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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The dilemma of a Malaysian in Singapore

Proud of Singapore but unable to let go of Malaysia.
dilemma
PETALING JAYA: In the midst of the revelry of Singapore’s 50th Independence Day, a senior writer from the Straits Times took time out to reflect on his own status.
Covering their rapt observance of the island nation’s National Day ceremony he notes the pride of Singaporeans of different generations, from those who migrated from Malaysia in the country’s formative years to others who have been born and bred there.
Throughout their national day all he heard of was how proud Singaporeans were of their country.
“I feel proud, too,” senior writer Wong Kim Hoh says. “I am not Singaporean, but my emotional roots in this country are very deep.”
“Serendipity engineered my arrival here in 1981 when I was 18,” he recalls, recounting how a friend had loaned him the S$20 needed to purchase the application forms and how he had rejected a Malaysian university’s offer to study subjects which he had not applied for and was not keen on learning.
“Singapore nurtured me in more ways than one,” he says. “Unlike in Malaysia, I competed under a meritocratic system where my ethnicity was not an issue when it came to educational or professional opportunities.”
“I had a stab at different professions – teaching and corporate communications – but found my niche in journalism,” he adds.
He is grateful for finding mentors, allies and friends in his adopted country.
“All said, I am who I am because of Singapore,” he says. Yet, he questions why he has not gone further to trade his Malaysian citizenship for the country of his adulthood.
“To be honest, I do not know,” he writes. “It probably has to do with emotional ties.”
“It is irrational but, for a long time, part of me believed that giving up my passport was akin to giving up on the people and things I love about Malaysia.
“But a mentor told me not too long ago: ‘Changing your passport doesn’t mean changing your heart.’”
Governance issues and racial tensions playing out in Malaysia have made Wong revisit his “emotional territories.”
“All said, I am who I am because of Singapore,” Wong ends. “So why have I not traded in my passport?”
For many Malaysians living overseas it seems the answers are not always so clear.

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