I am probably most demonized Malaysian in politics.
In the first 20 years of my political life, I was accused of being anti-Chinese educated or an CIA, MI6, KGB or Australian secret service agent, but in my last 20 years, I was accused of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, communist and promoting Islamophobia.
I am none of these but a Malaysian nationalist and patriot who regards Malaysia as my only home and country, who is born, bred and will die in Malaysia.
I believe that Malaysia is a plural country which can be a role model to the world of inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisational dialogue, understanding, tolerance and harmony.
I was a voracious reader. I read English and Chinese publications, including the Chinese “fighting” stories rented from the roadside stalls. I was also a regular cinema goer, seeing the English and Chinese films in particular from the two cheap cinemas in Batu Pahat at 40 sen per session (there were four cinemas in BP altogether).
I was a librarian at the Batu Pahat High School in my secondary school days and later became a librarian at the Batu Pahat Library.
My ideas came from my school days in Batu Pahat, Johore.
Yesterday, I visited one of my “mother” schools – Cheng Siu Chinese primary school.
In my young days, I pestered my mother that I wanted to go to school. But I was underaged and my mother could only put me in a kindergarten near my house in Jalan Penggaram, Batu Pahat.
Then I enrolled in Cheng Siu Chinese primary school in Std. I and Std. Two in 1947 and 1948, and in 1949, I switched to Batu Pahat English School to receive six years of primary and five years of secondary education. But I continued in Cheng Siu night to complete nine years of Chinese education.
It is in the schools that one learn the great precepts in life, like the story of the Song general Yue Fei, whose mother tattooed on his back the four words, jìn zhōng bào guó 盡忠報國 (‘serve the country with the utmost loyalty’), but the country here is Malaysia and not China or the story of Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 and his immortal words,
人生自古誰無死
留取丹心照汗青
(What man is ever immune from death?
(Leave me with a loyal heart shining in the pages of history)
These precepts have guided me in my over eight decades of life.
Cheng Siu Chinese primary schools have grown and become two schools – School 1 and School 2.
This is in accordance with what we believe should be the basis of nation-building of a plural Malaysia, where Malaysia can be a role model to the world of inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisation dialogue, understanding, tolerance and harmony.
In the early years of DAP, we fought for a nation-building policy of integration as against assimilation to achieve the objectives of “Unity in Diversity”.
It was not an easy battle but finally we prevailed and even Mahathir Mohamad, before he resigned after being the Prime Minister for 22 years, said in December 2002 that the Barisan Nasional (BN) wants to continue the integration policy practised in Malaysia to ensure racial harmony and stability in the long run.
He said that such a policy had worked very well for the country because it was fortunate to have political parties which were not extreme.
“Political parties in the BN accept the fact this is a multiracial, multicultural and multireligious country and therefore we should be tolerant of other races, cultures, religions and languages.”
Mahathir said that the government of the day did not intend to assimilate anybody as the idea had been rejected by the people previously.
He said: “What we want to is to integrate different races and different tribal groups into one society, each one playing its own role with no one higher than the other…this (integration) has worked very well but not assimilation.”
Mahathir said that unlike in other countries where migrants had to accept the culture, language and sometimes the religion of the majority, Malaysia did not want to assimilate its people to become one race.
There was no bitterness and anger between the different races because Malaysia was one of the few countries in the world, developed or developing, that allowed the people to have their education in their own languages, have their own schools and yet conformed to the general education policy of the country.
Mahathir said a characteristic of Malaysians was to be “sensitive about other people’s feeling and we do not do things that will aggravate matters that can cause tension among us.”
I was reminded of this Mahathir’s speech when I visited Cheng Siu yesterday and hoped that we can live up to it.