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Driving home the point

There are two type of drivers - A) the one who commands utter silence in the car, paying undivided attention to the gadgets and meters in the cars and its surroundings so as to not to land a single scratch on his prized car; B) the other who turns on the car radio just as he switches the ignition key - to heighten his senses and beat the boredom of monotony of driving by having music in the background. And perhaps to rekindle long lost memory buried in the dendritic mash of hippocampus whilst sharpening the brain.
I am of the latter category.
In one of these auditory stimulatory exercise moments, I stumbled upon an episode of MKI (masih-kah kau ingat) on Klasik FM.
We, Malaysians, are guilty (me included) of categorising, compartmentalising and stereotyping people. Just like Harith Iskandar in one of his stand-up comedies, he recreated a scene of a typical road accident scenario. Malaysians, whose favourite pastime, besides eating is watching accidents by the road side like they do not have enough crash and burn scenes on TV, typically would look at an accident and blurt out, "Whoa, sure die one!" And the next question would be, "Eh, Malay, Chinese or Indian?" - like it would actually matter.
The DJ on MKI, as part of the their apprenticeship program, was doing a show with a young announcer named Ameline. It was a request programme, so people were texting and Face Booking. Rather than requesting for songs, people were more interested in knowing whether Ameline is of Chinese or Malay origin. So the DJ sheepishly told the listeners that she looks more like a Thangachee before revealing the real ethnic group.
In most civilised societies, this type is considered offensive and downright rude. What a person's parentage is is his or her business, but not here! Malaysia Boleh! We are tolerant, are we?
There are strict guidelines on what can spoken on air. One cannot speak on matters related to racial issues, politics and sex. So, I was pleasantly surprised when, on another station (BFM), a speaker was actually talking on the superiority of socialism. Listening through the interview, it is nice to know that there are other who share my perception of life.

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