A beautiful little bug was hanging tight to my windscreen. I only noticed it at the traffic lights. Holding on for dear life this bug got off at my stop quite a distance from his usual route I’m sure.
It might have taken him at least a year of flying hours to get that far. That was a successful migration I thought, perhaps he needed a change or some bigger bug was telling him what to do all the time and he’d had enough.
Perhaps the other side of the cable bridge might just be offering him a better life. He might even be having a little Merdeka celebration of his own with other migrant bugs.
We’re celebrating a freedom from a colonial past – 52 years of independence. A colonial past that built us good schools, set up a respectable education system, and left us with an admirable constitution embracing all migrants.
So here we are celebrating 52 years of that independence.
Maybe to some, Merdeka might mean a much needed public holiday to sleep in, some nice fireworks and a shorter work week.
Though the foundation of our Merdeka celebration is a political independence from a “big bully”, have we really reached political independence or are we still being governed by a big bully with a different façade?
Sometimes we ourselves can be our own worst enemy. To each ethnic group Merdeka carries a different meaning and I wonder what Merdeka means to the original people or directly translated orang asli of this land we call home and what Merdeka means to the rest of us migrants.
Another question that recurs, is how long will we remain migrants?
If we are to remain migrants the rest of our lives, would that mean we are to apologise for our talents, abilities and capabilities that were nurtured by the land we now live in?
If we love the country enough to succeed, does that make us any less Malaysian because generations before us migrated to the land for a better life?
How many more generations would need to pass before we are equal?
There are many countries that boast multiculturalism and there are many countries welcoming talent not based on ethnicity but pure merit.
Where do we fare?
Are we shooing our talent to these lands because of colour bias and losing our investments because of a lack of fairness, shooting ourselves in the foot.
Countries like America are testimony of migrant success in some ways. I wonder how Madeleine Albright would have fared in a system such as ours? Would she of Czechoslovakian birth and upbringing be able to be the foreign minister of a foreign land?
Perhaps not.
Or Fareed Zakaria an India-born Muslim who went to university in America and now has a long impressive list of positions including editor of Newsweek International.
Let’s not forget the Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger, now governor of California, all contributing to the betterment of the foreign land that welcomed them.
My next question is would Jimmy Choo have been taken seriously and become a world famous designer if he stayed in Malaysia?
Perhaps not.
I would like to live in a land of opportunity… a place where my success is based on merit, abilities, capabilities and not just my good looks.
Where talent supersedes racial profiling and my ethnic background adds texture to the colour of the nation.
A conversation with a Malaysian who has been living in a foreign land for almost 20 years ended like this – “At the end of the day, I would rather be a second class citizen in a foreign land because of a decision I made, than to be a third class citizen in the place I call home.”
I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and the different races that make up my family of friends.
Surely something can be done about losing talent, so that when we think about Malaysia and what Merdeka means to us, it will also mean a land where all are embraced, equal and a one nation.
Natalie has been watching too many animation movies to think that bugs have thoughts and feelings.. Happy Merdeka Malaysia!
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
