What My Readers Feel About Malaysia: Part One

How do you feel being a Malaysian today?

Thank you to those of you who took the time to reply to my questionnaire. I purposely made the request cumbersome to reply to in order to eliminate frivolous answers. I was very much interested in the narrative rather than quantifying answers.

What is important about these questions is the passion and emotions behind the answers.

I received back around 30 replies, which was exactly what I was expecting. The cohort was primarily male, over 60 years old in age, Malaysian citizen, non-Malay, and currently living in Malaysia.

Over a series of articles beginning with this one, I will post some of the most interesting answers so you can read first hand respondent feelings and passions about the questions.

Once again, I would like to thank those who answered, your replies were very heart-warming and strongly motivated me to continue trying to write the truth about what is happening in Malaysia today.

In part one, let’s look at the question of How do you feel being a Malaysian Today?

The emotions I that were spelt out through these narratives were as follows:

Negative: Disappointed, sad, ashamed, hopelessness, disillusioned, hijacked, cheated, frustrated, taken for a ride, and lousy.

Positive: Hopeful, and proud.

Some of the respondent replies:

A 65 year old,

“I am a proud Malaysian. Our forefathers fought against the Japanese and communists and sadly the majority (those racists only) forgot that without the minority races’ involvement communism would have taken over.”

Another 65 year old respondent said,

“Very disappointing with so many scandals, corruptions, racial tensions, and religious conflicts.”

A comment from someone in the 55-64 age group:

“Sad. Growing up, I loved being part of a multilingual, multicultural country.  But I do not like being categorized as a non-Malay.  It means being defined for what I am not.  I want to be celebrated for what I am, not what I am not.” 

From someone born around Merdeka:     

“Ashamed to call myself a Malaysian - nothing to be proud about !”

Another 65 year old:

“Disillusioned by the shenanigans of racist politicians that I do not feel proud to be a Malaysian.”

Yet another:

“It feels as though I have been hijacked against my will”  

From a Malaysian expat:

“Mixed feeling of anger, frustration, sad, disappointed and yet still clinging on to a glimmer of hope for a change in the governance – prayerfully a better one with integrity intelligence transparent and caring”

Someone from Sabah:

“As a Sabahan we feel cheated”

From another in the same vintage:

“Its really been taken for a ride by the leaders in this country.”

From a respondent 45-54:

“Feel good being a Malaysian but not particularly proud, after what has happened in the last 10-15 years in MY.”

A Merdeka child to conclude the comments:

“I am a Chinese Born in Malaysia in 1957, 3rd generation, I am proud to be a Malaysian.”

I still see hope filtering through the above. However there appears to be a sense of realism about the state of Malaysia today. Is there still some sense of waiting for somebody to come and save the country?

Part two soon.

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