A Refugee Crisis again? Humanity at its best? Or Worst
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We humans have migrated for millions of years, from Africa Homo Sapiens led the way, meeting with Homo Neanderthals of Eurasia. The Human Tribe may have been founded as a collaboration effort or integration effort or a conquering effort by the Homo sapiens.
And all unplanned? - We are not sure.
In the Press we see today the vitriolic captions, “Invasions of Refugees”, “Migrants stealing our Jobs”, “This is Our land”, “We don’t Want more Migrant Workers”, “Families disagree towards inter-marriages with Refugees or Migrants”, because of differences in opinions.
I believe largely due to ignorance, hate, stupidity or self-insecurity of where one has originated from.
For the media a covert attempt to sell newspapers – a cheap but extremely dangerous way of inculcating hate in the minds of the citizens. For the racialist Politician - an easy way to harness support using Hate. For the ordinary citizen - a fear of economic loss.
I was in a lift after attending a seminar on Renewable Energy in Kuala Lumpur. In the lift, a Swede, a Norwegian an Englishman, and I – Malaysian-British (although I consider myself a global citizen). There was a brief discussion, on the “Invading” refugees into Europe. It was not political or derogatory in intent, but a reflection on what the press was posting. So I interjected, “Yes we know about the Vikings invading Britain too well. And about the Norwegians and the Swedes discussions on who has the more Oil and Gas and a Sovereign fund for the citizens.” We all laughed and thus became good friends. We had found a commonality – humanity. I continued the discussion with the Englishman once out of the lift. I said it is a fact that the British have the best laws in the world to ensure that racism cannot take a grasp officially. But the education of the citizens must continue to ensure they know the facts and the realities. Even politicians are confused most often, because they too may not realize that we are only Human beings.
I am a Malaysian by birth, by ethnicity I would be branded as Indian. The family migrated to Malaysia 4 generations ago, when the British were the Colonizers of the country. My family’s history is vague. Recollection of our ethnicity – I could be Singhalese in one part, Tamil maybe in one part, I could be a “Pondicherry Indian’ whatever that means. But I am Malaysian by nationality, a British resident by default too.
Malaysia is a country which was colonized for hundreds of years – the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, and the Japanese – before finally attaining nationhood on the 31st August 1957. With the colonisers, arose the influx of migrant Chinese, Indians, Thai, Indonesians labour migrants and indentured workers in the hundreds of thousands - you name the ethnicity we have such a cohort in the country. Pre-colonialisation, we had the Traders from all parts of the world too, coming for trade, and planting their roots here. In the 1970’s we had the arrivals of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians too, coming here as refugees, then some settling. More recently we had the Burmese of all ethnic groups – the Karen, the Rohingya. We tend to live, mostly very happily with each other, the occasional skirmish between the ethnic groups.
Malaysia has a Positive Action agenda – which was introduce in the 1970’s through the New Economic Policy (NEP). A smart ‘Positive Action’ policy to ensure the reduction of Economic Apartheid created by the British during their role as the Colonial power for nearly 150 years, which had caused a race-riot in 1969. The British economic policy, largely driven in construct by the British East India Company. A policy that was strictly enabled to support the export policies and enrichment programmes of the Crown back in London.
The NEP had no Social Cohesion policy, and now the country is witness a rise in disconnect driven and fanned by Politicians and the elite. So have a newly adopted logo or slogan 1Malaysia, but no real policy for implementation of the concept of a 1Malaysia. In 2015 the 11th National Development Plan 11 was introduced, which calls for “Inclusivity”, but with all the politicians I have had discussions with, none even understand what the concept means, none of the citizens understand this nor do the Media. It is just another slogan or idea conjured up by some External consultants who are friends with a politician.
So we have learnt, somewhat, to live together. How long for nobody knows.
The Refugees to Europe, situation is no different in my opinion. They can be absorbed in to each European nation, but can they really be assimilated or accepted? Can they really ‘fit-in’, if they are not wanted in the first place?
Do the Refugees only know what they have been told by the traffickers - That Europe is the “land of Milk and Honey’ which is not the truth. Do they know the stark truth, that there is no milk and very little honey to go around even for most Europeans themselves? Do the Refugees really know - that the wars in their countries, which have resulted in them having to leave in the first place, have been created by the Governments of North America, Europe and their Puppet counter-part Government in the respective war-torn country, with the aid of the Multinationals, for economic purposes? Therefore there is no real incentive to Most Governments to welcome refugees once the mess is created?
