Your weekly dose of random ramblings!: Racial Harmony (part one)

Racial harmony is considered a very hot topic especially when you come from a multiracial country such as Malaysia. There is no doubt that there are many of us that try our best to avoid speaking and discussing about this topic because it might be considered offensive to some.

But of course, it all comes down on which point of view you are looking at it from. There are two ways of looking at this issue; first of all there are people who would look at it from a pessimist’s point of view and then there are those who look at it from an optimist’s point of view. From the looks of the recent incidents that involved religious places being torched and vandalized, even the blind can say that our country is in need of dire help if our country’s “1 Malaysia” vision is planning to be achieved in the near future.

No, I’m not pointing fingers on who is at the wrong here, but just because the accused (if ever caught) belongs to a certain religion and race, that doesn’t mean we should be stereotyping and assume that the whole religion and race of the accused is as much of an extremist as he or she is. We should not be judging the actions of a whole religion that consists of a million or more believers based on one or a handful of troublemakers.

There are people who come from all different sorts of races and cultures who attend lecture classes alongside me and I can safely say that no matter what race you belong to or what beliefs you have, everyone in the class are able to get along very well because we all have the same purpose, and that is to excel in life and of course to get to know and befriend one another, and NOT compare each other’s beliefs and cultures to see which is more superior.

That is exactly what is happening to our country at the moment, the comparing of religion and cultures. That is why our country made international headlines no thanks to the torching and vandalism of religious places. If everyone in this country of ours can accept the fact that every single culture is unique in its own way, we should be proud of living in a country that consists of so many different races and religions; as they say, variety is the spice of life. To put it simply, ethnocentrism is something that we should strongly disbelieve in if we want our country to continue to be recognized around the world for its variety of cultures that are constantly living in peace and harmony.