(RESPECT²)

When you live in a community, you know you need to be careful with your words. A Malay proverb says that ‘terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak kata membawa padah’ [actually I don’t know if I got it right… haha]. Respecting others is the value that people got to have right now – respects of one’s religion, culture, and ethnicity.

Fickle-minded people though, they are a different story altogether. They are not open-minded, limited in cognitive thinking, and have high defence mechanisms [yes, I’m putting the things I learnt in degree]. For one thing, you can’t write/make stuff that others will feel sick/horrible/painful about. There’s one page that openly critiques and mocks people. How can this happen? I can say that our unity now is so unstable, when we compared it with the situation years ago. The Chinese are unhappy because the government denies what they think is their rights, while the Malays are also feeling the same because the Chinese are taking their opportunity, and politics is worsening it. The Indians meanwhile are not pleased about Interlok, and the Sarawakians and Sabahans? They have a lot of things to be unhappy about. Not forgetting religions/cultures too. Bible issues, mosque issues, temple issues…

Not all people are like that, I can happily say, I mean look at what our many kinds of ethnics bring to us, and we as Malay/Bumiputera can learn a lot from them, and vice versa. We can’t just depend on the government’s affirmative action to move forward. That’s the dilemma. If anything, we should try to understand each other first. Nothing can harm you from discovering about their lives, the way they think, the way they put their trust in God. If people don’t start to respect others, than you might as well be waiting for another 1969 racial riot. History is history, no one can change that [unless they have a time machine], but I really think many things have changed over the course of time. To the people of Sarawak and Sabah, you need a lot of work to do to make yourself heard, and I know how tough it is, but you’re part of this country, and to tell you something, your states’ level were much higher than the peninsula’s states when you first merged with them to make Malaysia [a clarification: Sabah and Sarawak merged with Malaya to form Malaysia, not enter Malaysia. Malaysia will never exist without them].

So, respect. One simple word, but honestly, without understanding, care, and love… that can be a hard thing to do, and no, respect doesn’t come with fear. Besides, the al-Qur’an and Bible state that we should respect and love our neighbours, right? Honestly speaking, I can be sure that Gautama Buddha and any one of the Hindu God or Goddesses [I kind of like Ganesh. He brings luck, and he’s an elephant] preach us to be kind and understanding.

Pens are mightier that swords. Lord Voldemort thinks it’s otherwise, but to deny his stance, let me say this: in modern era like now, people don’t wage war like in the medieval period, and they just don’t go out and brandish their swords to unsuspecting commoners. Yes, he’s wicked and vainly witted, but at times, he’s a dimwit. Nowadays, mass media, and social network reach out to more people, and with that, more people like to just give their opinions blindly, and the consequences: more people are hurt, more people rebel, more people revolt.

Respect people's minds, and hearts. Can we just be good already?