马来西亚欢迎你 Malaysia welcomes You, each and everyone one of you

Malaysians are an interesting bunch of people in the World. Our forefathers referenced and mirrored our national flag to the United States of America, clearly in a way, to tell each of us that we are a multi-cultural country just like how the United States of America is.

Once upon a time, Malaysians of all races can intermarry among each other without restraints or reasons to not to. In fact, the most popular marriage is between a malay and a ethnically chinese malaysian. All these changed when one angry politician, Mahathir Mohammad amended the laws (still, the only law in the world) that states for a non-muslim to marry a muslim girl, one must convert religion to do so.

Every time i traveled abroad for a significant amount of time, i would feel a little homesick and miss home. I remembered vividly, every time a Malaysia Airlines flight landed in Malaysia, they would always broadcast this heartfelt message, “To Malaysians, selamat pulang ke tanah air” translated to be “To Malaysians, welcome home” It was such a nice touch to the flight experience. It was one single sentence and it made all the difference.

Everyone in Malaysia should be made to feel welcome. To be appreciated. They rightly should be as everyone contributed to the beautiful nation we called Malaysia. We were classified to be racially different but we all know that Covid-19 Virus do not care if you’re bumi or non-bumi.

It is all but a social construct

I’ve known so many who have left because of this one single dividing factor. From education, to work, to shareholding, ownership, this has affected and most probably, limit Malaysia from reaching greater height.

Remember a better Malaysia ultimately benefits everyone!

We all have roots in other nations, otherwise we would not be all different. Our pets have different colours even though they were born by the same parents, what to say about humans. Try to classify our pets as native born or not, if that makes you tickled.

If only, our leaders make all of us feel welcomed. Do you know how powerful that one act is? It will ignites the innate patriotism we all have for Malaysia. Imagine 33 million declaring love for the country. Although we are small, we are still 33 million strong.

It will changed history as we know it.

So yes, Malaysia as a country welcomes you. Look around you, the people you interact with. Malaysia is a nation, not a government, which can be changed and its policies may not all the time be right.