Of Being a Mixed Person in a Society That Idolizes Purity

I was born of an English Mother and a Malay Father, growing up I constantly was asked what my ethnicity was and due to the inculcation of the Malaysian mindset I would answer Malay. The problem here is that I am not nor will I ever be Malay, neither will I be English. I am an amalgamation of different races, religions and cultures. This has then led me to the questioning of many norms within society particularly among the Malays, the Indian and the Chinese. Within each ethnic group there are members who claim to be “purebloods” but are they really? In the History of each Ethnic group there has been an invasion per se of a foreign culture, the simplest example; in the Malay ethnic group there have been introductions of foreign cultural elements such as the Hindu culture in marriage, the introduction of Arabic culture as well as Chinese culture in the way people dress, what more the Malays for all intents and purposes are descended from the Indians, the Chinese, the Arabs. To find a pure “Malay” there is no such thing. However don’t think that they Malays are alone in this belief, even among the Chinese there are those who forget that almost the entirety of their ancestry can be traced back to Genghis Khan who was Mongolian not Chinese, The Indians don’t really suffer this sense of superiority with the exception of those who still believe in the Caste system.

            The thrust of this short article is that for a society that wants to espouse the essence of purity, the idea of their own personal purity is a fallacy. So here’s to celebrating the idea of being an amalgamation of a multitude of races, religions, creeds and cultures.