Towards a unified Malaysian culture

I was not surprised in the least to read that Chinese youth had divided opinions with regards to the importance of our national language, Bahasa Melayu.

Some of them felt that they could get by with only a rudimentary knowledge of Malay. Of course they could but that wasn’t the point, I felt.

The point was, did they feel a deep desire to learn the national language to begin with? The answer was patently ‘no’, they did not. They learnt it out of necessity rather than interest.

And who could blame them, really? Certainly not me. After over 40 years since the implementation of the NEP, we have a disenchanted and disenfranchised generation of Chinese youths.

I would surmise that this feeling also emanates from our young citizens of the Indian persuasion as well. Casual racism is not pleasant to swallow and after a time, one becomes alienated from the racists’ native culture and that includes their language. This is perfectly understandable to me.

However, if we are to live and thrive in this great nation, then we do need some form of a unified culture. I am not implying that we must all become zombies with no personalities of our own.

Far from it. Rather, although we can develop as individuals, we must also have some form of shared local practices. A common love, if you will.

I had witnessed something of this nature in my teens, during the 1992 semi-final Thomas Cup victory. I remember seeing on TV anxious Malaysians all over the country waiting to see us defeating China.

One rather insensitive person asked a local Chinese woman if she supported Malaysia or the Republic. She adamantly replied that she supported Malaysia of course. That filled my younger self with pride. There was a sense of unity then although it was only for something as trivial as sports.

Sadly, in the field of politics and thus economics, unity is always being torn apart by forces of racism and religious bigotry. Malaysians have very little choice when it comes to a candidate who would truly represent all Malaysians.

I understand that the manifestos of certain parties promise that but I have my doubts after observing their political manoeuvres and alliances. No, in order to have unity, we must have a unified Malaysian culture. That culture becomes the fertile soil from which we can all grow together.

When we have grown into a beautiful orchard (to take the metaphor further), our politicians will have no choice but to evolve accordingly.

What do we need to create a unified Malaysian culture? For a start, we need a common language. While I love my native Malay language and am an avid collector of Malay films, I feel Malay cannot be used as our common language anymore.

This is because the ultra-nationalist Malays have abused it as an instrument to assert their version of a national identity. In doing so, they have loaded Bahasa Melayu with negative connotations. So perhaps for now, we should focus on English as our common language.

Already we have a body of English literature which I feel has not been given the right levels of publicity and exposure. For example, it is incredibly difficult to find K.S. Maniam’s short story ‘Haunting the Tiger’ which appeared in a New Straits Times competition a quarter of a century ago.

More needs to be done to raise awareness of literature such as this. Rare books must be found and reprinted.

Secondly, we need deep reform in our education system. Instead of becoming more globalised with the passage of time, we have become more and more parochial.

The main reason for this increased segmentation is the teaching of religion in public schools. Having been through the system myself albeit 20 odd years ago, I can say that the system simply breaks down at where it matters most – teaching children how to be social beings.

During the period of Pendidikan Agama Islam and Pendidikan Moral, children are herded according to “Islam” dan “bukan Islam”.

In the Islamic classes, children are taught the Islamic beliefs but also jurisprudence and history which has nothing to do with their daily lives, let alone facilitate the creation of a social consciousness.

As for Pendidikan Moral, does it really take 11 years what can be condensed in a simple formula: be good to people, animals and the planet. The rest is simply pedantry.

When I was growing up, I remember on ETV (TV Pendidikan) they had Pendidikan Sivik and Tatarakyat (Civic Lessons, essentially). These lessons were very practical and were told in very interesting narratives. They should be brought back as much possible.

On the teaching of languages, they should be for practical purposes. Usage of language is more valuable practically than learning ancient versions or tedious grammar rules.

Rather, educationists should impart lessons towards experiencing the beauty of language. Focus more on literature than artificial rules.

In addition, all Malaysians should learn Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. They do not need to learn these languages to become scholars thereof. Rather, learn them for the practical purposes of community.

Remember that primary and secondary schooling is for a total of 11 years. During that time, any student can easily master a working knowledge of all these languages.

The third element we need for a unified culture is a common nostalgia. We have almost sixty years of national culture behind us stored in the national archives.

We need to keep these archives safely but also, we need to constantly expose younger Malaysians to them. By watching these old programs and reading old books, Malaysians may be able to experience common roots.

The future of our nation depends on how well we can relate to one another as citizens. The medium of these relationships is a shared culture.

As such, we need to keep this culture positive and interesting so all Malaysians can extract from it fruitfully. Only then can we attain the fertile medium from which we can evolve as a nation. – February 11, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.