DISCRIMINATION hurts, yet humans revel in it. To be blunt, we don't need surveys like the Architects of Diversity Malaysia to tell us that we love to hurt the "other", though the slicing of the problem by such polls helps us in addressing discrimination in all its complexity.
Discrimination used to be simply the "othering" of another with a different skin colour. The Treaty of Westphalia may have made it worse by assigning us sovereign borders of nationalities. If we were called white, black, brown, yellow and everything in between before, we are now English, American, Chinese, Indians, Malays and 195 other nationalities.
Add to this, mix of faiths and beliefs: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, animists, atheists and agnostics. Throw in, too, age, sex, caste and social status, you get what is a complex compendium of "how-to-other-others". What an encyclopaedia of hate!
The purpose of our creation in varying hues is to get us to know each other. Notwithstanding the human invention of nationalities, we could still get to know each other and spread love around the world. But no, we have allowed deviation to tempt us.
Instead of love, we are spreading hate around the globe. What's worse, hate is not as far away as France, India or China. It is home-grown. Yes, it's a "produce" of Malaysia, sown, fertilised and harvested here at home. Some of this hate may have been the baggage of immigration, but we cultivated it nonetheless.
Those given to the bizarre theory of evolution say it is in our DNA to hate "the other". This is making nonsense of science. Humans, who are created in all their differences for the purpose of getting to know each other, can't have such tainted hearts.
The truth is, humans learn hate from the world around them: homes, neighbourhoods, communities and nations. Nurture, not nature. Our hearts must be taught how to love again. It is not easy given that we have 33 million hearts to teach how to love. We have no choice but to do it, one heart at a time.
As a Malay proverb puts it, sedikit-sedikit, lama-lama jadi bukit (a mountain is made a little at a time). The best place to start is at home because that is where the heart is.
Parents, neighbours and community leaders —in that order — must be messengers of love. This must be reinforced in schools, colleges and universities. Only in this way can the ripple of love that starts at home spread nationwide.
But there is one big hurdle to cross: the politics of hate. Let's not fool ourselves and assign such hate to one stripe of politics. Ironically, like humans, the politics of hate, too, comes in many hues. Where the ripple of love unites, the ripple of hate divides before it destroys.
Politicians who peddle hate must learn how to love before they resort to politics. Or, to put it differently, politicians must learn how to love people before politics. Peddle love for a change, we say. It will cleanse not only your hearts but also your politics.
Hate could not have stitched together a nation twice in history. Once as Malaya on Aug 31, 1957, and again as Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963. Only love could do that. And love must do that for the rest of Malaysia's history.