6th August 2009 Black or white, does it matter?

The texts selected for today’s tutorial sessions are famous works which expresses feelings of the minority groups, or better known as the Marginalized work. We looked into some interesting poems by Langston Hughes and my personal favorite-of-the-day should be Cross as it perceives inter-marriage in a more skeptical manner instead of glorifying inter-marriage especially to the whites. Many of the works try to draw our attention towards the hardships, prejudice and troubles minority groups (i.e. African Americans, Native Americans, Torres Straits Islanders) face yesterday and even up to today. It is really sad to know that there are people out there who think themselves as more superior than the others and they try to ‘colonize’ the so-called ‘minor’ or ‘weaker’ ones physically and also mentally. To know that these colonizers go up to the extend of separating children of the minority groups from their family members to ‘civilize’ them is so sick that it is too much for me to bear. How lucky we are because though we too were once colonized but our people did not suffer from such deprive! As we are celebrating our 52nd Independence Day this end of the month, there are a few questions I would like to address to my fellow Malaysian friends out there. What does the Independence Day means to you? Can we proclaim ‘MERDEKA’ proudly or do we still allow ourselves to glorify the ‘grandeur’ of the colonizers? The Prime Minister launched the 1 Malaysia program recently, so what is the significance of this program? Why do we discriminate ourselves according to ethnicity when the purpose of calling ourselves a Malaysian is a way to portray unity? Is our race that important? So what if I am a Chinese, Indian, Malay or minor ethnics from Borneo? Does the difference in the tone of our skin color make us different from one another in terms of nationality? It really irks me when people call me ah moi and I do not think that the Malay girls would like to have themselves called minah, neither do the Indian girls favor the term minachi! We are Malaysians today thanks to the hard work of our leaders from the yesterdays and we should brace this privilege with all our hearts because this is who we are! This is our identity! The time when all of us can shed aside discrimination, brush away grudges we hold upon our brothers of different skin color, religion and beliefs, and cherish the many differences that made us unique; that will be the time we achieve 1 Malaysia; that will be the day we gain true independence! Salam Merdeka!