theSun, Malaysia (page 14)
May 19th, 2011
Sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, overwhelmed by the deep history of my surroundings, I gazed across the reflecting pool and paused. A few steps across from me was where Martin Luther King in 1963 delivered his famous civil rights speech that is quoted so frequently. So in the spirit of the atmosphere, I gave myself permission to dream.
First I dreamt for me. What I wanted for my life and my future. I was tired of dreaming only small dreams. So often, we aren’t allowed to dream beyond borders. There are limits that get in the way – not just our own fears, but people whose opinions place barriers, and laws that don’t allow us to even dare dream of certain things. So I allowed myself to dream big.
Then I started to dream for my country, my home. My dream was for the generational debts to be no more, for race politics to stop being a hierarchy of norms, for politicians to end primaeval rhetoric, for those who lead to shed their superiority complex and serve, for promotions based on meritocracy, for the divide and conquer rule to cease, and for us as a country to thrive and be united as a people.
What I realised after was the importance of remembering those limitless dreams, to stay focused and to pursue them relentlessly. The easiest part about dreams is the dreaming. The difficult part is translating the illusive into something real. There needs to be a plan, there needs to be belief and there needs to be determination, but most of all there needs to be support.
King’s speech was not just about one race fighting for equality – even he knew it wasn’t a walk they could do alone. It was about people of different ethnicities coming together because they knew in order for their country to be a country that is successful, its people need to stand united to end discrimination. It wasn’t just one man’s dream, it was a dream realised by different people.
The American reality is far from perfect, but at least they are allowed to dream – though I think the bigger victory was the realisation that it was not something they could do alone. Inequality and discrimination is something that will continue to haunt the world. Every country has a group of people or peoples that is seen as lesser and sometimes not just based on ethnicity.
Though in Malaysia sadly, we are still stuck in the mentality of slave and master, just couched in a different and perhaps more polite manner. We are trying to sell our country as one that lives in harmony, when on the inside the reality is far from that. When racist soapbox oratory is allowed with little reprimand because it is the norm, how does one marry racial harmony with such medieval actuality? Asking Malaysians to ignore the racial rhetoric is not the answer, but the effect of that is that Malaysians have and continue to leave the country and the government is having the tough job of wooing them back. Though the notoriety of local politics does not help, another factor that works against people returning home is the high cost of living in relation to salaries drawn.
However the promise of competitive salaries is not the golden ticket to winning our talents back. Other factors need to be considered. Living in a gated community should not have to be the norm, but with rising crime rates, it seems to be a necessity. Private schools should not be the only acceptable option, but when a video of a young girl being bullied in school goes viral and the debate that ensues is whether cell phones should be banned in school to avoid such videos from becoming public knowledge, one has to wonder what the local education system has to offer.
One part of King’s dream was for his children to not be judged by the colour of their skin but the depth of their character. If Malaysia can promise that not just in rhetoric, then we will be on the right path to fulfilling our dreams.
Natalie hopes every Malaysian will one day be allowed to dream without limits and know that they can achieve them.
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