Fifty-nine years ago yesterday, a nation came together. Yet, we are still struggling to be one people.
Blame it on our eyes, the pair that is busying itself seeing differences among us, not what binds us.
It is not a modern problem, though our age has worsened an ancient human issue. If the people of old — not all of them, though — had succeeded, it is because they never let the eyes overrule the heart, the source of all healing.
You see, the eyes are trained to spot earthly differences. To the eyes, one is black, brown, yellow or white. But to the heart, we are all human beings.
True, a continued seeing of differences by the eyes can taint the heart. This is why we must never allow the eyes to overrule the heart.
To the untainted heart, we are a noble creation with the potential of turning out to be worthy beings. We have common parents: Adam and Eve (peace be upon them both).
It should be easy to "see" us as one human race. But the eyes, so pleased with earthly differences, won't allow that. Consider the Malaysian eyes.
We are Malays, Chinese, Indians, Dayaks, Bajaus, Kadazans or other named ethnicities who have come to call this nation our home. Be real, some will say: we are all of these.
Yes, we are. There is no denying. The fact of all these differences is man-made. Call it invented history and geography, whose purpose is to blur the natural ones.
All it took was some devious pen to declare us to be of this and that race. We have been nationalistic and racist ever since.
But the authenticity of natural history and geography remains undiluted. Truth has a way of seeping out to the surface.
An untainted heart will spot this. It will know we are of the human race, one people in many spaces. It is not just the Malaysian eyes that see differences.
Other eyes elsewhere do the same. Like here, there too the eyes are engaged in a perpetual battle with the heart. Like here, many there choose to see differences.
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a tale of the pain of African Americans being "othered" in the United States. Don't go thinking that Ellison's work is a mere novel. Invisible Man is fact made fiction.
To Ellison, the invisible protagonist's cry, "Why am I born so black and blue", is real. No Ellison has come out here to let out the cry in such a literary fashion, but that doesn't mean "othering" doesn't exist.
"Othering" isn't just about what one race does to the other. Anecdotal evidence suggests it's a contest of all against all.
The nation's fabric must not be so disturbed. It is not good for the nation nor its people.
No doubt the eyes will see differences because they are there. But the eyes mustn't be allowed to depict differences as the only reality.
The heart must tame the errant pair to make them see what binds us together, the other reality.
Granted, building togetherness isn't easy. But knowing that we have common ascendants will make it that much easier.
The purpose of our creation is to get us to know each other, not to "other" each other. Malaysia will be truly Malaysia when none of our neighbours go to bed hungry, hungry for food and hungry for love. Happy Malaysia Day.