明天会更好吗？

今年的国庆主题是“1Malaysia Transforming The Nation”，中文翻译为『一个大马促进转型』，至于到底要转型成什么、如何转、哪里开始转，没有人感兴趣，毕竟国庆不能没有口号…… 以目前各种煽动性的宗教及种族言论泛滥成灾的程度来看，这个口号最终也只能沦为空洞的口号，转型不成反而打了个死结。

最近网上流传着国父东姑阿都拉曼的曾孙女——莎琳苏菲安（Sharyn Lisa Shufiyan）在去年接受《星报》访问时的谈话。皮肤白皙样貌甜美的莎琳，在纽西兰维多利亚大学修读大众传播系，2008年毕业归国以后在非政府组织《亚洲生态》（Wildasia.org)担任编辑的工作。在《星报》的访谈中，莎琳坦言了她对一个马来西亚的期望，以及对国家种族政策的厌恶，她甚至提出希望以『人权』取代『马来人特权』的言论。

当然这些言论如果从一个非巫裔口中说出，没有人会大惊小怪，但凡能够正常思考的人都应该这么认为。可是天啊，这是国父的曾孙女说的，一个马来人说的！所以这篇访谈被人传颂了一年，如今还在传颂中。有点悲凉…… 当然传颂的人认为这是国家的希望，如果越来越多的年轻马来人有这种想法，马来西亚的明天还是灿烂的。

如果说，像莎琳这类能够『正常思考』的马来人像颗稀有的宝石，可是被污桶教导出来的，又笨又重的顽石却多如恒河沙数，到底还要等多久，这些『宝石』才能够从lama-lama jadi bukit的顽石堆中突围而出呢？前首相的女婿，那位牛津大学毕业的凯大人，不也应该是颗宝石吗？可是最后怎么变成一颗被磨得圆圆滑滑的顽石了？马来西亚的明天，到底还要等多久才会变得更好？

最后，原文转载这篇广为传颂的访谈，趁着国庆将至，让我们也一起为更好的明天祈祷吧！

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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’.

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