Farish One-on-One (Part 3)

Technorati tags: History, Malaysia, Communal Relations, Ethnicity, Religion

Related posts:
► Farish One-on-One (Part 1)
► Farish One-on-One (Part 2)

Finally, the long-awaited (and slightly delayed) third, and final, installment of the Malaysiakini exclusive interview with Dr. Farish A. Noor.

Since Walski thinks that you should watch the video (in fact, all three parts) for yourself, the 4 key words in part 3 that you should pay attention to, and strike him as being extremely relevant if we ever want to solve our own Malaysian problem: courage, truth, reconciliation and honesty. 
(some final thoughts on this series, in the full post)

Not to be ostentatious or anything like that, knowing that many of us are victims of a horrendous English language education, courtesy of our convoluted, yet broken, system of education, there is one word Farish has used that you may have a tad bit of difficulty with.

And that word is primordial. As with many words in the English language, it has a few meanings, depending on context. In the context of the interview, what Farish is saying is that our “existing in, or persisting from, the beginning” attachment to race and/or religion is continually getting stronger in Malaysia, evidenced by the kind of discourse we keep hearing, be it political or otherwise.

In other words, we are regressing, and not moving forward, as a nation. That is something very worrying for Walski. He thinks that many of you feel the same way.

Remember the four keywords Walski mentioned earlier? They are actually four very important concepts that we, collectively as Malaysians, MUST adopt if we ever want to move forward progressively.

Forget 1Malaysia – which is actually a good, albeit rehashed, concept, but with so many caveats that it has the net effect of bringing us back to square one.

Again, Walski urges you to view the video in its entirety. Then, ask yourself this question:

If South Africa and Indonesia can both overcome their painful histories, why the heck can’t we?