Are we Independent?

Past pre-independence heroes sure had taught us many things, they were the ones who fought for our country's independence. Yes, we can learn a lot from our history. The Malaysian heroes, how they started a revolution, how they carried on and eventually emerged as victors. Later immortalized in our Malaysian school history books. Though questionably most of the stories that are told in our textbooks were, may I say Malayan heroes rather than Malaysians.

For one we are taught that the price of independence was not cheap. It takes sheer grit, tenacity and lots of guts to achieve independence. To be free from those who robbed us of our land, of our freedom. To rule the land ourselves, not to be dependent to others, and to protect our women and children from intruders who are 'not like us'.

In pre-independence Malaya it was to get out from the colonial British rule. Because the British, they are 'not like us', they are white we are brown. They are christians while we are muslim, buddhist, hindus, pagans, etc, though they were already colonies of Christians in certain places. They wear silly coat but we wear songkok and baju melayu and some other traditional attires. They use toilet paper but we use left hands and water to clean our ass after pooping, that is at least true to some of us.

Most of what we know about these past heroes came from the school history books. We have been taught of the likes of Tokku Paloh, Tok Janggut, Abdul Rahman Limbong, Tok Gajah, Mat Kilau and Dato Bahaman. These Malay heroes started revolutions against the British, fought for justice they say. Mentioned quite inconspicuously in the textbooks, but one worth mentioning is Mat Salleh. He was 'different' from the rest because he is "Sabahan".

That's right Mat Salleh is Sabahan, similarly fought against the British in Sabah. Please remember, he fought the British before Sabah merged into Malaysia. Mat Salleh, a prominent hero in history, known to have special power, and his body was said to be impenetrable by bullets. Mat Salleh is and epitome of a Great Sabahan, I think he deserves greater respects than just a couple of references in the textbooks, and a sorry looking memorial in interior Tambunan.

Yesterday, I saw a movie about Mat Kilau on TV. In one part he said his fight against the British was to force the British to leave Malaya, as they 'are different'. Mat Kilau also quoted in the movie that the British are stealing from the Malayans, and robbing the Malay to enrich themselves. The fight against the British was to uphold local religion, race and the country. Since the fight was in pre-independence Malaya, therefore I think Mat Kilau's fight was for Islam, Malay and Malaya.

Malaya was blessed with natural resources such as gold, tin("Bijih Timah"), rubbers, etc. The British were taking all these wealth back to their own country while the Malays were continuously denied of their rights. Kringgg!!!! Now Do you hear a bell ringing? Is this happening in our own backyard? Do you know that Sabah and Sarawak are main contributors to oil production in Malaysia? Mind you, Sabah is also a major producer of Malaysia palm oil exports. And do you know where do the money goes?

So cruel was the British to the Malays. They came, they saw, they conquered and they continue to squezee every drop of wealth out of Malaya. And that reason had ultimately motivated the fighters to revolt and subvert against the colonialist. And I don't know whether it's a sheer coincidence, or perhaps just a plain joke; that in colloquial Malay, the "Whites" are called "Mat Salleh" regardless of whether thay are British or not.

Now this raised another question! Since the Malay historically hated the British, or the Whites, or in other word the "Mat Salleh". Is there any implicit meaning in that namesake? Does "Mat Salleh" translates to Sabahan too?

Phew!!! I divert, now back to the original topic. Are we Independent? And why we want it so much? It is like a coveted prize sought after by any community in the world. More so for a community which is ruled by others who are 'not like them'.

If it happens that a community is led by someone who 'is different' racially, culturally and religiously. That will make every member of that community to start to question the leader's eligibility to lead them. Why was he elected? Would he converts us all into his belief? Will our culture and religion diminish through his differing opinions? Will he dilutes our culture and institutionalize his culture upon us?

Worries of being racially, religiously and culturally persecuted do have credential. Because there is no guarantee that the elected 'different' leader will not flex his power to convert the nation out of his own free whims.

Being in a position of power will make it easy for him to proselytize his belief, which 'is different' from the belief of the people under his reign. And it has historic credibility too, since we know that Christianity flourished in Europe, started because one of the Emperors embraced christianity.

I don't quite remember the Emperor's name and country though. Was it Constantine Emperor of Rome? Do you remember? Nevertheless, what evident was that since then, the proliferation of christianity got into higher gear and the rest is history. I am sure other religions also share similar story with the Christians.

It's commonplace that whenever there's a group of people embracing a common understanding, culture, race and religion. Then there'll be a conscience in each and everyone member in the community, the urge to ordain a leader elected from amongst them. One who aspires to champion their race, culture and religion.

One that will not deny whatever their clerics or religious gurus say. One 'among them', 'think like them', 'speak like them', 'laugh like them', aspire to multiply their numbers 'exponentially' in a 'shortest time possible', even if it means converting the others who are 'not like them'. And of course pray to the 'same god like them'.

The above characteristics alone will still not be enough, it is not easy to be a leader to them, the leader must also not have any alliances with those who 'are different' from them. Because it is possible that the leader might be an agent planted by the others to weaken them, he might 'sold them out' to the others who are 'not like them'.

For the people in the community, the abhorrence and the urge to topple and replace that 'different' leader will be paramount, notwithstanding that the leader is actually one of them. They will seek and consult any religious figure among them, flip through religious verses, burning hundreds of jars of oil for light to study archaic scripts, with one objective, which is to find fault in the 'different' leader.

By all means to bring the leader down, with religious and cultural hatred, sometimes it will cross along racial lines as well. The scholars in the community will start to incite racial and religious hatred, they will pour gasoline into a subtle fire until the leader is expelled out by his own people. Racial harmony will be the last thing they want, as long as the possible 'different' leader does not succeed in his quest to be a leader.

In Malaysia though, we do and we still have a choice. To continue on with this historically mired racist sentiment and narrow-mindedness or to prove the history wrong and we can chart our own destiny to a better Malaysia. To the question of Are we Independent? The answer is No! we are not independent yet if racism and religious persecution are what we see happening right before our eyes.