Personal Reflection

To me, reflection has always been about genuine honesty. To be able to look at myself in the mirror and confront the truth and embrace it regardless of the implications. So today, you get the privilege to reflect back together with me on one of my life changing / life defining events that took place in my life after 12 years old. BA DUM TSS!!

Describe

When I was 13, I went to a boarding school- MRSM Balik Pulau. I always wanted to go to boarding school. I thought it was really cool and the elite students belong there. But how wrong I was? Very very wrong. So, when I was in boarding school, I was heavily discriminated and insulted by my seniors, peers and heck even my teachers. Being one of the very few Indians in a Malay-Muslim majority school, I did not find it too difficult to fit in. I was naive kid who did not know what racism meant, I did not know what discrimination was and I did not know that I will be judged by anything else except for my academic merits and the content of my character. Once again, I was terribly wrong. Pretty much the entire year has been about my friends and seniors encouraging me to eat beef, embrace Islam, always making fun of my skin colour, just for the record, I am not black okay, I am brown. They would also hurl insults, call me by derogatory terms and even go as far as to say that my beliefs are not real and I will not be allowed access to Heaven just because........ya know, I am not a Muslim. There was a lot of built up tension and emotion in me at such a n young age. I found it tiring to deal with religious extremist views and ignorant bigots.

Interpret

I found it amusing in the beginning but less amusing towards the end. I realized that being a minority leaves you disadvantaged in so many circumstances. I realized that racism has seeped into our mentality. Discrimination exist. People are so flawed that we rather group ourselves with the similarities that we have than to embrace our differences. 1 Malaysia mantra is useless and pathetic. We are segregated and racially polarized in every way possible. We are never truly  united. Race based politics has made us look at every other race as a threat. As you read this, some of you may disagree with me, but its nothing less than the objective truth.


Evaluation

Education is key. I read an article about a study that say that, people have a natural built in bias towards others, which means hey, we are all equally racist. But education has the power to reform that, Our problems exist due to mentality and mentality can evolve, societies can evolve and heck even moralities can evolve. The first step in solving a problem, is to address and accept that there is a problem. We have to lift the taboo ban on topics like racism. We must be able to speak up and against it. So from my point of view, racism is a lose - lose situation. Its a war we have to wage against our own mentality. It is a noble bettle born within when you realise that there is more to a man than the colour of his skin and the land he originates from. Because hey, I did not choose to be Indian. You did not get to choose to be Malay or Chinese or Irish or Indonesian. Its nothing but a biological accident that you have no possible control over. So why judge someone over something that they have no control over?

Plan

As you can tell by now, my plan is to begin with the reformation of mentality. How do I do that? I am not going to launch something on a big scale. All i am going to do is make sure to keep myself and my circle of people who hold on to the principles to reject discrimination of any form towards any group of people. I am going to start with myself. I will judge people only by the contents of their character. I will not credit anyone's ability or disability, good behaviour or bad behaviour to their race or religion. You dont have to be Chinese to be good at Math aaaaand you dont have to be Indian to be good at street dancing. What we are going to be is, very individually deterministic. Ourselves are the creation, expression and manifestation of our own thoughts and ideas. We are so unique like that. With that being said, I hope this was worth your time.


Till we meet again...