Whenever you listen to the opposition or read its supporting blogs (i.e. Malaysian Chronicle) you get the feeling that Malaysia is strongly divided along its racial lines. Some politicians are actually going so far to predict racial riots and the destruction of the country.
True. Race has become an ever increasing issue in politics and the upcoming of right wing groups like Perkasa but also groups like Hindraf have not done much good to ease the tension. There is no day going by or some racial issue has been reported in the news.
As I am none of the three main races in Malaysia perhaps I do not have the right background to have an opinion on this but all this hype about heightened racial tension seems to me more a case of politicking then anything else.
All my Malaysian friends have close friends of other races and even my family in law who are very Malay are close to many non-Malay people. Whenever I go anywhere or whenever I visit any office I see a mix of different races working, playing, eating or just being together.
Is the situation ideal? No. Far from it. There are serious racial problems in Malaysia. But not just from one side. As in many countries these racial issues are there on all sides. It is well known that there is a government driven positive discrimination of the Malays and I can understand that this is strongly disliked by non-Malays. I also believe that certain regulations should be eased to create more equality. But on a non-official level the other races do similar things. A well known example is all the job advertisement you seen in the paper asking for Mandarin speaking staff even if the job clearly does not require it.
Still in every country I have lived in such discrimination occurs on many levels, but different races tend to be much more separated and hardly ever mingle. The fact that such a thing is not happening in Malaysia gives me the feeling that racial problems are much more under control than in other parts of the world and perhaps politicians should stop using it to try to score points.
