East Malaysians need to move past racial divide

Irritated, I replied, “Why do you care?”

“Sorry,” he said.

“Why do you ask?” I countered.

“I thought you are Chinese,” he said.

I was irritated as I’m tired of being asked about my race. The question is invariably asked by Chinese who are surprised that a Chinese-looking man like me does not speak to them in their mother tongue.

If I had been in a good mood, I would have told him I’m a Kadazandusun with 25 per cent Chinese blood flowing in my veins. Half of the time, the ignorant reply from Malaysians who have never set foot on the Borneo side of Malaysia would be, “Oh, you are from Sarawak.”

Sometimes I do wonder why they have to ask about my race.

But I shouldn’t, because race matters in Malaysia. And racial stereotyping is like a national sport. Many Malaysians see other Malaysians based on race.

Unconsciously, I did a quick reading of the 40-something Uber driver. The car radio was tuned in to a Chinese-language station. His Google Maps gave directions in Chinese.

My instant profile of him: He’s Chinese-educated (usually English-educated Chinese do not care whether I speak Chinese or not) and Buddhist (there were Buddhist prayer beads hanging from his rear-view mirror). He was probably educated until secondary school (because he assumed that a Chinese-looking man should speak Chinese) and is an opposition supporter (I’m 85 per cent sure as to which political party he voted for in the 2013 general election).

Curious to know whether my profile was accurate, I switched from unfriendly mode to friendly, and initiated a conversation with him. It turned out that I was right.

But that’s not always the case.

Let me tell you a story related to me by my colleague. At the end of the story, try to guess the race of the assailant.

“X was hit on his chest, face and stomach by a burly guy. He was punched so hard that he fell to the ground,” said a Malay crime reporter, relating a sensational story he had covered about a person who had been beaten to death.

“Guess what is the race of the burly guy?” asked an Indian editor.

“Indian,” I said. “What race do you think?”

“Indian,” said the editor.

“The burly man is Chinese lah,” said the crime reporter.

How did I get into racial stereotyping? I blame it on my parents.

When I was a kid in the late 1970s, my family would travel 16 kilometres from urban Kota Kinabalu to rural Penampang to spend the weekend in my parents’ village called Kampung Pogunon.

In the Kadazandusun village, one of the bogeymen with which the elders used to frighten (or discipline) the kids was the “Bengali”.

In those days there were Pakistani men (mistaken as Bengalis in the North Borneo Armed Constabulary) and who travelled on foot from one village to another, selling clothes and textiles.

When the Pakistani trader wearing salwar kameez walked into the village, the elders would warn the kids, “Be careful, don’t get close to him. Otherwise, he’ll put you into his bundle.”

When you were a kid, that warning was frightening. We stayed indoors whenever the “Bengali” entered the village.

The point of my story is as kids, we can’t escape the stereotypes and prejudices that our parents pass on to us. We grow up becoming prejudiced against a certain race as some of the stereotypes and prejudices stick with us.

Our obsession with race is dividing us. We should see ourselves as Malaysians. It is not easy. I too see the world based on my race.

However, I’ve learned that being Kadazandusun-centric can make me racist. And it is not as if it is only your race that can help you.

A self-made Kadazandusun businessman confided to me that he got help from other races. “Sometimes it is your own race that do not help you. Sometimes they are the ones who will bring you down,” the multi-millionaire told me.

But there’s hope. I’m in a Sabah WhatsApp group whose members advocate seeing ourselves as Sabahans and not Kadazandusun, Suluk, Chinese, Murut or Bajau.

The message in the group is that we are all in the same boat – sink or swim. 

There’s no point in Sabahans being divided racially, when there are bigger issues out there, like the Malaysia Agreement 1963, which combined Sabah and Sarawak with a federated Malaysia, to fight for.