From Malaysia to All Over The World.

The more I travel and get to know different cultures and traditions from all over the world, the more I realize how much I love my country. Isn’t that irony?

The thing is, when we travel to another country, we see things that are new and exciting to us, we experience the culture that we felt is different, and sometimes we think it’s better compared to our motherland.

Take Japan for example, when I went to Japan, I was amazed by the discipline that the Japanese have – you see people lining up when entering the subway, if you lose your thing, you come back and realize that your stuff, no matter how valuable it is, you’ll find it untouched. What if the same situation happens in Malaysia? Well, if you are a Malaysian, you would probably know the answer. Besides that, the cleanliness of their cities and the advancement of technology in their country is also something that impresses me. I wish Malaysia had this too. The same feelings I felt when I visited Korea. All things new to me, seem very ideal and exciting. Really, if only Malaysia has this kind of mentality, wouldn’t our country develop faster?

Reading the news of the crimes that are ongoing in our country, and reading how Malaysian keyboard warriors and “bawang netizens” are doing their best criticizing our country, fueling up the discreet racism that has already existed in some people and well, making everything about the country literally seems very negative. I cannot deny, I got influenced as well. Except that I decided to keep silent, and not turn myself into those netizens. I felt that it is a waste of time to spread negativity and hatred in people, to complain about things and do nothing about it.

Instead, I decided to leave the country (oh dear, this sounds more extreme), and try to experience living in another country – take a short escape from the endless problems that Malaysia has, but of course I do have my own reason why I left Malaysia. I wanted to learn a new culture and way of life. I also wanted to understand my own country.

Last year I got a scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan. It has always been my dream to become a polyglot. So, this opportunity is really something I do not want to miss. I quit my job, left my whole life that I have built in Malaysia, packed my bag and left for Taiwan. A country I heard very little of.

To my surprise, my first few weeks of experience in Taiwan were enough to make me fall in love with this country and the culture. People are very nice to me, even though I am a minority AND a Muslim living in a non-Muslim country, I was surprised to receive such a warm welcome from the people. Back when I was in Turkey, although people were nice, a lot of the time, the way I was treated made me realize that I was a foreigner who does not belong to the country. It is normal to feel this way when you are not living in your country. The same way some of us treat foreigners in our country, right? We can be nice to them, but how many of us tried to make them feel welcomed or accept them as a part of our community that co-exists?

So, the people in Taiwan really made me feel welcomed and treated me very nice that it made me feel I wished I could live in this country for good. The people are also very disciplined, they took care of the cleanliness, they put high importance on manners, and I could list down a lot more things that I love about the country, but that’s not the point of this writing. I will leave it to you to go and explore the culture in Taiwan.

As time passed by, I got to know more local people, and talked about a lot of issues that are ongoing in our countries – more like a cultural exchange. Then I get to know, there’s also a lot of problems and instability that goes on within the country. “Oh! So, this also happens in your country?”, that’s usually my response to these new things that I find fascinating. Sometimes the problems that they are facing, is totally the opposite of what is going on in Malaysia. When I share with my friends how my country is, I would hear them say “Wow, you are so lucky to live in Malaysia.”

When I met people who has been to Malaysia for a holiday, an internship or any other reasons, they would tell me how much they love Malaysia for our diversity, the harmony that they see in our people, the food (of course), the infrastructure, the kindness and warmness of our people, the richness of culture and the beauty of our rainforests to give a few. I realized; they see Malaysia the way I see other countries that I visited. The positive feelings that they have influenced the way they judged my country. Why am I not seeing this before?

So, all it takes for me to see my country differently is to see it from an outsider perspective. It takes Malaysia to reach the outside world, to make a Malaysian love Malaysia. Irony as it sounds.

I believe this realization is a wonderful gift. I started to embrace all the beautiful things that exist in my country. When I met new people and told them that I am a Malaysian, you cannot imagine how proud I felt to utter the words “wo shi Malaixiya ren”. When I met Malaysians abroad, regardless of their race, we would all talk about how much we missed Malaysia, especially the food and how nice it was to grow up in Malaysia.

Being able to speak Mandarin also allows me to get to understand and interact with people from different races. Trust me, it is a wonderful journey. I’m considering learning Tamil as well.

Recently, I was able to watch and experience myself how Malaysian government, and all Malaysian citizens stand side by side to fight a virus that chooses no boundary – all countries affected. I saw within these short period of time, how much Malaysian loved their country, and because of this love that we have for our country, Malaysia is now well known to the whole world as a country who successfully fought the pandemic. To this date, we are still united fighting the same cause, I believe all for the same reason.

Amidst this war that we are facing, we had yet another opportunity to celebrate our Independence Day, and this year is Malaysia’s 63rd independence celebration. Despite not having a big celebration like we used to have in the past, I saw people proudly hanging our country’s flag on the rooftop and on their cars. That is the pride we have as Malaysian. Just like them, we should be proud of what our countries have achieved.

So, to love Malaysia unconditionally, should we ignore all the problems that our country is facing and focus on all the positive things we have? I would still say no. However, I believe that if you want to change the people, the change should start in you. Be the change that you want to see. We can all take home the positive influence that we learn from other countries and culture and practice them in our daily life. Even if we feel that we are a koi fish that is swimming against the stream, we should keep doing the right thing. In Islam, we also believe that Allah would not change the fate of a people, unless they change themselves. A rock, as hard as it can be, can also change form when a tiny drop of water drops on it every day for a long period of time.

“Assalamuaikum. Dajia hao. Wo shi Yi Sha. Wo shi Malaixiya ren.”

[Peace be upon everyone. My name is Izzat. I am a Malaysian]

This is how I introduced myself to people in Taiwan, and this is how I start my video.

Though I do not think I am able to influence a lot of people, I started doing Youtube videos, sharing things that I believe that can be a positive influence on others. I do not have a lot of views, but with every view that I get, I am glad that that day I managed to give out something positive to others. Surprisingly, I got views from other countries as well, and people started paying attention to my country. It made me happy just to be able to do this.

Honestly, at the end of the day, all I wanted to see is my country grow, despite coming from what background, we are all happy to be a part of this country. When we go and set off to see other countries, we should also proudly share the heritage that we have to the rest of the world.

To sum it all up, after visiting a lot of countries, I realized no country is perfect, all has their own beauty and the dark side, Malaysia included. However, it is a fact that a country is made of the people. Without the citizens, how can a country exist? Therefore, it is our responsibility to love our country, to play our part in helping our country develop and become a better nation – and it’s never too late to start.

On a side note. Another reason that always makes people surprised about Malaysia is how much public holiday we have in a year. Of course! We have so many celebrations due to our cultural diversity, and I love every one of it. Next week, we will be celebrating Malaysia day, and I am really looking forward to that day! Happy Malaysia Day, Malaysia.

Let us have the world see, how beautiful you are, Malaysia.

Yours truly,

Izzat binti Zaid