Kita bebas beragama, maka saya beragama bebas

Recently I was on a plane home from somewhere, and a teenager about 13 or 14 years old sat next to me. I will admit this – I deliberately ignored him. It was late, the plane was stuffy and he was the sort of fidgety, meng-a-a* kind of kid who pretended he wasn’t noticing if anyone was watching, yet acutely aware when someone was.

Anyhow. An hour or so after meals, we established we were both Malaysians and I asked if he was going home. He was, to his mum for the holidays from the international school he was attending in Surabaya. This and that for a little while more, and then:

“Aunty (well, I suppose I AM twice his age) orang Cina kan?”
“Ya”
“Tapi aunty boleh cakap Bahasa Melayu?”
“Kenapa pulak tak boleh?”
“Biasa orang Cina cakap Inggeris”
“...”
“Aunty Kristian?”
“Tak…”
“Habis Aunty agama apa?”
“Em.. I beragama bebas”
“Apa tu?”
“Percaya pada Tuhan, tapi bukan pada satu agama. Kenapa pulak?”
“Biasanya orang Cina agama Kristian”.

I wanted to sit him down, and ask him why he would think these things. In Malaysia, we all speak Malay. Granted, in varying degrees, but we all. speak. Malay. This is who we are.

Also, we are a God fearing nation as our Rukunegara first principle states, but it should be God we are united in believing, not religions decreed by race.

I know why he is right, yet he is so wrong. I want to re-adjust the structure of his thinking, almost how you would move the skeleton of a toy square to shape an octagon or triangle. Little shifts, that mean everything.


*meng-a-a: meng-attract attention