Racism in Malaysia

Malaysia was one of the countries to congratulate Nelson Mandela when apartheid rule was abolished in South Africa.

I wonder if there will ever be a time when some other country will congratulate us for ending institutionalised racism, which conveniently found its way into the law.

In this country, racism starts at the very beginning, literally from one’s birth. Our birth certificate is a symbol of racism.

Then, in every form in this country, there is this column. Some wise person some time back wrote “Malaysian” on the bangsa column and it was rejected outright. There is no such thing as Bangsa Malaysia as the law doesn’t accept that.

Then you have teachers who will show outright racism in primary and secondary schools. After that, comes more racism - getting into college or university. And then you experience it at work.

Like it or not, racism in Malaysia is deep-rooted and it's impossible to get rid of. Our politicians made sure of it because they need it to serve their own agenda.

We used to present a facade to outsiders that we are multicultural. Now we don't even pretend anymore.

With racism instilled at every stage of life and nurtured by the greedy and self-centred politicians, the cycle continues.

Government policies and actions contribute to a certain extent for this scenario to occur. Culture, religion and ethnic behaviours do play a part as well. It is not racist inclinations but more of our feelings of insecurity.

The government itself provides Malaysians with the moral waiver. It is a generational vicious cycle that Indians have to suffer. The fundamental problem here is with our government that has been practising and implementing racially-based policies since independence, which led to all the symptoms we are seeing today.

It is no different from the suffering of blacks in the United States.