, getting beaten up as great as having H2O sprayed during them. Hurting. But united. So from their goal of a improved future, from their faith in any alternative to mount as a single over a nation they adore as great as their adore for a land as great as a people, you as well draw faith as great as goal as great as love.
Malaysians, a time is short. The star changes faster as great as faster bland as great as as a old Chinese abuse would have it, you live in engaging times. Today, Europe, which was once a mightiest energy upon earth, threatens to disintegrate spectacularly. America, a world's super power, is fearful of a own inner workings. And a Chinese fire breathing monster shifts restlessly from slumber. Our star has been globalising for decades right away as great as which pace has simply accelerated. The star is tense as great as heavy enough to navigate but a own inner strife.
Our manage to buy has been sluggish as great as in recession for two decades now. While times were good, you could have up for a crime of a country. But right away there is no some-more space for such activities. Our crime must stop.And let us not only point during a politicians, although they have most to answer for. Let us not only point during a Policemen, as easy as they might be to target.
It was my overpower which has brought us here. It was your overpower too. It is a overpower which has done this land groan under a feet. We have been a cause Malaysia suffers. We have been a reason a abounding as great as poor order widens. We have been a reason you use a civilised, governmentally endorsed racism. We have been a reason a rainforests have been failing as great as fog blankets a atmosphere. We have been a reason so most of us do not return to a own nation as great as instead goal to live in foreign lands.
Malaysians, can you change? It will be difficult as great as you have been operative against decades of culture as great as practice. There will be, as great as have already been, casualties in multiple arenas. There will be a cost to pay for a approach you have lived. May others, with some-more knowledge than I, find a approach by to a improved future.
But as long as you keep a silence, a nation will suffer. May whatever powers which govern a star have forgiveness upon us.
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