I tried to reply there, made a probably-too-long post about one of my dearest memories of Malaysia, but I don't have the energy to reconstruct it.
But really the post was saying thank you. For the post, and for getting me to remember; one of the things that makes that memory so dear is -- in Sarawak -- different people getting along, like those you talked about. (And for me, at that age, getting to play with kids who didn't look like me but didn't constantly put me down for that fact.)
I think East Malaysia does a far better job with race relations than West Malaysia, but that's because I hear little about how it goes down there besides West Malaysia censuring stuff going on there.
I am happy you feel comfortable in offering Ms. Moon a look at your neighbourhood to see how things ought to be done. Such areas exist, too, in the US and Canada. Knowing the larger picture in these two countries, though, I would be hesitant to put them forward as models -- it would be all too easy to interpret as a kind of complacency in the face of larger injustice.
Alas, I recollect all too clearly the events of 1969 in Malaysia, and, in a less violent but still unjust contemporary situation, the discrimination against ethnic Chinese and Indian Malaysian citizens in access to higher education within their own country. I'm happy the first situation is just history now (and hope it will remain so), but even on a day of celebration I hope folks will be mindful of the second one, which as far as I know has not yet been resolved.
It rears it ugly head often, and still exists in many ways today. I think of it a great deal (http://www.jhameia.com/2010/05/malaysiana-rumination-on-may-13.html), despite not having lived it. In many ways, I think the event shaped the very non-ideal race relations of today.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 09:24 am (UTC)But really the post was saying thank you. For the post, and for getting me to remember; one of the things that makes that memory so dear is -- in Sarawak -- different people getting along, like those you talked about. (And for me, at that age, getting to play with kids who didn't look like me but didn't constantly put me down for that fact.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 02:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 06:32 pm (UTC)I have little-kid memories, only.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 11:53 am (UTC)Alas, I recollect all too clearly the events of 1969 in Malaysia, and, in a less violent but still unjust contemporary situation, the discrimination against ethnic Chinese and Indian Malaysian citizens in access to higher education within their own country. I'm happy the first situation is just history now (and hope it will remain so), but even on a day of celebration I hope folks will be mindful of the second one, which as far as I know has not yet been resolved.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 01:59 pm (UTC)