TODAY IS MAY 13TH

Growing up, I never gave a thought about discrimination.

When I was in high school, after SPM’s results were announced, those of us Malay boys with good results, excitedly discussed about going to the University and which scholarship to apply. Not my Chinese friend. I asked him “Where you think you’ll go man?”. He just smiled and told me “I’m going to take up Form Six, and start from there”. I ignorantly asked “Why you want to go for Form Six? Your results are excellent. You even managed to get high grade in Pengetahuan Agama Islam (Islamic Education) and you don’t want to apply for University and get the scholarships? What is wrong with you?”. He said “I am not a Bumiputera, only Bumiputera will be considered man”.

After college, searching for jobs, I found an advertisement which I met all the requirements except the ability of speaking any Chinese dialects which is one of the requirement. I applied for the job anyway and manage to get an interview with the company. At the end of the interview session one of panel member told me “I am sorry, you have all the qualification we need, but unfortunately you cannot speak a single Chinese dialect. You didn’t get the job.” I pointed the obvious to them and said “You were conducting the interview in English and I think the job doesn’t require the skills of speaking Chinese ”. He just shrugged his shoulders and blurted out “ Sorry, you are not Chinese”.

In Malaysia we have sugar coated phrases like ‘preferential treatment’ and `affirmative action’ of a certain race. The truth is these things are so embedded in our society that we usually do not regard such policies and remarks as discrimination and offensive.

It could lead to outright racism if we as Malaysians continue to ignore it.