The first time I came home, it was in 2001. I must say that people in 2001 and in 1999 were quite different or was it me who viewed them differently? Anyhow, since my homecoming plan wasn't an announced one so my parents didn't pick me up at the airport, instead Kak Anim came and brought me home to her house in Banting. While I was at the airport roughly around 10 pm waiting for my dearest sister, I looked to see the Malaysian people behavior especially the Malays (sebab ramainyer manusia melayu kat KLIA). Needless to say here, I was quite 'jakun' because I hadn't seen them in more or less 2 years. The only Malaysians existed in my State-College-sized-world were Abg J and his family, Auntie Fuzi and her family as well as Aida and Kak Effa. So I was quite excited to see many many Malaysians around me, strutting and fretting as they continued living their life around me.
Two years later, I came home again only to find more and more differences in Malaysian people. The ladies are getting prettier (oh god, I wonder where all the hot chicks have been hiding for all these years?), more people become gadget maniac, KLCC is the most popular rendevous point for KLites and Dome is just another unofficial sponsors for KL youth 'lepak' activity. Hey, I am not saying that I hate 'lepaking', it's just that lepak unnecessarily is not doing any good to you. At first I thought, oh wow..this is great! My country is developing fast enough and it just drives young people nuts! Hehehehe..teenagers start to look like a walking advertising billboard with branded tags coming out from the collar or the pants.
Unfortunately, polarity between races has become more and more prevalent despite the country is modernizing everyday. I am pretty sure everybody is noticed about the Program Latihan Khidmat Negara. This program is supposed to fix the issue of racial segregation but until today, nothing tangible can be shown as to prove that this program manages to achieve its goals.
I wonder where did we do wrong?? Although I understand years ago our father and mother kept telling us about the racial stereotypes and how they try to ingrain in our mind about what is good and what is bad about other race. It happened that way because their father and mother also told them the same thing. It is more than often caused by the nurture process and the education background of an individual.
I personally think that is so ethnocentric. Believing one's culture and one's race is much more superior than others perhap will put us in the same shoes as Hitler. He believes the Aryan, the blonde and fair skin of Germans, is the chosen people of God. Or should I say, if not as same as Hitler, we probably be no less better than Klux Klux Klan - the white supremacy group in US. And when I say we, it doesn't only refer to the Malays, but it refers to anybody who has this kind of sentiment of ethnocentric.
Having a program such PLKN will not solve the problem because it is more on the reactive side of solution. A proactive solution is needed here. A program which has long and short term goals. As we can see, PLKN is actually creating more problems instead of solving the problem ie. sexual harrasment, physical abuse, racial intolerance, truancy and many more. The sole reason of how these problems can arise is due to lack of understanding of the complexity of the problem.
I must say interference from some politicians who have hidden-agenda is most unwelcome. The need to tackle this problem objectively is surpassing one's personal agenda. We are in need of some good fellas in battling this problem - racial polarity. These people should be recruited from academia, Non Government Organization, social activists and perhaps religious leaders from various religions. This group of people will draft a module for PLKN program and it can only be implemented once the result of the pilot program be tabled in the Parliament. The scale of the pilot program should be limited to no more than five thousand youths or relatively to any small numbers. Small number is always good to begin with because it narrows the scope of the problem and let us tackle the problem one by one or at least, grouping the problem so that it is easier to manage. Continuous supervision is greatly needed during this stage because any slight indication of problem should be addressed accordingly. Having an understanding of how the youth behaves and how well they respond to some serious discipline are also should be considered. This will enable the trainers and the coordinators of the program to smoothly blend with them, become their friends instead as 'guardian' and the role of peer influence can be controlled.
See..I can say many things about the implementation of the program but I think I should let the government to realize the utter importance of listening to the input from rakyat. My voice only represents my voice over this issue but together if we collect the inputs from rakyat, it will be much more rewarding in a sense of completeness. Then only, we can together maintain the racial harmony toward prosperous Malaysia. Insya Allah.