People tend to ask this question nowadays as we move into our 50th year since independence: What is Malaysian culture? How and when will we get to have our own culture?
The word "culture" here means "a whole set of unified culture that ONLY belongs to Malaysian".
I find this question a little funny.
First of all, I do not see a point of "finding" or "designing" a set of our very own culture, because culture is not meant to be "made" but developed.
I hate to say this, but there IS a Malaysian culture, but our culture is only 50 years old, or less, if you consider Eastern Malaysia as well. What can 50 years do to culture?
We might want to compare ourselves with Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other South East Asian countries that have such a rich tradition and culture. But don't we ever forget that they always retained the same culture, and those countries have always been there. Whereas Malaysia only existed since less than 50 years ago, the whole system we have just started to run since then.
Culture takes time and culture grows and develops like a little grass that grows under a wall. It struggles to see the sunlight, and it avoids the stones beside it, and yet never give up to see the sun. When it finally sees the sun, take a look at it's shape. It might not be your regular grass, but it's a grass, with a special shape.
That's what culture is like to me. We say our political issues and social problems would be the obstacle of developing our culture, I do not see it that way. I say culture is a natural development based on/ according to its social and political background.
If we try to designate our culture, that's a big mistake as a first step, and that might cause more problems in the future.
What we need to do is to stimulate our younsters to get interested in cultural affairs rather than teaching them what is our culture. For they and their offsprings are the ones that will determine what is our culture.
Chern Hwei
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