About giving up

I suddenly learnt something. Apparently most Malaysian who have lived abroad before would consider at some point, to give up their own country. Some people did eventually, some did not, and no, this post is not about racism, because we all know, there are plenty of bumiputras who gave up too. Question is why give up? and not give up?



There is this saying, that is crossing my mind over and over again
‘恨铁不成钢’


Based on the timing and everything, it's not hard to guess that all this came about due to the coming GE2008. What is so wrong with the system? That people would rather leave to start all over again, fitting into a culture that is not yourselve's, trying to call a new place 'home'. Not a lot of people do that, or should I say, not a lot of people apart from us do that.
I used to be quite proud, that we Malaysians can fit into any environment, at this young age, I have friends my age working all over the world, and I thought that is something to be proud of, until now, that I'm no longer sure.
What kind of country let their own talents move away so easily? You might say, the Philippines do that as well, don't they? Let's not forget that 10% of their GDP comes from remittance of the foreign workers income. I doubt we have this number, in fact, I'll be glad if the foreign income remitted is more than the personal funds used overseas (it's a totally different post if we go into government funds spent overseas), mainly to fund the tertiary education of the youngsters. Anyway, the philippinos that I know work overseas with a view to go back to re-unite with their families, while Malaysians intend to build their families overseas

Before this, I am so used to the mindset that we are 'Malaysian Malays', 'Malaysian Chinese' and 'Malaysian Indian', where Malaysian is the adjective of our ethinicity, and not the other way around. One might argue that is just jargons, doesn't mean much. However, we all know how we tag each other with the 'habit' tags, the classic being lazy, kiasu and liar respectively
I only learnt very recently that, it doesn't have to be like that, all this are not just politically wrong, but fundamentally wrong. Although our cultural roots are not in Malaysia, there is so many things that we developed within Malaysia, away from our so called 'cultural origin'. It is so wrong, when a MP ask non-bumputras to go back to their home country, Malaysia is our home country, not anywhere else.
What do you do? When you were being isolated by your peers? That, is the reason why people consider to give up, some fight (very little though), some just endure whatever that is pushed on them.

I certainly am not ready to give up, like it or not, this is the only place I could call home, and it will just be harder, to start over. I guess I have to endure for the time being, and fight back whenever I can. I could not stop others to give up, because their concerns are totally valid. Apart from not giving up myself, and motivate others not to give up as well, I really do not know what else I could do.

It is kind of a pessimistic post, isn't it? The whole political scene is very demoralising, I just felt that I'm hoping for a miracle this Saturday