Change is up to you and me

Changing Malaysia for the better has always been up to us, beginning with our family and community and eventually spreading to the whole nation.

MALAYSIANS of all different races, faiths and cultures know that this country needs to change if our children are to experience better lives economically, environmentally and spiritually.

For decades – almost seven – Malaysians have thought that change can only come if they vote in their choice of political party. Just mark the box with an X and change will come. Sorry lah. That is not going to happen.

After the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018, change, I am 100% convinced, must come from every Malaysian who desires it badly – and the one to ensure it happens is none other than our own selves.

Yes, we still have to mark the boxes with an X but that change only comprises 5% of what we could ever hope to have. The other 95%, believe me, must come from us.

We must, however, never be lackadaisical or jaded about fulfilling our precious democratic right to choose our representatives in government.

When the Perikatan Nasional government instituted the Emergency, until it later simplistically declared it as null and void I thought we had lost our precious rights as citizens in this country. The idea of a dictatorial regime loomed large during that time when our rights and liberties as citizens could have potentially gone close to zero.

So please, none of this talk about not going out to vote in GE15 because that is a responsibility our children will hold us to in the future.

Even though, as I said, that vote contributes only 5% towards real change in Malaysia, it is better than none and we need all the numbers we can get.

In this week’s column, I will elucidate how we, ourselves, in our own little worlds of family, community, friends, social media, intellect and hearts, can push in the other 50% to make change viable at 55%. The other 45%, as I have written previously, has to come from our religious and educational institutions.

Firstly, we must address the imbalance in our civil service. Our police force, military and teaching and administrative services are too heavily manned by one race. Ini macam tak boleh jadi (this should not be the case).

We must nurture our children and ensure at least one child gets into these services. We must not have excuses such as too much Bahasa Malaysia or discriminatory promotion policies or a too restrictive dress code. Even if our children are not to be promoted to the highest posts, such as a non-Malay vice chancellor in a public university or a non-Malay chief of police, tak apa lah. Our children will still get a good pension, maybe a Datuk- and Tan Sri-ship and medical benefits for life.

If it’s any consolation, I too was and still am being discriminated against in government service even though I am a Malay and a Muslim and a high ranking officer.

One of my children who used to work in the government was also discriminated against because of her father’s political and intellectual positions.

I was at first sad and angry but, ultimately, I accepted it and went on to find other opportunities and positions outside of the government.

Making money and creating opportunities for ourselves outside of government service is not that difficult. Don’t worry so much about discrimination. We are smart and resilient enough to find other means.

But until we address the imbalance of races and religious adherents in all our governmental services, we will never effectively change this country. The fault, mainly, will be ours.

Secondly, we must make Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and Malay civilisation important subjects of study.

We must not learn BM just enough to order teh tarik and roti canai. Itu tak cukup. On many formal occasions we must use BM anyway. We live in a Malay world and we only have a rudimentary knowledge of that civilisation. We must read novels in BM and let our children watch Upin & Ipin on TV and understand the old Malay movies by P. Ramlee and others.

We must try to get our children to make friends with a few Malays who are open-minded and let them have sleepovers. Any family calling themselves Malaysians who do not have Malays as their friends, or their children’s friends, and have never eaten at a Malay house, should give themselves a C+ grade only as a Malaysian.

Now, I know that sounds harsh and discriminatory as I have not said anything about Malays having non-Malay friends.

But this is the gist of my discourse. It is we, ourselves, kita sendiri, that need to make the change. Don’t wait for that other race to change. We change. The choice was and has always been ours.

I made a clear choice about learning the English language effectively. I was “Europeanised” and “Americanised” from all the reading I did of comics and fiction as well as the TV programmes I watched long before I spent six years studying in the United States and another three years in Scotland. We must learn to be the “other” in language and culture before we can appreciate being a nation.

Thirdly, we good Malaysians must form a strong group comprising all 40 ethnicities this country has so that we can answer any political or religious attack against one race or religion as a single entity of “Malaysians”.

I know the Chinese community is very strong, with their great political and educational institutions, but their responses to attacks against their community have made the enemy stronger by making the “me vs the other” perception very strong.There are a few open-minded Malays like me and a few friends who will volunteer to represent our race and religion in this group of 40 communities that will be a significant force against any extremist attacks on any race, ethnic group or religion. We will be the G40, Group (not government) of 40 to complement the progressive G25 Malay group of retired high-ranking government officers of the “Original Malaysia”.

Fourthly, Malaysians must control our social media comments on any issue of race and religion. If any comments must be made, they must be made with adab, or good manners, and professionalism.

Once the Attorney General (AG) took a news portal to court for letting its readers insult the office of the AG.

Even though I am a full supporter of that news portal and I actually do not have a very high opinion of the AG’s personality, I did not contribute any money to help the portal pay court costs.

They should have turned off the comments section if they could not edit the comments. The Malays have a saying, “Terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak kata badan binasa” (a boat that goes too far can be turned back, but words that go too far will lead to disaster).

Thus, with this piece, I have completed my blueprint and strategies to change Malaysia by ourselves without engaging with any government institutions or ruling political parties. Over the past few weeks, I have outlined the spiritual values that needs to be taught, the narratives of history that need to be taught, how private universities and religious institutions can teach their students and worshipers to be agents of change. And now, finally, I lay the onus of change at the feet of all good Malaysians.

Changing Malaysia for the better is, I’m sure, a dream many people have but I don’t think people realise that it is, and was always, up to us, within our own worlds of family and community, to drive real and effective change.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.