From The Voice of an Immigrant!

No one understand the feeling of being called 'outsider' in the country you call home, in the country your family legitimately live for the past 3 generations. Not until one lives in that environment.

Have you watched or observed when the kids play at the playground? Let's say kids under 5 years old. The toddlers. Whose view of life have not been tarnished by skin color, religious belief, type of cars or the value of money. They play with all kids, regardless. So, I am telling myself, with correct influence, the same scenario can be re-created 15-20 years later.  The under laying factor that make them concious of the differences due to the education, influence, experience and make-belief they receive as part of their growing up process.

I spent all my adult life in my country. The only time I left, it's only as a tourist.  Until 10 years ago. Due to personal reason, I up-rooted from my country of origin to be with my other half.

Being a keen observer, I saw the confusion one felt being called a stranger in a place one calls home. I felt the pain of being subtly rejected and treated differently simply because ones don't have the same skin color. I felt the hurt of being eliminated because one don't have the 'normal' and 'acceptable' name. I heard the pain from the voice of my loved ones when they shared the stories - sarcastic someone who in heated argument hit them under the belt by asking them to go back where they came from. Felt their sorrow when my loved ones were told they don't belong.

Really, this experience was eyes opening to me. What's comes around goes around! That's karma, and I was paying the price! And My God, I promised myself that's the only price I have to pay. I vowed  that I would never repeat my mistake, ever!

I felt the ugly feeling of being unwanted, with no sense of belonging, simply in a country without a root. And I don't even call the place my country.  I am still a proud Malaysian.  But my loved ones are not. They don't have any other country but the one they live in. That's their country! They can't be blamed for the decision made by their older generation who decided to move on and move to the opposite part of the world.

The damage those feelings have on the younger ones are non-describable. Do you know the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?  It says : Every human-being has the basic needs: to feel secured, to have sense of belonging, to be accepted, to be loved.

When human beings are deprived from having the Maslow needs in a normal way, majority of them sought it in negative way. The word 'gang', 'mafia', 'brotherhood' are their saviour.  Their basic needs are fulfilled.  They felt they have arrived, landed and rooted. They were hurt by the society who shunned them. They now want to hurt back the very source who pushed them there.

The cycle repeat. It took a strong generation to change the entire scenario, change the storyline, remove the layer of hatred. Normally, through education, exposure to positive life, embracing difference as another creation of Almighty, and respect is the word to live with.

Only selected few refused to bend down and crack under social pressure.  Their basic needs created based on their intellectuality, society ladder and the determination to create their root and head on with the social stigma.  The selected few are the people who finally able to emerge at the top in their new country. 

I hope one day my country can be a place where the man-made creation that cause the rift and fraction today will be blurred and eventually social division is removed permanently.  I wish the creator of hatred whose self-benefits are the sole reasons of creating the crack will soon wake up and realise the damage they did cause nothing but misery to the nation and to their own generations.  

I want to look at the eyes of my fellow countrymen without anyone of us consciously measure each other credentials because of skin colors, religious belief or country of origin. One day, and I firmly believe that day will arrive soon, when we can speak the same language, live in the same area, study in the same college, and celebrate the same goals without being tarnished by the sentiments exist today. 

Our children will enjoy this unity and they will carry out the true value of being a man/ woman. 

We have to realise the world is fast becoming boundry-less. The skin colors are blurred, religion will be embraced as the reason for unity. The only reasons we fight because we don't like corruption, we hate cruelty, we condemn child molestor, we resent killers!

I know one day my country will live this present life as its past. One day my legacy will learn the past mistakes and ensure lesson are learned and never to be repeated.

I want to change, small steps make big differences.  I start this with myself.  I reach out the people around me without being prejudice. I practise what I preach.  I trust those who have come across my path able to attest to my testament. I measure them for their credibility, capability and ability.  They are welcome in my house as I know I am welcome in theirs.  Our differences are the reasons we unite, respect and love.

Make your first step today to change, you will soon realise that very first step will take you to the glory in the future.  Make the differences. Change it. Teach your legacy and make them look at the differences as positive aspect of life.  Make them understand that is the creation from Almighty, from God, from Allah.  Make them understand the differences to be treated with respect, with humanity, with love.  Change my friends, as that is the only constant in life.

I have my faith, I believe and therefore I have hope.