Patriotism need not cancel our ‘chopstick’ culture

[superadmin]

Dizzer: My two sen worth on this ludicrous 'identity' issue.

A month ago, as part of a module on 'Identity', I asked 20 kids in my Form 4 class (in an international school but all Malaysian students - 70 percent Chinese, 30 percent Indian/Malay) about where they thought they came from.

All of them said they considered themselves to be Malaysian first, even though a lot of them (I'm sorry to say most) will end up overseas, seldom returning except to see their families.

Only one kid had any idea beyond their grandparents. He had been on a family reunion to one of the southern provinces - they'd done a genealogical search - and said it was interesting but they had nothing in common with each other.

Of the Malays, two had grandparents from Indonesia and Yemen respectively; the other two hadn't a clue.

Why can't Dr Mahathir Mohamad listen to the younger generation? I can't think of many Malaysian kids over the past 30 years that I've thought of as constitutionally and emotionally racist. But once they get out into the world, the realities of the system hit them.

It's the system, not the people.

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