How I Became A Chinese Malaysian!

A generation later. 1970 standard 1 at the oldest SRJK in PJ, road 10 school. Too young to carry any scars from May 13. It was the first NEP, and we were taught to be Malaysian, the first year that Bahasa Malaysia was the medium of education. Friends were multi racial, and no perception of Bumi and non Bumi. Proud as hell to be chosen to recite the Rukun Negara on Sports Day. Recess time was fun, sitting in the canteen for lunch with all your friends from other races, no issue with eating pork in front of Malay friends or other stupid things like that.

Wind the clock forward, secondary school, Sultan Abdul Samad. One begins to sense a divide. The top classes were still essentially Muhibah, everyone spoke good English, listened to English pop music, read Mad and Tiger magazines. But it was different in the lower classes, the kids were more clique, tending to hang out in their own racial groups, Chinese and Malay “gangs”. Indicates that education plays a major part in the shaping of mindsets. I was still Malaysian first and foremost.

The first experience of discrimination was being unable to get into Royal Military College despite being the top student in SRP with 9 A’s, and seeing Malay kids waltz in as of right, regardless of merits. I asked, why tell me to be Malaysian and then treat me as a second class citizen? They didn’t say anything about this distinction when I was being taught to be a Malaysian! Form 5 and again the same experience. Top student means fuck-all. Didn’t even get an acknowledgment to my applications for bursaries and scholarships. My Malay friends received scholarship offers to study overseas, without even having to apply. Even then, I was still a Malaysian.

Irony was that racial segregation happened by default come sixth form, only one Malay lad left (most had gone overseas) and almost all Chinese students from other feeder schools who did not offer sixth form ended up in SAS, and boy there were some fantastic results in the STP. From being a notorious Sekolah Anak Sakai, SAS became the top school in PJ. And for many years that remained the case. (But I understand now from friends in Malaysia that that has now been reversed, with hardly any Chinese students going to national schools.) By this time, I became a Chinese Malaysian.

30 + years living in the UK later, what am I? An apologetic Malaysian, because of having to constantly explain to people why I am not “Malay” but ”Malaysian”. Contrast this with my Indonesian friends, who have a clear identity.

BP