Question:
Do you identify yourself as a Malaysian? Why? Does it matter?
Here comes the first blog post that proves students will do anything to get marks or whatever to graduate. Ehem.. Well to answer the big Q. Yes, I, Amanda Ting Tse Hui do identify myself as a Malaysian. At least my birth certificate, my parents, my identity card, my license, my home address and probably my marriage certificate and death certificate in the future say so. Maybe it's too soon to say that these identification proved that I am a Malaysian, but there's also a low possibility that I'm not born here.. or I'm a Malaysian now because my parents done something illegal to bring me here. Maybe, just maybe. However, at least I learned myself as a Malaysian since I was born, since I was taught in kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, and now UTAR questions me, do I identify myself as a Malaysia. Of course I do.
Why? because all of the identification state so, and where I'm living now said so. However, I do believe that not only the things that we're born of, identify us, it should, and it is a combination of that and what we experience and learn throughout our life in Malaysia, or outside Malaysia identify us. For example, the things that we're born of, can be determined by the identification I just list above. For the experiences and lessons in our life, it is the culture here, the culture that we pick up since birth, the food we eat, the places we visited in Malaysia, the people we meet, and of course the language we speak and listen. It's an extraordinary experience, because you can never understand a Malaysian like a Malaysian do. I think this really explained the why question above.
Now does it matter even though I identify myself as a Malaysian. Ask yourself then, does it matter after you read what I wrote above? Does it changes what you think or who I already am?
Yes it does, because you spend time to read it and I am a Malaysian, you can ask me anything that I know but not about the government, I know no shit about them. *runs away
Your sentence tells us that we are Msian by virtue of: "the experiences and lessons in our life, it is the culture here, the culture that we pick up since birth, the food we eat, the places we visited in Malaysia, the people we meet, and of course the language we speak and listen"
ReplyDeleteWhat happens if you were born here but then spent almost all your childhood and teenage life living overseas with your parents, who happen to be diplomats? If you return home to Msia after 80% of your life living abroad, does that still make you a Msian?
If I am the person in that scenario, yes. It still makes me a Malaysian. It is because my parents will teach me, I am a Malaysian, and I am born at this land, Malaysia. I may not know the history of this land, the culture here, and all I know is just probably something that I can find on the internet and my parents words about this land. I still hold the sense of belonging to Malaysia. When people asked about my nationality, where I am from, why I am there, what about Malaysia, and many more questions like we would ask a foreigner about their country. Nevertheless, I will still answer them, I am a Malaysian. It is because I am taugth by my parents, maybe learned about my country mostly from the internet, maybe traveled once or twice back this homeland, proved from my passport and other identifications. As long as I still have the rights, the pride, and of course the identifications that proved that I am a Malaysian, I am a Malaysian. We, as human, wants an identity, a place called home, where we can be accepted, and no one questions why we belong to that place. A basic need, or more than a basic need. It may seems like it is all about the identification, but when we don't have that as a prove, people will doubt us, and in some way, it is a challenge, or a threat to our identity, more than our nationality.
DeleteThank you for your honest and beautifully expressed reply, Amanda :)
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