Addicted to ‘unity’

Unity is becoming the buzzword for Malaysia these days, which I consider a good thing. Malaysians need to be united in order to get through these days when even a Facebook post could trigger an all-out racial or religious war on the social network which then leaks out to the real world.

However, I am getting sick of multiple parties calling for unity under different banners, which was why I wrote a letter to Negara-Ku to justify its existence.

My simple point was why the need for another organisation to promote unity when they already had a coalition within them, Gabungan Bertindak Malaysia (GBM), to promote unity.

The answer I got was rather forthcoming and I thank them for the clarification that Negara-Ku was indeed a "people's movement" and not a new NGO. But then again, isn't GBM a coalition?

So now we have coalitions within a coalition?

My personal frank opinion is that the "people's movement" and "not an NGO coalition" would drain the momentum from its member NGOs. I will leave it at that for people to decide.

I think it is better to agree to disagree diplomatically, which has always been the basis of Malaysia's wellbeing and leave it at that.

But now, it seems another NGO is being formed by Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa and Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah in the name of unity again. And this is what is setting off my current tirade.

It seems now that Malaysians have this sudden addiction to unite against something yet can't agree on which association to join and thus, leading to multiple brands of unity.

While it is a good sign that there is a growing number of Malaysians who wish to be socially active and aware, it is not a good sign that everything is so fractured to the point that we can't unite for unity.

The fact that we have so many organisations that can’t even form a coalition or even stay under one umbrella speaks loads about just what unity means to us all. We want to unite, but now we have to choose which banner to be united under?

When did it come to such a stupid dispatch from unity?

This is irony at its worst.

And this is where I respect Negara-Ku for choosing the proper items to unite the population – the Federal Constitution and the Malaysian Agreement of 1963.

However, not everyone agrees with the interpretations of both arguments. There are those who even hold certain provisions in both documents higher than all the other articles contained in them.

So? Yau mou kau cho ah?

Unity should never be about banners and people movements and NGOs, because in the end, it promotes exclusivity.

If you want to preach unity, do it simply as a Malaysian citizen.

Walk up to the guys you just cannot see eye to eye with and ask the fundamental question: since we cannot agree on anything from a social or political standpoint, what can we agree on?

And this is what government and Parliament is supposed to be about.

Sadly, they are not exactly the best spokespeople to talk about unity governments without triggering a torrent of hatred.

It is true that racism is gaining ground, and so is religious controversy.

We do need unity, but in my opinion it cannot be done by forming a new coalition or people's movement or even getting two politicians from across the aisles to shake hands and presumably start singing kumbaya.

True unity can only come through intellectual discourse and the only way to promote this is to sit everyone down in the same forum and to get feedback from everyone.

The Malaysian people need to urge everyone from politics and organisations, liberals and conservatives, and even the racist and religious bigots to sit down and talk among each other, not among themselves in their fractured groups and come up with what can be said as a charter, what everyone can agree to as a basis for unity.

It maybe utopian but that is the only way you will ever get the unity you want as a nation outside of having an army taking over or slaughtering millions to scare everyone into towing the line, as we have seen in other countries.

Until we come to that conclusion as a whole, all we have here are bunches of people thinking that they can talk among the usual suspects padding a resume and yelling louder than the other side being backed by a mob.

And that is not unity either. – August 6, 2014.

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