OPPO Kono Ekau Ni, Jang...?* (What's Wrong With You, Dude...?)

*Minangkabau slang

Last Sunday, July 12, an incident that threaten to morphed into a full-blown, free-for-all brawl occurred at OPPO Mobile Outlet in Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. What was purely a case of a customer feeling shortchanged by OPPO Mobile staff turn to be an all-out brawl that took racial dimension.

This is not the first time cases like this takes on a racial dimension. A brawl in a KFC Outlet in i-City, Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan in 2012 pitted two racial groups over a long waiting queue for chicken. The recent church burning (racial?) over 'Allah' wrangling between Muslims and Christians in 2009 and 'Angry Pig' joining the fray by landing in mosques seems to add to the air of tension.

I don't want to talk much about 'OPPO jadi' (what happened) at Low Yat Plaza on July 12. Nor I want to straightened out whatever perception towards any individual race. As written by Adibah Amin in her introductory note of Lydia Teh's "Honk! If You're Malaysian", the typical stereotype of Malaysian races can be summarised as below:

"If you're not LAZY, you're not MALAY. If you don't CHEAT, you're not CHINESE. If you don't DRINK, you're not INDIAN..."

Whoever read this, don't deny that you never have this thought, even in a passing. And don't go riot over the statement above just yet. I haven't finished, not just yet. I just don't associate drinking with Indians until I read the book above. See how my innocent mind was polluted...!

My friends have been venting out their frustration over the incident in Facebook. While there is nothing wrong for them to vent out their anger and frustration over the incident from both side of the divide, the finger-pointing can be quite unsettling. However, I could see similarities between the two sides, the groups that were parties to the brawl and those who hold the 'far' view, either too far to the left or too far to the right. Their similarity is they're what we call the millennial generation. They're highly opinionated, confident and critical. Whether it is rightly or wrongly, that besides the point for them.

At one point, I was 'arguing' with a millennial about Bill Gates and new Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. I clearly stated that Bill Gates is no longer involved in day-to-day affairs of Microsoft but this millennial keep insisting that Bill Gates must be consulted before hand in whatever decisions Satya Nadella make. Fortunately Bill Gates didn't hire this millennial, otherwise he couldn't retire peacefully as someone would continuously bugging him over pen or pencil! And I let the millennial 'win' the argument. Too childish to win it anyway.

I have to draw a distinction between the Malay millennials and the Chinese millennials though. These two groups evolved to be at the other side of the spectrum. For instance, when I went to the clubs at Jalan P. Ramlee, the Malays would be hanging out across the road from the club and the Chinese would be at the other side of the road, going into the club. The Malays were hanging out across the road, seemingly shunning the clubs, not because they are members of a religious organisation, no. My best guess, they can't spend like the cool kids.Entry to the club already cost a minimum of RM 50 and if you spend more on liquor, that is going to set you back a few hundred, assuming, you're paying everything all by yourself. The only 'free' thing they can do is to watch those sexy ladies in the club and salivate outside. It sounds degrading but it happened! I am Malay myself, you know (but I went into the clubs la...)

The point I am trying to get at is how these two groups can evolve so far apart. And my strong conviction would point out to the obvious. EDUCATION!

OUR FLAWED SCHOOL SYSTEM AND TRUST DEFICIT

We often hear suggestions to look down south to our neighbour, Singapore when it comes to education. However, most of us are more than happy to overlook the fact that in Singapore, they don't have separate system for different 'mother tongue'. Mother tongue study is included as part of the education syllabus without necessitating the need to have a separate school to achieve the objective of mother tongue study. Even to share common facilities were vehemently opposed to, fearing of losing the school character. Remember Sekolah Wawasan? God knows what sort of character the group of educationists are trying to keep so much. Guess the school character is far more important than national unity.

Our community support to this divide-and-rule strategy is clearly toeing the line of the power-that-be or power-to-be even. It is far easier to lord over divided people than a united nation. Having gone through the divide-and-rule factories, with national schools are turning more Islamic due to the absence of non-Muslims, hence lack the check-and-balance, the divide is wider than ever before. And guess what? The trust deficit will be passed on so no amount of sincere effort to unify the people through education would be sufficient. The curriculum is so flawed that a Chinese or Indian students graduating from national schools could not write or speak their own mother tongue! That's what I call injustice at the expense of our national unity.

I could write more of this as unity in education is my strong conviction. However, my view is of minority. Racial clashes will continue to happen from time to time and stereotyping will not ceased. I close my post with an excerpt from Adibah Amin's introductory notes:

"...I am CHINESE but I am no CHEAT. My friend's INDIAN but he's no DRINK. Another is MALAY but he's no SLOB. CHINESE, INDIAN, MALAY or OTHERS, we're who we make ourselves to be. Not the stereotypes we're made out to be. But if we don't buck the trend, we'll forever be stamped..."

Don't let our unity shines through posters. Live our unity as one (Image Source)