Can you "race" with a blindfold on?

As some of you may know, I've taken up a part-time job at Nando's restaurant in Queensbay Mall, Penang. And, like all formal job application processes in Malaysia, you will not be spared from the "famed" Malaysian bureaucracy of having to plod through the inundant formalities and what not. I reckon I must have filled up 5 or 6 forms (each about 2 or 3 pages long) in total in applying for this one job. I had to get a bank account with Maybank, an immunisation jab from the City Council, an account with the Employees' Provident Fund organisation(EPF) and, of course, fill up a job application form with Nando's.

And, it was through that cumbersome process which I realised how important a factor "race" can be here in Malaysia. In Australia, whenever and if ever I had to fill up a form, the only thing that came closest to the "race" column was that I had to declare my citizenship (whether I am an Australian citizen or not). And, that was it!

So, for someone who never filled in a form like that before, I felt heaps weird when I had to write what "race" I belong to.

I always knew that race, albeit deemed by society as a sensitive issue, has always been and still is the factor in the Malaysian societal and political fabric. I just did not know that it was THAT explicit. I'm not saying that racism is totally non-existent in other countries, like Australia or Singapore. It's just that in those countries, racial polarisation or discrimination, if there is any, is really subtle and implicit. Some may argue that it's even more damaging if it's in a subtle form. But, I, for one think that requiring someone to declare what race he/she belongs to when applying for a job, or anything for that matter, is going one step further than what is necessary to enquire about someone's personal details and particulars. My dad tried expounding this whole conundrum to me, citing historical reasons as an answer. He said that in the past, during the British colonial days in Malaya, it was pertinent for the British officers to know what race a particular person belonged to, just so they could better facilitate their "divide and conquer" regime. But, then again, how can one justify that rationale now - now that we're 51 years independent of colonial British rule.

With that said, can Malaysians truly ever be "race-blind"? Can anyone, for that matter, be completely race-blind? I'm inclined to answer that question in the negative. Now, some people may argue that with the recent win of American President elect Barack Obama, we're beginning to see the dawn of a racially-blind and equitable political and societal revolution. However, in the US, blacks take different medication for heart disease than whites. There is evidence that Chinese and whites do not have the same ideal body mass indexes. How about the fact that in competitive sports such as tennis and weightlifting, you will almost never see an Asian win it. So, this could suggest that being racist is something entrenched in us, as nature intended it to be.

Besides that, race could be an important factor in policy formulation and implementation. When one community lags dramatically behind another in some measurable manner, this information can be incredibly helpful. This, of course, is best exemplified in the copious (almost predictable) news articles, concerning the NEP and other affirmative policies, which flood Malaysian news scene every once in awhile.

So, the question is, can we truly call ourselves "Malaysian", without having to add the suffix 'Chinese', 'Malay' or 'Indian' to it? Then again, does it really matter? Knowing whether you're Chinese or Indian does nothing more than to tell you where your ancestors came from. It is to enable you to trace back your roots, heritage and culture. Besides, being able to trace back your roots is the very thing that defines Malaysia. This should be the thing that makes Malaysia as a whole special, not just any one particular race. If America is the 'melting pot of cultures', then Malaysia would be the 'centuries-old broth of cultures'.

Being Malaysian simply means that you have chosen, or had it chosen for you, to call Malaysia home.

To quote an article I read online, "There are differences between a Malaysian of Malay descent and a Malaysian of Indian descent, and to deny these differences is foolishness. But rather than dwelling on these differences, as the label of "race" might have us do, let's celebrate how regardless of who our ancestors were, we all have one homeland, one tanah tumpahnya darahku."