Dad was driving me to school yesterday when we heard the interview with
somebody great(plead guilty to being ignorant)in Malaysia. As we all know, (even though some of us shun newspapers)Singapore's relationship with Malaysia has been rocky for the past few years. The Radio Deejay was trying to understand the problem between the two countries, dicerning any other political affairs that is linked to the problem. I am a Singaporean and my impression of Malaysia has never been too great since young. In fact, my animosity held till college. It is only now, when I got to know this Malaysian friend, that my impression changes, a little. Perhaps Singapore is too small. Everywhere Malaysian goes, they meet the same people with the same behaviour doig the same things that irk them. Malaysia, on the other hand, is bigger. I didn't realise the difference between east Malaysia and west, not until my friend told me about it. Things between my friend and I change a little when we got past the stage of understanding and bearing each other's vices because we
'just got to know'. The politeness, the benevolence diffuse in the air. As I have mentioned in the earlier entry, expectations changed.
I realised that difference exist in every countries. If you wish to pursue an education, if you wish to migrate, no matter where you go, you have to respect the country's way of doing things. This is the basic requirement but as time passes, people who have grown influential in their own countries seem to have forgotten that. There is a chinese idiom, ru4 xiang1 sui2 su2, meaning that one should follow the custom and traditions of a village once you enter it. The idioms are not created out of boredom.
Singaporeans, frequently termed 'arrogant', may really be arrogant. Look at it from many perspectives. The executves dealing with national meetings are mostly respectable men in Singapore. Under well established companies, holding the knowledge that Singapore is so little as compared to China, will we put down our pride and play our role of a subservient being that comes from a country that
"will be drowned with all Chinese from China spit at our island"? While we are accused at being arrogant because we held our pride, aren't they simply rude and extremely arrogant to come up with such description? We may be insensitive, pampered or even unaware of how small we are, but that is the way we are brought up with. That is the way we lived. We are not brought up with social study textbooks telling us how miserable we are, how there is no such thing as merlion and what we saw was a mere lion with 4 legs running for it's life from hunters, or even how THE GREAT CHINA will sink our island with saliva or whatever body juices they can come up with. We reserve our right to be proud of our country, and we are not afraid to admit it.
Jacqueline
8:14 AM
