Racism

Lately, Newcastle has been plagued with a most disgusting disease in the human race.

Racism.

Not only Muslim were yelled at, stared at and made fun of, but the Koreans and the Asians have been attacked, mugged, robbed and threatened by Australian teenagers, some aged as young as 12  years old (but you would never know it by their BIG OBESE bodies). But when Sol Trujillo (former Telstra CEO) has accused the Australians of being racist, they protested that statement in fury. What a joke!

However, in the back of my mind, I must admit there lurks a fear that Malays are just as racist, if not more! Imagine if there lives another set of people who have AS BAD A REPUTATION AS BEING MUSLIMS at the moment, how do you think the Malays would treat them? POORLY, would be my guess.

Well, sejak datang Australia and I experienced first hand how it feels to be looked at with suspicion or to be stared at with wariness, I could empathize the feelings of our Indonesian workers in Malaysia, or our Bangla immigrants. Kadang2 org Melayu ni tak dak sebab pun tak nak suka kat orang….tapi cara diorang cakap, “Ala, muka mcm Bangla tu pun si A nak minat. Tak dak taste langsung.” atau komen2 tak enak pasal orang2 Indon.

I mean sesetangah komen orang ni tak intelektual. Kalau ko nak marah sebab diorang datang secara haram dan nak menyusahkan kita, that’s fine.  Tapi jgnlah dok komen muka dia, baju dia etc. Tu pasal lah aku rasa kalau wujud satu lagi kumpulan yang ada reputasi seburuk stigma yang org Muslim hadapi sekarang ni, di Malaysia treatment akan lebih dahsyat drpd apa yg org Muslim dpt di OZ.

Kenapa? Sebab org Malaysia sgt suka buat overgeneralization tak pasal2:

1) Orang Kulit hitam ni menakutkan. Diorang memang selalunya jahat2

– Aku pernah jumpa seorang Malay cakap bahawa “dia tak suka orang kulit hitam sebab diorang jahat2.” I was like, “have u met one of them?” Mcm mana ko tau? I was so surprised because I thought at that age (I was 20 at that time) people already know certain concepts like ‘discrimination’, ‘racism’, ‘justice’ etc. And the reason I was even more surprised was because this came from the mouth of a very educated person (ala budak KMB, kira educated lah kan, lol). I guess it never was about education, but it was about how you use your intellect to reason out what you talk about! 

2) “Weh perangai dia jahat. Aku memang tak suka anak2 polis ni. Polis memang jahat2. Semua anak2 polis yg aku jumpa semua mcm ni.”

– Aku confuse sgt benda ni! Pertama kali aku dengar benda ni sewaktu aku masuk KMB. And I found out that actually the stigma has been going on for quite a long time. Aku ja yang baru tau!

-Nilah org Melayu, dgn pekerjaan pun nak ada racism gak! Tak pasal2. Depa cakap polis suka amik rasuah lah; kalau tak mau kena saman, sua ja duit mesti boleh lepas. Lepas tu depa cakap anak2 polis ni social lah…anak2 polis ni lagi jahat walaupun bapak depa polis!

-The thing is, aku pernah ja tersilap parking. Nasib baik aku habih shopping in time and arrived just when the police was about to give me a ticket. Aku cakap ja “Sorry encik, saya tak tau tak leh parking kat sini.”  And pak cik tu baik ja. Bagi nasihat elok2 menerangkan rules kt aku. Senang2 ja aku lepas…dia tak minta rasuah pun. Baik ja pak cik tu! Kalau betullah semua polis jahat, mesti dah byk kali aku jumpa (that doesn’t mean aku byk kali kena saman, lol).

-Adakah kita betul2 percaya POLIS SEMUA JAHAT? Bukankah polis tangkap penjenayah, dia cekup org yg mengedar dadah, tangkap pencuri, cari orang yang kehilangan anak. Itu pekerjaan yang mulia. Bukan itu pun termasuk dalam amar makruf nahi mungkar ke….apa ingat ustaz jer ke buat fardhu kifayah dlm dunia ni? Some people they just DON’T THINK!! Geraaaammm aku!

-Memang ada polis yang jahat. Tapi ustaz pun ada yang GATAL dan MIANG, cikgu pun ada yang jahat, doktor pun ada yang tak beretika. Biasalah tu! Takkan lah semua polis ambil rasuah, aku tak percaya because if u think logically, it’s just not feasible. Lepas tu, boleh pula nak kaitkan pekerjaan polis dengan perangai anak depa. Apakah??? Ni kalau buat TOK essay, memang fail ni! Reasoning tak dak langsung!!

3) Pegawai JPJ semua miang!

-Aku terkejut gila dengan suggestion sorang kakak nih. Time tu I was 21, I think. AKu baru nak amik lesen. Tengah tunggu giliran nak test lah ni. Aku ckplah kat kakak tu, “Saya takutlah kak. Saya tak mau nak fail2 ni sebab saya malas nak amik test berkali2.”

-Kakak tu dia rasa dia buat lawak kot. Aku pun tak surelah kan. Dia cakap, “Ala, pegawai JPJ semuanya gatai2. Kenyit2 mata sikit, pegang tangan dia, minta dia passkan. Mesti pass punyalah.”

-My response was, “Oh,” I was speechless. Kesian kat pegawai JPJ!! Tak pasal2 kena cop gatai. Well, yes, I’ve heard that some JPJ officers ada yang suka nak flirt2. Tapi, awat aku tak pernah kena pun? In both tests (I failed the first one, damn it, sebab lupa tarik handbreak) I got the decent ones ja. Tak dak sapa pun nak mengurat aku. (to this, my sisters might say “sebab hang garang mcm singa!”). But what I mean is, aku tak pernah kena bad experience yang depa dok cakap. Kalau betul banyak sangat pegawai JPJ yang gatal dan ramai gila POLIS  yang jahat, mesti aku pernah jumpa at least once.

Lagipun, bagi aku, benda ni bukan salah satu pihak ja. Yang ko bagi rasuah siapa suruh? Maybe asal2 nya polis tu tak nak ambil pun rasuah tu…tapi sebab dah ada org offer (sebab org yg offer tu pun duk ingat semua polis nak rasuah), iman dia pun tergugat, so dia pun ambil.

And in the case of pegawai JPJ tu…takkan lah pegawai JPJ tu berani nak flirt kalau ko tak layan. Heh! Pegawai JPJ pun mesti ada rasa malu atau ego. In most cases, the girls tu pun layan juga! Muka garang cam aku ni lagi bagus! Aku bukannya garang, aku professional. There’s a difference.

Bagi aku, people will treat you in a certain way after they have formed an impression of who you are as a person. If you behaved yourself in a professional, dignified manner, people will treat you that way too. Kalau ko pun lepas kena usik duk tersengih2, memanglah padan!

4) India bau busuk

COME ON, people! What’s wrong with you??? Diorang duk cakap “minyak rambut orng hindu ni bau busuk, nak muntah etc etc.”

Mulut tu!

Mcm depa wangi sgt!

The thing is…kawan Indian aku kat Asma, tak busuk pun. Sebab depa tak pakai minyak rambut tu. Depa pakai Syampu DOVE, depa pakai conditioner Pantene, depa pi rawatan rebonding. Jgnlah kata org India busuk. Cakaplah minyak rambut tu busuk. Kalau org Melayu pakai minyak rambut tu pun, org Melayu tu busuk juga!

Some people suka buat komen2 racism because they think it’s funny making fun of people. It’s not! It’s just stupid!

Winding up:

I think the reason I feel so strongly about racism is because I experience it here. Sebelum ni, aku tak pernah fikir mcm mana org Indon, org Bangla rasa. Dan aku tak paham kenapa pekerjaan polis kena target. I just don’t get it. Most of the time, polis cuma terima arahan, ikut procedure. Maybe ada pegawai2 atasan yang boleh dibeli orang2 politik (whtever, if u wanna get into that topic) tapi ada ramai lagi polis2 lain yang cari rezeki halal. Aku pernah bercita2 nak jadi polis kecik2 dulu sebab aku rasa pekerjaan tu mulia. Diorang bertindak, bekerja dgn tangan untuk mengubah kemungkaran….isn’t it in the hadith that selemah2 iman ialah org yang cuma berdoa ja bila nampak kemungkaran. The polica actually DO something, risking their neck untuk menegakkan keadilan.

Yang lawaknya, org2 yg alim ni juga yg slalu duk kutuk2 polis. Maybe selagi kita tak bagi example guna dalil2 agama, dia tak boleh nak nampak dan tak boleh fikir sendiri.

Some people are just not fair in their spoken words. Diorang boleh marah bila orang racist terhadap diorang kat sini..tapi at the same time tak segan silu nak mengaku diri kita racist terhadap kaum lain kt Malaysia.

And that’s why I think the Malays would treat people in a much worse way if there exist another group with as bad a reputation as what the Muslims have at the moment. Sekurang2nya ada juga orang2 Australia yang baik dengan aku, yang pernah cakap dengan aku yang Muslims ni baik, yang cakap diorang tak agree dengan racism. Tapi orang Melayu? KEBANYAKANnya akan pandang ja kalau ada budak-budak jerit2 dan ejek2 orang Indon kat tepi jalan.

And we blame people when they are racist towards us? Come on! Lain kali kalau nak kutuk bangsa orang, pekerjaan bapa orang dan agama orang, fikir dulu. Jgn tunjuk sgt kita punya ignorance, it’s embarrassing!

 

P/S: aku dah lama rasa benda ni. Cuma aku tertrigger nak tulis sebab sejak akhir2 ni aku byk fikir pasal isu racism di NC. If I sound very emotional, it’s because I HATE racism in whatever form. I hate it! When non Muslims are racist, at least we can say “they didn’t know better”. But when Muslims are racist…it’s just not very Islamic. It’s shameful! Kadang2 nilai2 yang baik lagi byk ada di kalangan non-muslims.