By Haris Ibrahim,
Some of you have taken exception to the ‘Malay Malaysian bring along a non-Malay Malaysian friend, non-Malay Malaysian bring along a Malay Malaysian friend’ requirement to get an invitation to the Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia forum in Penang on 15th November. If you’ve missed that announcement on this blog, you can read about it HERE.
I’m going to try and explain here the rationale for that stipulation.
The first, and in my view, the most important message that the SABM roadshow carries is that we are all, first and foremost, born as equal citizens of planet Earth, and, in the context of this nation-state called Malaysia, we, anak-anak Bangsa Malaysia, are all equal citizens.
Now, try to recall the standard adverse stance taken whenever the proposition that all citizens of Malaysia are equal is advanced by any quarter in public space.
Is not “Jangan cabar ketuanan Melayu” or “Jangan cabar hak-hak keistimewaan Melayu” the ugly response that we have grown accustomed to hear?
Who by?
UMNO and its legion of racist, bigoted NGOs.
No, not BN. The other BN component parties just hide in the shadows every time UMNO and its racist sloganeers go ballistic at the slightest mention of equality of citizenship.
Now, no prizes for guessing correctly who are the targets of UMNO and their race supremacist sidekicks.
We all know who they are.
Some of those targeted need no persuasion to incline to that race supremacist stance. They are themselves racists and bigots, to begin with, and beyond redemption. Thankfully, my experience on the ground leaves me convinced that these are but a small number, in comparison to the whole. I’ll call these the no-hopers.
And then there are others within the target group who are much too enlightened to fall prey to this racist call. The likes of Zaid Ibrahim, Malik Imtiaz and Dr. Azmi Sharom come to mind, to just name a few. These few speak up and are heard. Others, for a variety of reasons, mostly fear, sadly remain silent.
I am convinced that the majority within the target group are decent people, with the same concerns and aspirations of every other citizen of this nation. Most, though, may not have access to news sources other than the mainstream media, particularly Utusan and BH, which serve as the conduit to take the racist, hate messages of UMNO and their cohorts into the homes, the hearts and the minds of this majority within the target group. Decent as the people within this majority are, we should not be at all surprised if they are adversely impacted by this constant bombardment that rights guaranteed to them are under siege.
Let’s call the majority of the target group “VORS“, which stands for ‘Victims Of Racist Sloganeering”, for ease of reference.
How do we, you and I and every other anak Bangsa Malaysia who cares where this nation is headed, begin to try and undo the damage that UMNO and their hate-mongers inflict on VORS?
Speaking for myself, I truly believe that it is the responsibility of every right-thinking anak Bangsa Malaysia to reach out to every individual in VORS whom he or she knows and make every effort to undo the evil that UMNO and their racist NGOs inflict on race relations in our country.
Enter the SABM roadshow effort.
When the SABM roadshow hits Penang and the other cities and towns in the weeks and months to come, we want to take the message of equality to every single anak Bangsa Malaysia out there.
We want to meet everyone.
Except, perhaps, the no-hopers that I wrote about earlier, whose sole purpose for attending, more often than not, is to disrupt the forum.
Even if you are already sold on the idea that we are all of one race, the human race, and equal citizens of this nation, we still would like to meet you.
There’s much that we want to share with you through the forum.
Besides, my experience has been that many good people, for so long remaining silent in the face of injustice inflicted on others, derive encouragement and strength in meeting other like-minded people at forums like the one SABM is organising and discovering that there are others too who care and that they are not alone.
And yet, my friends and I in the SABM coregroup realise that we must prioritise.
Our resources are scarce, and hence we must optimise every opportunity we get to deliver this message beyond the converted and the like-minded.
The last thing we want is to preach this message of ‘One People, One Nation’ to a hall full of like-minded people.
It is my hope that with the stipulated ‘Malay Malaysian bring along a non-Malay Malaysian friend, non-Malay Malaysian bring along a Malay Malaysian friend’ requirement to get an invitation to the SABM forum, there is every likelihood that the forum will not end up as nothing more than a fellowship of the like-minded.
It also increases the odds on our being able to keep out the disruptive no-hopers that I spoke of and, with a bit of luck, help us unearth some budding ‘Malik Imtiaz’ out there who may now be emboldened to speak up at forthcoming forums.
How, you may well ask.
Let me illustrate the point with an imagined ‘Arumugam’.
Arumugam is your average, decent Penangite. He has no racist streak in him. He registers for the forum, also registering a Malay Malaysian friend, as we have asked. As Arumugam is no racist, it’s safe to assume, if not hope, that his friend, too, is not.
The converse, in theory at least, would also apply. A Malay Malaysian bringing along a non-Malay Malaysian friend gives us reason to hope that neither is an out and out racist, or no-hoper.
This, then, was the rationale for the stipulated requirement to get an invite to the forum.
The SABM coregroup is mindful that, like every other human endeavour, nothing is fool proof.
We can only try.
In stipulating the requirement in question, we had hoped that those of you who already share the aspiration of ‘One People, One Nation’ would help us to deliver our message to those who most need to hear it, by doing your part to get them into the forum hall.
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