Embracing Diversity

A friend once called me an ethnocentric (ie someone who has the the tendency to believe that one's own race or ethnic group is centrally important). I thought nothing of it at the point of time, thinking of it as nothing but a good natured ribbing that friends give each other because truth be told, I believe one cannot find a more liberal person than moi (though being liberal does not mean you have to compramise on your moral and religious beliefs). And the more diverse my companions and surroundings, the happier I am.

Then came this current fracas about my neighbouring country's 'Sweeping Malaysia' campaign (over a mistake that an international TV station innocently made in airing an Indonesian dance within a Tourism Malaysia promotional stint) and a more internally spawned 'food fight' (about which dish belongs to which state within Malaysia).

For a while there, my nationalistic (if not ethnic) sentiments rose to the fore and I was as quick to jump on the 'bicker bandwagon' as the rest of them.

Til I read two very fair and optimistic write ups by Dzof Azmi (Cultural Conundrum, The Star, 27 Sept 2009) and Malaysia's owned cook extraordinaire Chef Wan (Eat & Let Live, The Star, 25 Sept 2009) on the two subjects respectively. The articles made me take a step back and think of the topics and myself in total.

Since slews of opinionated people and subject matters have already discussed the matters to death, I shall not go down the same path but rather speak of how one should and would react to the matters instead.

I believe how we react to the issues generally relies on how confident and comfortable we are with ourselves and sense worth.

My mother is part Thai and Chinese with a liberal dosage of Malay; while my father comes from Javanese, Bugis and dare I say Pakistan lineage. While I prefer to claim some Saxon or Normandy blood within me or the fact that I wish I was part Japanese instead of Javanese, does not make me any less proud of being myself.

At the end of the day, I believe God has created us in the best possible way He can and it is up to us to accept it the way it is and make the best of the situation you are born in elst strive to be better.

For instance, once my sister sent me an article that says that Muslims should not drink Cappuccino bacause it was created by a Christian Monk who got the coffee beans from one of the numerous raids the Christian Crusaders made during their invasion of the Muslim World in the 11th to the 15th Centuries.

My answer to that was 'well, that's just too bad for the Muslims, but things that goes around will come around eventually (we shall not go into that debate today). However, the Lord has created coffee beans and milk and taught us to steam things. Hence, in the mean time, I'll go on enjoying my steamed milky coffee in whatever name it may come in as'.

In other words, if you are comfortable with yourself and the world in general, there is little need for you to jump into petty squabbles and meaningless arguments over whose dance belongs to whom, whose songs they were originally created for, which state the food we are eating really originates from and so on and so forth.

So, since I'm generally happy with who I am and where I come from, I will still continue to enjoy watching the Pendet Dance in Bali because I can afford to, I will still enjoy the Malaccan or Muarian Hainanese Chicken Rice because I have learned to cook it myself, I will still sing my National Athem with the gusto even though you might say that it is originally Terang Bulan (tho, if you insist on being petty I would insist that it actually stemed from Hawaii's My Mula Moon) and I will still continue to spatter my Manglish with the word 'lah' even if those across the causeway have 'branded' it as theirs.

Another realated example (since I am already on the roll) is the phrase 'Bite my thumb at thee' made popular by Shakespear's Romeo & Juliet. Though the term is widely accepted as an English one, some says that the term actually originates from the Middle East whereby when Saxon armies took prisoners in Southern Europe in the middle ages (then under the Muslim rule), the prisoners would sometimes be offered the chance to earn their freedom by eating a fig from a mule's anus. As the captors taunted their captive, offering them this degrading method of escape, the prisoners would bite their thumbs as a sign that they would rather eat their own finger than to earn their freedom in such a degrading way (Urban Dictionary). Relating to that incident and caption, one hardly use the term nowadays preferring the modern way of signaling 'Fie on You' and could not really care less where the sign truly originates from (a clear evidence is when you try to google where the caption comes from and you will only get the Urban Dictionary that does so).

As Dzof wrote, culture is 'organic and unfixed', so I say 'get on with life, people and put on your best batik shirt while you're at it'.

True enough one should be sensitive about such things, but one should really not blow things out of proportion - lest people would think you are being overzealous and perhaps have developed a sense of insecurity complex about the situation.

Thus, maintaining a rationale outlook over the issues at hand (as how our Malaysian students have done with their counterpart; and our internal foodie factions have not) is probably the best way to handle things while maintaining your self respect along the way.

Hence, our neighbours should be confident and secure enough in knowing that God has bestowed upon them such creativity and abundant resources rather than trying to tell the whole world that such and such belong to them. The world already knows that. Why, Indonesia is a way popular tourist destination than Malaysia, and we Malaysians are not upset over that. And as for the people of Malacca, Muar and Penang, go settle down and start cooking already!

After all, if one is confident in being part Thai, Chinese, Javanese, Bugis and Pakistani which equates to one being a Malay, one is being Truly Asian without even trying - and embracing that particular diversity in oneself is the beginning in trying to embrace others.