Ugly Chinese and the stupid others

Racial stereotyping does nothing to solve Malaysia's problems.

COMMENT

by T K Chua

Chinese Malaysians are now being characterised in many derogatory ways. We are both ugly capitalists and communists. We are money worshippers and evangelical Christians. We are heartless people but at the same time we are accused of indulging in too much social and political activity.

We are chauvinistic Chinese school supporters. We have no respect for other races and religions. We are depraved people indulging in immoral and illegal business activities. We are unpatriotic and unwilling to get involved in public service. In a nutshell, we are trouble, trouble and trouble.

I think the accusers are confused and stupid. They do not know how to look at the Chinese as a community and as individuals. They do not know the difference between exceptions and generalisations.

But I guess they have intentionally stereotyped the Chinese to create hatred and to galvanise support for their own political survival. If some Chinese are selfish, immoral, heartless, ugly capitalists, communists, chauvinistic, evangelical, and greedy, so are some people of other races.

The accusers must make up their minds. How could the Chinese be capitalists and communists at the same time? How could the Chinese be evangelical Christians while at the same time indulging in illegal and immoral activities? How could the Chinese be accused of proselytising to the Muslims when most of them are money lovers? How could the Chinese be accused of being chauvinistic supporters of Chinese schools when Mandarin has continued to gain importance? The reality is we need the Chinese language to trade and do business with China but China does not need English or Malay to trade with us.

How would heaping all these accusations on the Chinese help Malaysia solve its problems of corruption, cronyism, poor governance and incompetence? How could the Chinese, being evangelical Christians, make corruption worse in this country? How could the Chinese schools make the competitive position of this country worse when the ability to read and write Chinese could only increase our economic value, not reduce it?

How can Chinese participation in social and political activities make corruption and poor governance in this country worse when the whole civil service and important positions in Cabinet are held by the Malays?

The Chinese are accused of running immoral and illegal business activities, but who are the people who are supposed to enforce laws against these activities? We see illegal foreign workers everywhere, but who have allowed them in?

The Chinese have been accused of being unpatriotic. But what is patriotism? Must one serve the armed forces, the police and the civil service to be patriotic? What if corrupt officials buy substandard arms which endanger the armed forces personnel? What if a corrupt police force allows illegal activities to thrive? What if the civil service squanders budget allocations?

On the other hand, if citizens work diligently, are self-reliant, take care of their families, educate their children and pay taxes, are they not patriotic? What about citizens who uphold the ethics of their professions, do not short change their customers and are civic minded? Are they not patriotic too? If patriotism were just waving flags and reciting pledges, that would have been an easy thing to do. How right Samuel Johnson was when he said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

I think the majority of Chinese Malaysians would stay away from politics if the “governing system” was working fine.

Please don’t use exceptions to stereotype the Chinese. There are ugly, greedy and lazy Chinese as there are ugly, greedy and lazy Malays and Indians.

T K Chua is an FMT reader.