~ pallete of thoughts; shades of emotions~: One Malaysia

i was reading this article in New Sunday Times by Paddy Bowie. it was heart warming actually how she described that she has 2 indian grandchildren and recently her daughter (the adopted mother of the two kids) had a baby. and now the colorful family is grateful for their blessings and as she puts it, "they symbolically represent a 1Malaysia family". Congrats to them.

there were really good pointers in her article; such as our 'rumah terbuka' concept during festivals and the national unity between the races. then she also pointed out how all that might be lost if we keep up with the mind set of callin our selves "Indians" , "Chinese" or "anak __insert state name__" rather than just Malaysians. and how the politicians shud just stop all the verbal lashing and staking out at each other and start doing what they are supposed to do for the country-which i totally agree. its getting quite old.

one down side to this afticle that i din agree wid is with that. she stated that " the malays single handedly fought the malay battle against colonialism", "The malays granted citizenship to chinese and indians who are migrants when the Brits din want to do so"

here's my question, when i studied sejarah back in school (which is not long ago), i was taught that in order for the Brits to give independence to us, we had to prove that we could live together harmoniously.i.e; only if all three major races co-operated were we to b granted independence. Hence leading to the formation of Barisan Nasional by combining UMNO, MIC & MCA. so in my young 15 year old mind i'm thinkin, wow, all the races came together and we gt independence, i have a sense of ownership in this country, a sense of pride in the contribution of my elders and a sense of being Malaysian. and now i'm thinkin if wt i read today is right, what about what i learned years ago? is History really changing wit every new year? if so, why bother studying it at all? and did i get an A in history for facts that i thought was rite but were actually not?

and also i think chinese and indians shud not be called migrants anymore coz technically we are not, our great-great grandfathers prolly were, but we are 3rd/ 4th generation Indians and chinese who have been born and raised in malaysia and very much feel that we are malaysians in every way and have the RIGHT to be recognized as such. not only the Bumiputeras' look for their roots here, i look for my roots in Malaysia too, not in India. to me its (India) a foreign land boasting its own strengths but its not home. malaysia is home and will always be.

i strongly think that in the future ppl have to be wary about the choice of words and the meaning they implyin media because though we have achived a acceptable level of racial integration, it takes a few careless words to ruin what we have worked hard to built over the years. esp after May 13. therefore it is verrry important for every race (no matter how small the stats are) to feel truly part of this country and feel a sense of ownership to it. and to keep this racial harmony and peace that we often boast about in travel brochures, it takes every Malaysian to constantly remember the true essense of what makes us a unique nation; *the unity in spite of our diversity*, definitely our biggest asset.