马来西亚，生日快乐！

莎琳丽莎苏菲安

今天是国庆日，我们的国家53岁了。对马来西亚说一声：生日快乐！53岁对一个国家来说，还算蛮年轻，所以发生了再多不幸的事情，我还是对国家的未来充满乐观，相信未来的日子可以更好。

昨天黄明志被叫到警察局问话，可是却未曾听见警察对两名发表种族歧视伟论的校长采取行动。首相不是说一个马来西亚吗？不是说要将发表种族主义的人一网打尽吗？可是咱们警察好像一只眼开一只眼关似的，要采取行动的话就要公平！不要一边说“马来西亚”，一边却骨子里面还闹着种族分别。

两边都要道歉，两名校长应该对他们的种族歧视言论道歉，黄明志应该对他的人身攻击言论道歉。如果只是其中一方道歉或者其中一方面被捕，相信会有很多很多人都不服。这件事情若不能获得妥善的解决，捉了一个黄明志，还是会有千千万万个黄明志出现。

国庆日今年的主题是“1Malaysia Transforming The Nation”，英文不是很好，但是勉强翻译的话应该是“一个马来西亚，改变我们的国家”。一个马来西亚，要改变什么？但愿不会越变越极端。

呵呵。国家生日不说这些话了，说一说比较有价值的吧，还记得独立之父——阿都拉曼吗？他的曾孙女名字叫做莎琳丽莎苏菲安，她在去年接受了《星报》访问，发表了以下谈话，我觉得很有意思，特地转载过来。在还没有结束之前，再向国家道声：生日快乐。

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/8/29/lifefocus/4522906&sec=lifefocus

Sharyn Lisa Shufiyan, 24
Conservationist
(Tunku Abdul Rahman’s great granddaughter)

“Both my parents are Malay. My mum’s heritage includes Chinese, Thai and Arab, while my dad is Minangkabau. Due to my skin colour, I am often mistaken for a Chinese.

“I’m happy that I don’t have the typical Malay look but I do get annoyed when people call me Ah Moi or ask me straight up: “Are you Chinese or Malay?”

“Like, why does it matter? Before I used to answer ‘Malay’, but now I’m trying to consciously answer ‘Malaysian’ instead.

“There’s this incident from primary school that I remember till today. Someone told me that I will be called last during Judgement Day because I don’t have a Muslim name. Of course, I was scared then but now that I’m older, I realise that a name is just a name. It doesn’t define you as a good or bad person and there is definitely no such thing as a ‘Muslim’ name. You can be named Rashid and still be a Christian.

“I’ve heard of the 1Malaysia concept, but I think we don’t need to be told to be united. We’ve come such a long way that it should already be embedded in our hearts and minds that we are united. Unfortunately, you can still see racial discrimination and polarisation. There is still this ethno-centric view that the Malays are the dominant group and their rights must be protected, and non-Malays are forever the outsiders.

“For the concept to succeed, I think the Government should stop with the race politics. It’s tiring, really. We grew up with application forms asking us to tick our race. We should stop painting a negative image of the other races, stop thinking about ‘us’ and ‘them’ and focus on ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘Malaysians’.

“No one should be made uncomfortable in their own home. A dear Chinese friend of mine said to me once: ‘I don’t feel patriotic because I am not made to feel like Malaysia is my home, and I don’t feel an affinity to China because I have never lived there’.

“I know some Baba Nyonya friends who can trace their lineage back hundreds of years. I’m a fourth generation Malaysian. If I am bumiputra, why can’t they be, too? Clearly I have issues with the term.

“I think the main reason why we still can’t achieve total unity is because of this ‘Malay Rights’ concept. I’d rather ‘Malay Rights’ be replaced by human rights. So unless we get rid of this bumiputra status, or reform our views and policies on rights, we will never achieve unity.

“For my Merdeka wish, I’d like for Malaysians to have more voice, to be respected and heard. I wish that the Government would uphold the true essence of parliamentary democracy. I wish for the people to no longer fear and discriminate against each other, to see that we are one and the same.

“I wish that Malaysia would truly live up to the tourism spin of ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’.

Only ONE NATIONALITY - MALAYSIAN. No Malays, No Chinese, No Indians - ONLY MALAYSIANS. Choose whatever religion one is comfortable with.