THE CICAK.com

Read, write, think, speak, live. Malaysia is worth the effort

By KEITH LEONG

The months of February and March are always marked in Malaysia by a large outpouring of its youth to other countries. They are, of course, leaving for their tertiary studies in places like Australia or England, though a growing number are also completing their secondary studies abroad.

Some are leaving home for the first time; others are seasoned travellers heading for graduate schools. A lucky handful are sponsored; the rest must depend on their parents, or on themselves.

All education, whether undertaken abroad or at home, is valuable and precious. It should not be undertaken for the sake of socio-political engineering, or for personal avarice or as part of some larger sectarian vendetta (“Ha! My race is smarter than yours!”)

The pursuit of knowledge and learning should occupy us simply because studying builds and preserves our civilisation, and should be allowed to everyone as widely as possible. That is the highest ideal.

If the education system of this country is unsatisfactory, I believe that it is because politicians, bureaucrats and paterfamilias have perverted the organic principles of scholarship for their own selfish ends. The people should not tolerate this.

Although we speak of turning Malaysia into an “educational hub,” I feel that studying abroad, if approached with the right attitude, can benefit and enrich not only the individual student but his or her wider community. The exposure to different cultures, belief systems and academic practices can only be gained from the several years you spend abroad. The experience obtained from such exchanges will surely help in one’s later career. The networks you build will last for a lifetime.

It’s a shame, therefore that so few of our school-leavers can be afforded this privilege.

To the Malaysian youth who are going abroad soon: I advise you to savour every day of it. Make the most of the experience, wherever it is that you are going. Your lives are like blank pages on which you will write (or type) words that will build our nation and inspire posterity.

Read. Write. Think. Listen. Speak.

But don’t chain yourself to your desk. Embrace the nations that have opened their borders to you. Immerse yourself in their cultures, their traditions. Mash and mingle with the millions of other young people from all over the world whom you will encounter at your institutions. Your life as an international student will be all the richer for it. Come out of your comfort zone. Play the Game. Get drunk and pass out in gross pubs. Live.

The reason I am writing this is because I will be amongst your throng. After little over a year at home, I am going abroad again to further my studies. In that year I taught, helped make a movie and of course, started to write for theCICAK.

I will of course, still be writing for this webzine as long as they keep on editing out about 11.95 percent of what I write, but I would like to take this opportunity to review the many insights I have gleaned from working for the magazine.

TheCICAK is quite simply the best (if not the only) current affairs website aimed at the Malaysian youth. It has been an honour and a privilege to write for it, and it seemed like only yesterday that I was writing my first article.

What I thought would be a one-off article, however, soon spiralled into many more. I knew there was something special about my involvement with it when one day a middle-aged family friend mentioned to me, completely off-the-cuff, how much she enjoyed reading my articles.

But more importantly, theCICAK provided me with an outlet to express all the things I felt was important during an especially liminal period of my life. Reading the other articles gave me window into the minds of my fellow young Malaysians, something that was closed to me for a very long time. It didn’t hurt that it was a good exercise in writing prose (something that I have never been good at) either. The biggest bonus, however, was that it strengthened several of my existing friendships, and provided me with a few new ones.

Of course, it’s not a perfect publication. No publication is, I suppose. The current debate over the nature of media and journalism means that these things are no longer black-and-white as they was before, if they ever were. But as long as theCICAK provides an open and rational forum for the youth of Malaysia to air their views, then it has credibility and substance that the mainstream media can only crave.

The time of apathy for the Malaysian youth is over. We need to keep on writing and speaking out. We need to keep on learning and thinking, to inform and broaden the quality of our words. The need for us to continue, or start doing these things, is even greater than before. No one can deny that our country is on the verge of great changes, and history will never forgive us if we, the youth, stand passively by and refuse to be actors in it. Now is not the time to withdraw into our old shells. We need to be a part of our nation, a part of our world and we can only do this by connecting with and understanding each other.

It is my firm belief that theCICAK can promote such connectedness and understanding. I also believe the young people of Malaysia can make a difference. It is within our power to move the nation-building process forward and we can mould it according to our vision.

Malaysia is worth the effort. Many people have mourned the fact that a substantial number of the young Malaysians who are going out of the country to be educated will choose to remain there. I do not share their apprehension.

Malaysia is beginning to develop a great émigré tradition, like Ireland or South Africa, but the people of those countries who supposedly “left” their shores never failed to spread its influence abroad.

I for one feel that the Malaysian “diaspora” (if we can call it that, for the original meaning of that term has connotations of conquest and loss of sovereignty) will play a similar role one day, if they are not already doing so. You can never truly turn your back on your country. Once a Malaysian, always a Malaysian.

So, to my fellow Malaysians in the country, outside the country, leaving the country and coming back to it, wherever you are and whoever you are: don’t leave your brain on standby mode. Keep those articles coming. I will see you all soon.

Oh and by the way, if we meet on a MAS flight: I’m getting the armrest.

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KEITH LEONG is a contributing writer for theCICAK.

Keith was born in Melaka, grew up in Damansara Jaya and is pursuing a master’s degree in English from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He enjoys baroque music, grand epic movies and long walks.