Home and the World
Sometimes a change in perspective helps us see newer worlds – and, occasionally, some nuances even in the comfortingly familiar. Twirling the kaleidoscope every once in while gives you many more patterns to gaze at in wonderment. Out here, I hope to see the world through Indian eyes, and, occasionally, provide from my current station in Hong Kong an outside-in perspective on all things Indian. If I don’t go cross-eyed in the process, I’m sure to have loads of fun. And I hope you will too.
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That project - of building a modern nation-state - is, of course, far from complete. I have in the past written extensively on the racial and religious divisions that have tormented this country and its beautiful people. (For my efforts, I was denounced publicly by the then Malaysian Prime Minister and the then Malaysian Trade Minister, at press conferences at which they brandished copies of DNA, but that's another story...)
In recent days and weeks, there have been a series of events that have reinforced the challenges in shaping a unified (and secular) Malaysia or 1Malaysia - as the current government calls it. In random order, they include: the planned caning of a Singaporean Muslim model for drinking beer in public, a government ban on Muslims attending a concert by the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, and a revolting incident involving a severed cow's head to protest the construction of a temple...
But disturbing as all these developments are, there are also enough secular-minded, good people in Malaysian civil society who spiritedly challenge religious or racial excesses and are actively working to perfect their union.
Even though the circumstances of my travels in Malaysia were less than joyous, I have very fond memories of intense personal interactions with many ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things - in very, very trying circumstances - to make Malaysia a better place.
In that spirit, let me share with you this endearing film, prepared for Malaysia's Merdeka Day.(I particularly like the ending, where a Malaysian Chinese boy speaks Tamil, and a Malaysian Tamil boy speaks fluent Chinese!) Watch it, and you'll know that when all is said and done, the history of nations is shaped by ordinary people. The faces you see here represent the true spirit of 1Malaysia...
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