NOT OF MALAYSIA YET I’M MALAYSIAN
All I ever wanted to learn about being Malaysian, I learnt it at kindergarten. It is where I stood abreast with other boys and girls as an equal, sang a song called “Negaraku” and looked up at a flag that had a star, crescent moon and stripes of red and blue. To me, those around me were friends and we all were the same.
Fast forward this and we who call ourselves adults bicker over and are divided by issues of equality, political affiliations and faith. We carry around identity documents that segregate us based on race and religion. We fill-in application forms that ask us our race and religion, the weirdest one for me was an application for a bookstore discount store. What does my race and religion have to do with getting a ten percent discount for a book?
We are told that this is all part of being a citizen. Yet this citizen wants to be identified as a Malaysian and not by the tribe I come from nor the faith I hold to. Call me Malaysian and treat me as Malaysian.
I am from Malaysia, yet at times I feel not of Malaysia. And I’m a Malaysian.
Sounds familiar? The early Christian believers would have felt right at home with that statement. We all would have broken bread together and shared the same experiences and realized there’s nothing so different about us at all.
So while we are still citizens of this world, with citizenship to a bigger Kingdom, let’s be to this world what a citizen of Malaysia should be like. All this so we, as Christians, can win over hearts to the bigger Kingdom. Paul was right when he mention he was a Jew to the Jews, a Romans to the Romans, Greek to the Greeks; get the picture? No point we harp at being Christians when we close an eye to the injustice in this country, shy away from confronting acts against out faith and use “I’m not of this world” as an excuse.
Let’s be Malaysians to Malaysia even when we know we are not of this world. The least we can do is pray. Remember, pray not to tear down but to bless. I know things don’t seem good. Fuel prices and everything else but still, I pray Malaysia would be blessed because there are still good people, simple people, who call themselves Malaysians living here and God has blessed Malaysia because His people are still present.
We all can be like Elijah who scream at God for leaving him all alone in Israel yet God pointed out to the panic-stricken prophet that there were still a hidden group (that ran into the thousands) that had not bowed to Baal. Shame on the prophet, shame on us if we leave our country.
As Christians we hold dual citizenship, one for the country we live in and another to the country we where we would finish our life’s race. In both locales, let’s give our best. Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
I’m not of Malaysia yet I’m a Malaysian. I’m still getting my ten percent discount for my book but I’ll make a nice comment on the application form. RACE = Malaysian, RELIGION = Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan.
Maclean Patrick Sibat is a System Analyst in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He has two blogs, http://malaysiansentinel.blogspot.com and http://macleanpatrick.wordpress.com
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