Just because it's home?

Migration or in a lesser context, move to work overseas seem to be the flavoured discussion at the moment.  MalaysianInsider even started columns where people wrote in to say why they leave and why they stay.

Anyway… one of the main reasons why people decide to stay, besides the usual good nasi-lemak, char-kuet-teow and bak-kut-teh (which was specifically mentioned by someone in that MalaysianInsider column mind you…) is that Malaysia, regardless of how bad it is, it is still our home.

I wouldn’t dispute that – the point on Malaysian being home, not on staying.  It is our home, no doubt about it.  We were born in Malaysia and spent most of our formative years here.  There will always be a “Malaysia” element within us. 

But… does that mean that you must stay?

Following this, I have a thought… though it only applies to Chinese and Indians.

If you are a Chinese or an Indian, and decide to stay simply because Malaysia is home… can you just pause for a while and imagine…

Imagine…

Imagine…

Imagine…

That your grandparent or your great grandparent decided to stay in China / India simply because China / India is home.  That no matter how poor or chaotic China was during those days, it was still home and your grandparent decided to stay.  That no matter how difficult it is to make a living in India during those days, it was still home. 

If your grandparent adopted this perceived noble mentality…

What would become of you…

… a Chinese who spits everywhere who you look down on?

… a cheap IT call-centre person in Bangalore?

… a masseur giving traditional Chinese foot massages in Jalan Bukit Bintang?

… living in the slum of Mumbai?

… a cheap factor worker in ShenZhen?

… appearing in those “Only in India” pictures that you forward to each other?

If your grandparent decided to remain in China or India simply because it’s home… really… what would become of you… today?

Updated:  While some have commented that we could also be the son of a property tycoon in Hong Kong, or the son of the coal tycoon in China or the son of the telecommunication tycoon in India... let us all be honest and admit that we are all glad that our grandparent did not choose to stay in China/India just because it was home.

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Conversation at the MRT

It's election fever in Singapoe and the other day, I was in the MRT standing next to 2 (presumably) Singaporeans, amongst other people of course.  But the conversation of these two caught my attention. 

1 guy flipped the newspaper he was holding and said… “See… this is very healthy, opposition is actually getting very good media coverage”. Well, I have no idea who is opposition and who is collation candidate here but it’s definitely encouraging to see mainstream media giving good coverage to opposition, unlike “you know where”.

The sentiments here in Singapore are pretty much the same with Malaysia – that election should happen some time this year.   Naturally, the mainstream media here is also playing its part in doing coverage of potential candidates, etc.

What transpired thereafter was quite an eye-opener…

The same guy continued to flip his newspaper and reached this page where he said to his friend…

“Eh… this candidate… I know her.  She is in the same faculty as me.  We used to be in NUS together.  And I know she is also etc, etc, etc…”

The conversation went on for a while between them till the other guy asked…

“So are you going to vote for her since you know her so well?”

The reply given was…

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…

…

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“No lah… she is only from NUS, we need people from Cambridge or Harvard…”

Such is the benchmark…

Do you know what qualification (if any), our MPs / Malaysian leaders have?

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