A boy, crouching in a corner in an alley, while three Malay boys surround him, kicking him in turns, cigarettes in their mouths.
"Kenapa tak bayar wang? Mahu mati yakah? Bos kami tidak gembira dengan kamu tahu? Tidak beri wang, tidak ada hari yang baik!"One of the taller boys said in Malay. Translated, it meant "Why did you not pay up? Want to die? Our boss is not happy with you you know? Never pay money, never have a good day!". The boy then jammed his cigarette onto the hand of the poor boy, who let loose a cry of pain. The three Malays then walked away arrogantly.
This was a real thing that happened when I studied in primary school. We had a neighbourhood secondary school next to our school when I was studying there. There was an alley near it that was dark, so dark it could contain the existence of the triads and gangs in that school. Unfortunately, everyday I had to walk past the alley to get home. Many times had I witnessed such incidents happening, and I had reported it many times to my teachers. What they said only was "Leave them alone. It's not our school anyway."
This time I could not tolerate it anymore. Something had to be done about this bullying. So I went to the teachers again. As expected, the teachers called me to stay out of their affairs.
"But almost everyday someone is hurt being bullied in that particular alley! How can I just stand there and watch it happen?"I exclaimed.
"Guan Hong, some day you will understand this,"my form teacher said, "For the moment, I'll teach you something. This is called racism and it exists throughout Malaysia. We cannot stop it, because it exists in the whole Malaysia. If I reported this, this would surely fall to the principal of their secondary school. We have reported such cases. But what ended up was the Chinese students were punished because they 'wanted to find trouble with the gangs'. Maybe when you grow up, you'll be able to solve this issue along with others. But for now, let things be the way they are. Now forget about this and go home."
It was not until recently that this incident came back to my mind. It returned when our teacher taught about racism and the concept of tolerance and acceptance. Maybe this is the so-called tolerance. But, the racism in Malaysia must be stopped. More and more Malays are getting into local universities although others have better results. Even though the slogan of "1 Malaysia" is spreading, encouraging equal treatment, no real action has been done. And more and more teenagers are running out of tolerance nowadays. Maybe when my generation comes, in the near future, they will have run our of tolerance. What happens then? No one knows.
I understand how you feel when you witnessed those incidents when you are studying in Malaysia. I heard from my mother that Malay students are always very arrogant and bully the Chinese. I must be very sad to see someone being bullied and no one helping them. Being part of the minority race in Malaysia, I think it is very fortunate for you to be able to study in Singapore because you will have a much better education opportunity.
ReplyDeleteHowever, racial discrimination is still happening throughout the world. It will not be that easy to prevent racial discrimination. It will still happen because people who have higher authority tends to bully other social groups below them. The young often believe that racism is bad and they will try to stop it one day. But it is almost impossible. If you try to prevent racism in a place, it will still happen in some other places. Although it is very unfair, I think it will continue to last for a long time.