Have a meaningful Christmas - Monday in The STAR

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

- Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Back to basics: Let’s agree who is a Malaysian

At five decades old, we are by the test of history a young nation, an adolescent. Like any teenagers going through growing pains, we are still searching for our identity. But we did not have to start from zero. We did not emerge suddenly from the ocean.

                                                          

We were sired from a land that has a history that goes back beyond 1963 or 1957. Our land has a deep-rooted heritage dating back many thousands of years stretching from the Niah Caves dwellers (40,000 years ago), the Perak Man (31,000 years ago), and the Proto-Malay settlers (5,000 years ago). We have gone through a Hindu-Buddhist era to the Muslim era, from Kedah Tua to Kesultanan Melaka, from being colonised to Merdeka. This land, our land is also home to the oldest rainforest in the world!

From the beginning, our land has attracted people from the north, south, east, and west. They came to trade and make a living. Many fell in love with the people and culture and made this land their home.

We are the sum total of this history and its DNA is in our soul. We need to bring that history out into our daily living. But how?

Here are our suggestions.

• Open our hearts and minds and capture both the text and the spirit of our Merdeka Constitution.
• Make Rukunegara our anchor.
• Refer to the 1971 National Culture Policy.
• Commit to a shared destiny and help realise Wawasan 2020.
• Believe that it is okay to be racial, not okay to be racist, and we all must see ourselves as Malaysians.

Let us agree who is a Malaysian.

At zubedy, our programs draw strength from shared values and traditions. We believe that at heart, all Malaysians want good things for themselves and for their brother and sister Malaysians, simply because our nation cannot prosper as a whole if some of us are left behind.

Let us be, first and foremost, Malaysians.

Let us add value,

Have A Meaningful Christmas