Our Houses Have No Windows
This, was sent to me by one of my friends. He found it on Facebook and sent me a copy. Seeing that I have no Facebook account (shock! horror!) and I refuse to get one, I will attribute it by providing a link to the place to get the full version. This is only parts of it. I have to agree with what the author says, we have dug our own grave. The next time some Malaysian Chinese complains to me about the unfairness that he/she has suffered under our government, I'll refer them to the following:
THE CHINESE, THEIR HOUSES HAVE NO WINDOWS
(author - not me; minor edits - mine)
I looked out the window.
And I saw
Thousands and thousands of Malays in the Bersih Rally. They were fighting their own kind for a cause they believed in. And they risk being ostracised by their Muslim brothers. And they risk much.
I looked out the window.
And I saw
Thousands and thousands of Indians holding the picture of Gandhi in the streets. All were tear-gassed and many beaten with batons. At Batu Caves, they were locked in, pumped with tear gas and sprayed with chemical water.
I looked out the window.
And I saw
Thousands and thousands of Chinese closing their doors. Minding their own business. Watching the soap operas. Playing mahjong. Going to the gym. Planning for holidays. Eating bak kut teh. Enrolling their children in private schools. Going for line dancing. Changing to a bigger car. Perming their hair brown. Going to the movies. Shopping.
The Chinese. They don't look out the window.
Their houses.
Have no windows.
Alright, I'm not advocating that everyone should take to the streets. However, what the author says is painfully true. And without the support of the Malaysian Chinese, who're the single largest minority group, I'm afraid that nothing much can/will change. It's so easy to placate the Chinese. We often claim that we're not treated as proper rakyat anyway, and have always been guests in our own home. So, we need to be ready to run away, i.e. vote with our feet, if we're unhappy with our country.
My question is this: what have we ever done to demand/deserve to be treated as equal citizens?
2 comments:
I refused to get a facebook too ;) thanks for sharing. It's certainly a provoking piece. We love options don't we, so we like to wait for an opportunity, either to vote with our feet or to vote vote? So we think this is the smarter way to go around? Maybe not? Windows need to be built strategically and used wisely too. We do look out the window.
Sometimes I feel that, as a community, even though we look out the window, we don't necessarily "see" anything. It's kind of sad, but I think that this has been happening since before I was born. If something doesn't concern us directly, we tend to look past it or find some way around it. So, I think that we have gotten exactly what we deserve. If we want any better, we will need to fight for it, one way or other, sooner rather than later.
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