Can we stop being racist for once?

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If this is true of what is tweeted - that when a Malay wins a Bronze Olympic medal it is a great celebration, and when a Chinese wins a Silver medal it is just a silver medal and not good enough a win?

Or is this made to mean that a Malay is as good as gold when the standard is low and that a Chinese is as good as bronze when the Malay-Muslim nation has spent so much of his training, and that as a ‘pendatang’ or immigrant, he/she ought to win big to make the Malay-Muslim state look good in the eyes of the world? Is this what the role of the media - to destroy nations and not to build them?

A good distraction from the case of the massive corruption but not a good reporting for a nation in need of reconciliation. But then again, race-based parties continue to be crafted and registered for the next general election - as if we have not progressed much ideologically, still using the same old-same-old-ho-hum-yawnful strategies to move the country to the next level, ie ‘issues-based’ rather than ‘race-based’ politics.

I don’t know who crafted the tweet and whether we should bother and make it a national issue, blinding ourselves yet again with making sense of the impending catastrophe our nation is facing vis-a-viz economic, political, and even national-psychological failures.

This is the year 2016 and we will celebrate our 60th. independence day on Aug 31. This will be followed by a September celebration of Malaysia Day. We are not living in the times of Jesse Owens or Muhammad Ali who faced racism in the country they were born in- the United States of the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era.

After almost 60 years we ought to celebrate our ability not to shame our Olympians because they are of this or that race and that Malaysia still belongs solely to the Malays. No - Tanah Melayu is no longer here as an elusive concept. We are in Bumi Malaysia and ought to behave as Malaysian citizens as how the constitution promotes.

Today I was listening to one of my favourite songs of the eighties, Zainal Abidin’s ‘Hijau’, reminiscing on a time when sports and the arts promote a sense of identity and Malaysian-ness as natural as a Malay, Chinese, Indian, the Ibans and Kadazans love nasi lemak and teh tarik terbang kurang manis.

The band that accompanied Zainal Abidin, produced by a dear childhood friend of mine, Roslan Aziz, was truly a multi-ethnic multicultural outfit. Those highly-accomplished musicians came from different cultural background representative of what Malaysia is and what Malaysia of the Mahathirist era looked like.

If we go back to another decade, the seventies gave us a clear picture of what sports in an age of nation-building looks like. The Malaysian soccer team, needless to say, was the pride of the nation. Malays like me cheered for ‘Towkay’ Soh Chin Aun as a captain, because he is more Malaysian than Chinese.

Chinese friends of mine idolised ‘SuperMokh’ Mokhtar Dahari because he is a Malaysian hero of Malay descent. And of course there was ‘Spiderman’ Arumugam - the greatest goalkeeper Malaysia has ever seen and the pride of Malaysians of all walks of life - not just of the Indian Malaysians.

A demolition nation

That was the Malaysia that has today died and demolished. We have become a demolition nation - from a Mongolian arms negotiator demolished with C4 explosives, to the entire economy demolished by the greatest money-laundering scandal - the 1MDB - in the history of the globalisation of money to this tweet on the Bronze and Silver in the Olympics, we see the demolition of a nation in progress.

The seeds of destruction and demolition were long ago planted. We see racism and the institutionalisation of it in the way we design our political and most importantly educational system. Our schooling system that ensures our society reproduced, is addicted to racism. We build elitist race-based and religious schools to show how we honour and wish to adopt the Apartheid system.

We must demolish all these - for all the good reasons for our children. For our national survival.

Move on, move on. Race is just a mental construct made real. Think Malaysian, the more we think along racial lines bordering on destructive ethnocentrism, the more the muti-racial plunderers and robber-barons disguised as governmental leaders will benefit from this neo-colonial strategy of divide, conquer, rule - and rob in broad daylight. Rompakan Tidak Bersenjata Satu Negara. Pukau Sekelip Mata. Or Unarmed National Robbery ala Harry Houdini.

“Nya Inseng Mata Kaji Semarak Inseng” goes the P Ramlee mantra used by the Ali Babas and the 40 thieves.

Think Malaysian. Truly Malaysian. Not Bangsa Johor. Or Mat Rock. Or Mat Metal. Or Mat Yoyo. Or Minah Karan. Or Minah Rempit. Or Mak Limah. Or Hantu Mak Limah. We have a nation to build - Bangsa Malaysia. Anak semua bangsa.

“Entahlah Mak... tak larat nak pikiaq... dengaq lagu punk rock dan skinhead di pagi Khamis yang mulia ini... lagu kugiran rock rambut-kepala ayam dan kumpulan kulit kepala... lagu tu lah Mak... lagi baik. Banyak Tok Aji Tok Aji Datuk Seri la ni curi duit Monopoly... simpan atas bumbung atap genting atap rembia."

There is still hope for Malaysia. Even with those nasty, unintelligent, and racist tweets that went viral.

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DR AZLY RAHMAN grew up in Johor Baru, Malaysia and holds a Columbia University (New York City) doctorate in International Education Development and Masters degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He will be pursuing his fifth Masters in Fine Arts, specialising in Fiction and Poetry Writing. He has taught more than 50 courses in six different departments and has written more than 350 analyses/essays on Malaysia. His 25 years of teaching experience in Malaysia and the United States spans over a wide range of subjects, from elementary to graduate education. He has edited and authored six books; Multiethnic Malaysia: Past, Present, Future (2009), Thesis on Cyberjaya: Hegemony and Utopianism in a Southeast Asian State (2012), The Allah Controversy and Other Essays on Malaysian Hypermodernity (2013), Dark Spring: Essays on the Ideological Roots of Malaysia's General Elections-13 (2013), a first Malay publication Kalimah Allah Milik Siapa?: Renungan dan Nukilan Tentang Malaysia di Era Pancaroba (2014), and Controlled Chaos: Essays on Mahathirism, Multimedia Super Corridor and Malaysia’s ‘New Politics’ (2014). He currently resides in the United States where he teaches courses in Education, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Political Science, and American Studies. His forthcoming book, One Malaysia, under God, Bipolar, a joint project between Gerakbudaya and World Wise Books of New Jersey, USA, is his seventh compilation of essays on Malaysian Cultural, Creative, and Critical Studies. He is currently working on his eighth book, on Gifted and Talented Education in Malaysia, honouring a prominent educator. Twitter,blog. -Mkini