“Gordon Sir, This is such an honour to meet you in person. You are just wonderful! Your hospitality took me by surprise and the food is superb! Thank you so much.”
We could never expect such hospitality, unless you were Dr. Mahathir who had proclaimed to 'Buy British Last' many years ago.
In Malaysia, every festive day ‘open house’ event at Prime Ministerial or Ministerial level comes with free food and drinks and an exceptionally high number of people – 100,000 or 200,000 according to the press, which Raja Petra had calculated before to be impossible in terms of the time it takes to shake hands with each visitor. Invariably, foreign guests would be interviewed by TV networks for their feedback. The main purpose is to project our 'multi-racial and multi-religious population living in harmony' to the world.
Incidentally, I have just read “A Look Into Media and Race in Malaysia.” By Lim Ming Kuok in Project Malaysia http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/13334/84/ (excerpts):
"The tagline for Yasmin Ahmad’s deceivingly simple Merdeka Day commercial titled Tan Hong Ming in Love was “Our children are colour blind. Shouldn’t we keep them that way?” The TV commercial started off with a little boy being asked if he has a girlfriend, the bashful boy of Chinese descent admits to the fact that he does have a girlfriend by the name of Ummi Qazrina. In the next scene, little Ummi Qazrina was asked if she has a boyfriend. The little girl of Malay descent replied earnestly that the she does, and the name of the boy is Tan Hong Ming. The very surprised and clearly overjoyed little boy proceeded to take the girl’s hand and both them walked off the screen hand in hand.
In another piece by the same director, two school boys of Chinese and Malay descent were being interviewed in the school’s cafeteria. Both of them were asked to spell the word ‘dinosaur’. Both of them got the word wrong. Next, they were asked who their best friend was, they pointed to each other. When asked if they knew what their friend’s race is, both of them apparently did not know the meaning of the word. Thus the objective of the commercial was achieved and many a viewer would likely to have nodded in agreement with many ‘oohs’ and “ahhs” in between. Then we wait patiently for the next Merdeka season to see another batch of heart-warming commercials that transcends race, religion and other cultural barriers." ...
But for effectiveness, the following much quoted poem is the best:
This poem was nominated by UN as the best poem of 2006, written by an African Kid
When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black
And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you gray
And you calling me colored?
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