In George Orwell's Animal Farm, there is a line that lives indelibly in my memory: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". I offer that line on the verge of another reflection on Malaysia and its current social state. And Orwell's line was ironcially dictated by the main protagonists of the book; the pigs who ran the farm.
Gob-smacked.
My current state of disbelief at the new heights (or should i say lows) of what the country's social rot has degenerated into. A Malay headmistress in Kulai, Johor, had unmistakably described her Chinese students as passengers who should go "home" to Beijing and likened her Indian students wearing religious wrist bands to dogs wearing leashes. She was today defended by her boss somewhere up the heirachy as being the victim of a misunderstanding. A VICTIM?? And who was doing all this misunderstanding? All 17 of those students who heard what she said and felt compelled to lodge police reports against her?
In stark contrast, imagine this; a Christian Church plans to stage a religious play to coincide with Merdeka Day, on the door will be neon-litted signs that can be seen from the moon which reads "for non-Muslims only". But HORRORS... it is Ramadan, the holy fasting month for Muslims. How dare the Christians plan a play about freedom on our holy month and not invite us? OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! Have the police arrest them heathens for causing instability and inciting religious hatred. Actually, stop imagining... it happened. Today too.
So what has Orwell got to do with this?
I think that there is a large portion of the Malaysian population who live in a state of induced insecurity. The insecurity is created by a group of elites who have it in their best interest to perpetuate that state so as to maintain their self-delusional positions of power. But it's not them that I refer to by quoting Orwell. It's everyone else who are not in the group of elites but who are instrumental in the plan to keep those f*ck*ng (ab)users in the driver's seat.
This state of insecurity is fed by these ambiguities; (1) certain people have a birth-right, (2) enshrined within this birth-right is the constitutional proclamation of their religious identity and (3) what God/State/Dictator/Some Smart Aleck has put together, let no man put asunder.
The Driver's Seat uses the first two elements to create the ambiguity. I call it ambiguous because after a while, a person who was born to qualify for (1) is by default, also a (2). The problem is, they grow up to believe that (1) and (2) are one and the same and those who are discriminately neither number, can go home to China and live like dogs for all they care.
And the Drivers in the Seat allow for this state of delusion and insecurity to exist. That's how they compel this vast majority of (1)'s to keep them in the Seat. Maintain a false sense of threat. Perpetuate a distinction between (1)'s and NON-(1)'s. Enforce the fear of a god to ensure subservience. Create a society with two seperate sets of laws to make the upkeep of a holier-than-thou notion possible. Ultimately, anyone who is not on (1)'s side is perceived to be against them.
Hence, whilst all Malaysians are born equal, some BECOME more equal than others.
Sickened.