Colour blind

In the days following Yasmin Ahmad's untimely demise, there has been a flood of blogs and articles about her great work and her totally 1Malaysian spirit. I am not going to write about her good work etc, lots have been said about that already and I totally support every single good word about her.

No, what I am going to say is that I, like many others, took a walk down memory lane and googled her works on YouTube. Although I can't claim to be a big fan, I have nevertheless admired her works for the longest time.

So, going through a number of her advertisements late at night, both local and Singaporean ads, it made me cried a little, laugh a little but most importantly, it made me think back to my childhood.

Her ads on racial harmony , what I would term as colour blindness really drove the truth home. In particular, there were 2 ads, done in Singapore , with some Primary school kids. The first featured 2 boys, a Malay and a Chinese, who claimed each other as best friends, and when the interviewer asked them what race their best friend is, they looked at each other and asked ' What is race?'. Then one of them said, 'Oh, must be car race ...you know...racing cars...' , the other boy nodded yes, and both burst out laughing. The other ad I really enjoyed was one where a very cute little Chinese boy said that his girlfriend's name is Umi Qzarina. And the reason he likes her is because she is pretty and wears earrings!!! Then the equally cute little Malay girl appears and they ran off. Children really are colour blind as far as skin colour is concerned. This brings back memories of my own Primary school days. There was no such thing as 1Malaysia campaign and calls for racial harmony etc simply because there was no such need. My friends in school were all sorts, we had Chinese, Malays, Indians and whatever inbetweens. We just integrated naturally, if we are not friends with a particular girl, it is because she is not a nice person, not because she is of a different colour. If there is rivally among groups, it's because we are in different classes or 'houses', not because of skin colour. Life was so much simpler.

However, I am comforted these days because of the action of 2 little boys. In the rink, there is a pair of brothers, little kids who happen to be Malay. All Malay kids are very polite when they greet their elders, with a 'kiss' on the hand, the traditional 'salam'. However, most seem to use this greeting only with Malay elders and use the western style " Hello Aunty/Uncle" to others, but these 2 little guys used it with every adult they greet! It really warms my heart to see this and in particular to be greeted this way. The parents have done a fantastic job in teaching their boys. Congratulations and well done, Mom and Dad of A and A ! In the eyes of these brothers, all adults are elders and to be respected in the same way, irregardless! Now that's the true 1Malaysia spirit for you.