8/10/2019 The Bangsar Boy - Talking about race in Malaysia

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COMMENT SATURDAY METRO, 2 9 AUGUST 2009M16

with their spending). Then thereare also Influenza A(H1N1) fears todeal with.

I think a big part of it also has todo with the Prime Ministers1Malaysia concept suddenly alldialogue is centred around race,including talks about the possibili-ty of the race category beingremoved from official forms.

In Wednesdays R.AGE, a fewyoung Malaysians spoke abouthow they have long moved beyondracial categorisation.

The thing is, these young peo-

ple are not revolutionary. Theirembracing of diversity is not anew phenomenon. Indeed, theidea of Malaysians living in har-mony is not just rhetoric, or atourism spin.

I often speak of my dads young-er days in university, and his manyfriends from different races whomI grew up with.

But it goes back way before that.I am an eighth-generationMalaysian, and my roots here harkback to the 1800s. My family is ofChinese descent, but we haveevolved culturally over the genera-tions.

My father is a Baba, which meantthat the Malay influence wasstrong in our family throughoutthe last century.

While the common perceptionis that Baba and Nyonyas are prod-ucts of interracial marriagesbetween Chinese and Malays, thisis not always the case.

In his 1988 book Baba of Melaka,academician Tan Chee Beng speaksof the Baba identity as a productof both acculturation and culturalpersistence.

Some people perceive accultura-

tion and inter-marriages with war-iness, as they worry that thesewould lead to assimilation and theloss of culture. I do not believe thatthis is necessarily true.

Some of the youths we inter-viewed talk about being identifiedbased on nationality when they areabroad. I myself have been con-fused for a Thai or a mainlandChinese while some of my Malayfriends have been mistaken forFilipinos. I feel that people over-seas identify us by our nationality,rather than our ethnic origins.

While I am proud of my Chineseheritage, I am also resolutely

Malaysian. The irony is that itsmuch easier to be proudlyMalaysian overseas than in myown country.

At home, I am often made con-scious of my ethnicity becausesome of my fellow countrymenfind the need to box me (and them-selves) in a racial category.

Whenever I travel abroad or talkto foreigners, I talk of the country Ibelong to, and how our peopleembrace different and diverse cul-ture.

Most foreigners are fascinatedby this cultural mix.

Its strange how we sometimestake the different cultural influ-ences that are so ingrained in us for

granted, and yet be so occupiedwith race identification.There are times when I think we

are so sibuk about someone elsesethnic roots because we are curi-ous, but then again, most of usmove on fairly quickly after.

In the end, our friends are peo-ple we have things in commonwith and sometimes that happensto be a shared racial and culturalbackground.

Then again, perhaps the prob-lem is not with the common peo-ple. Politicians latch on to racialrhetoric because it is such a con-venient way of defining their bat-tlegrounds.

But when I hear some of thesepoliticians divisive rhetorics, Imarvel at our peoples wisdom,tolerance and resilience.

I am not surprised thoughbecause I believe that we are goodat living together. In me are thegenes of eight generations whohave been doing just that.

Happy Merdeka!

Niki Cheong blogs at www.nikicheong.com/blogand Twittersat www.twitter.com/blog

By NIKI CHEONG

niki@thestar.com.my

LAST weekend, while havingsome drinks with a bunch offriends from different back-

rounds a Frenchman living inMalaysia, a Malaysian living inCanada and a Eurasian Malaysian

ving in Malaysia - we obviouslyot to talking about race and

national identity.

The topic of our conversation ishardly surprising, considering thediverse nature of our heritage andthat it is Merdeka month.

It is usually this time of the year

that we end up talking a lot aboutour nationality - after all, patriot-ism is usually at its peak at thistime. Flags are flown, people arepreparing for parades and there aremany events and parties held inconjunction with our national day.

This year, however, I sense a lotless of all that. Perhaps with theglobal economy being the way it is,many people are not in the mood

to party (or at least more cautious

Its strange

how we

sometimes

take the

different

cultural

influences

ingrained in us

for granted

THEBANGSAR BOY

NIKI CHEONGmetro@thestar.com.my

Talking aboutrace in MalaysiaYoung people seem to have moved beyond

racial categorisation in their dealings