Truth well written. By David Wu.
In 1989, my late father and his two brothers visited their father’s birthplace in a small village just outside the city of Taishan in China. Travelling to China then was not a straightforward matter unlike today due to restrictions imposed by the Malaysian authorities. That was only 30 years ago.
To obtain approval from the authorities for travel to China, my father had to provide proof of correspondence with existing relatives there, among other things. I believe he had to show at least three years of correspondence for the application to be considered. He finally managed to obtain the approval and the rest, as they say, is history. China was just about to open up then, if I’m not mistaken.
My fifth uncle, a renowned and pioneer Malayan surgeon, traveled with my father and their eldest brother. He related a story to me not too long ago about a conversation he had with a Special Branch senior officer over a game of golf years ago. In it, the SB chap mentioned how the authorities were relaxing the requirements for ethnic Chinese Malaysians to visit China. One of the reasons was so that they can see for themselves how bad things were in China and with that experience would perhaps learn to appreciate Malaysia more. We were a rising Asian tiger then and China was, well, poor. That conversation took place just 20+ years ago.
By the time my father and his siblings visited China, we already had Proton cars and were well on our way towards Vision 2020 - the target date to transform Malaysia into a developed nation. China was still mired in poverty and Tiananmen Square happened.
I dated a Singaporean girl who eventually became my wife in the early 90s and during our early courtship, travelled with her family to Hainan island to visit their relatives there. Their kampung was poor and relied on overseas family members for financial help to repair their homes or even build toilets. We were incidentally there for a wedding too and I vividly remember the goat that was tied to a tree. The goat eventually became part of the dinner on wedding night. I also recall a cousin who was about to leave the village for greener pastures in Beijing. He was going to train to be a stockbroker then. I do sometimes wonder if he’s a wealthy man today. Who knows?
I relocated to Singapore soon after my daughter was born. I remember the early Pei Du Mamas (study mothers) who were given special resident passes to accompany their bright children who were selected to study there by the Singaporean government. To make ends meet, these aunties would find work mostly in massage parlours. They spoke no English, were rather uncouth and having underarm hair was the prevalent fashion for them then. They were generally looked down upon. This was only around 20 years ago.
Meantime, Malaysia was still scaling new heights for herself. By then, not only were we making cars, we were home to the world’s third longest bridge and the tallest buildings in the world. Today, the Penang bridge doesn’t even count in the world’s top 30 ranking (ironically dominated by Chinese bridges) and the twin towers have long been dwarfed.
Ironically, Proton is today 49% owned by the Chinese who, coming from having no car industry to speak of then, are now making some nifty ones of their own today, one of which I rode in recently in China but can’t even place the name of the make. A very swish SUV it was, complete with all the fine trimmings that wouldn’t be out of place in a continental car.
Look at China today.
In a little more than 20 years, its progress has gone into orbit and at a pace that is truly frightening. Corruption is tackled with an iron will and it won’t be long before the much derided ‘Made in China’ label morph into one that says ‘Made by China’. You only have to look at Huawei to get an idea.
When I arrived in Beijing for the first time recently, I was completely taken aback by its unbelievable development. Mind you, Beijing is an old city therefore the immaculate state of the city today is nothing to be scoffed at, more so given the size of the behemoth that it is. Clean, organised, and surprisingly quiet for a giant metropolis given their wide usage of electric vehicles. Where I had expected mayhem and bustle, I found pristine instead, I kid you not.
Three years ago, when I cycled around the southeast of China, I was already in awe of their seemingly insatiable appetite for construction. Imagine travelling between say, Alor Setar to Butterworth on the old trunk road only to find Simpang Empat, Kota Sarang Semut, Guar Chempedak, Gurun, Bakar Arang filled with new high rise apartment blocks. That’s probably the best way to describe what I saw as I rode past pockets of little towns there.
When I eventually located my relatives in Taishan, China, taking them out for a dinner treat on behalf of our family in Malaysia was customary as a visiting overseas Chinese. Well, at least that was what I thought. Instead, my niece quietly paid for the sumptuous dinner while I was still engaged in conversation with my new found cousins. My protests fell into deaf ears and I will never forget what my niece said to me. “Look, it’s just dinner. No big deal. Granted things were very difficult in the past and while it’s true we were once poor, look at China today. We are doing much better now. Besides, you cycled all the way here from Malaysia”. Those words stuck and it was right there and then that I realized how the tables have been turned; a rude awakening if you like.
The Chinese presence globally was also felt during my cycle around the world. They are just about everywhere, building roads, railways and other infrastructure for other countries. It’s quite scary, to be perfectly honest, and there is not a shred of doubt left in my mind that we are looking at the next colonial master, albeit in the economic sense rather than military, if she wasn’t one already.
Now look at where Malaysia is today.
25-30 years ago, we were up there. As mentioned above, we even wanted our ethnic Chinese Malaysians to go visit China so that they can see for themselves how terrible things were back then. 25-30 years ago, we still spoke English. The Chinese didn’t. Today, the Chinese are making great efforts to speak more English while our own proficiency has taken a dive. Even the lady at the airport taxi stand in Beijing spoke English. Not perfect, but certainly more than passable. Give them a few more years and I shudder to think. Who knows, French or Spanish next?
I met my 10 month old Chinese grand nephew in Taishan recently. The age gap between him and his elder sister is 10 years. I jokingly asked my nephew and his wife why another child after so long and was stumped by the answer. The family has a new member simply because the Chinese government changed the one child policy to a two child policy. Well, I suppose if you’re gonna conquer the world, you might as well have more people to serve that purpose.
So while the Chinese and other SEA nations are forging ahead (it already cost RM1400 to buy 10000 baht today), we are stuck in the same old same old unproductive narrative of race and religion. While others are seeking real knowledge we look for more religious education. While others are familiarising themselves with new languages, we want to reintroduce khat on a national level yet can’t even decide if it’s art, compulsory, optional or otherwise.
Let’s not even talk about innovation and technology.
Sorry, but we can’t even yet look at every citizen as Malaysian today, at least in good spirit. All we seem to be really good at today is politics. And speculating who’s the next Prime Minister after electing a 92 year old who incidentally was at the helm during those glorious years. How sad is that?
We still hear of the Chinese being told to go back to China. Really? Be careful what one wishes for. But REALLY, how sad is that?
And with the directive from the religious authorities that Muslims may no longer hold joint prayers with folks of other faiths, any notion left that we are a moderate Muslim country went right out the window. Heck, we can’t even get being a moderate Muslim nation right.
Again, how sad is that?
Forget China, we will never get to where they are today nor where they will be in the foreseeable future, but at least keep up with our neighbours. Countries that we used to visit because they were cheap have already overtaken us and we are still singing ‘Setia’ and watching corporate sponsored feel good festivity videos about how we once were?
Sure, those videos are nice, don’t get me wrong, but we need to stop lying to ourselves. Our country is in dire health. Someone took less than 30 years to dominate the world yet we, being independent for 62 and up there once upon a time, are still talking about integration while actively segregating communities?
We have many Malaysians who do brilliantly abroad but the focus is invariably on their ethnicity or if female Muslim, is she wearing a headscarf. Or not. I mean, seriously?
What on earth is in the water which we drink that makes us so utterly deluded? Ridiculous, even.
I am not sure which frightens me more - that China is marching ahead at full steam and that our neighbours are leapfrogging us, or that we have fallen so far below the perch we once so proudly stood on.
Oh, and there’s that little island south of the border, lest we forget.
I love my country with all my heart, am a super proud Malaysian and loathe to criticising her but we need a reality check or we will have very little to be proud of someday apart from nasi lemak and teh tarik. As it is, we’re not even proud of the kebaya so pardon me if anyone should find this post an inconvenient truth.