Interfaith Tolerance

Being born-and-raised in a multireligious society, racial tolerance was an art embedded in me. Studying in a national school (where all races learn a unified syllabus, promoting oneness), I was exposed to the culture of my Malay and Indian friends. Society suffers from this oddity of racial profiling, whereby a person gets branded according to their race. I quote my elders, ''being Malay, you're lazy; being Indian, you're a criminal''.

Appalled, this is far from the truth. Yes, sometime in the past, society could have functioned that way. Given our pre-colonial circumstances, there was much ambiguity between racial tolerance. In fact, interracial dialogue was obsolete to them. After all, our elders (be it the Malays, Chinese, or the Indians) originate from their mother lands (Jawa, China or India respectively). Most definitely, their mindset were solely focused towards their originating lands; rather than the country that filled their food bowls.

With this piece of history in mind, I can absolutely understand why my elders think like this. However, given the modern upbringing I had, I cannot relate to such prejudice. Most of the time, I simply discard them as distasteful humour. Plus, I'm generally quite broad-minded when it comes to one's beliefs; be it enriching or down right depressing ones.

Speaking of beliefs, I realised that I cannot stand it when someone tries to make me follow their beliefs. Just today, I had to participate in this numerology-inspired ceremony. Basically, I had to undergo a soul cleansing ceremony which left me drenched from head to toe. Supposedly, my mind is freshened, and my feng shui bettered (yes, I'm shocked too, bettered is a real word). Personally, I have my doubts because it truthfully seems that the placebo effect is indeed taking place.

In layman terms, if you believe in something, it will happen and vice versa. Plus, I smell like a walking perfume now. It's truly amusing to me, to see some going great lengths to be