Custom, Culture and Beliefs : Seamlessly Intertwined

When I was in my Sixth Form, I accidentally came across a book written by a Malaysian female writer (an apology to her, couldn't remember her name), describing the 'beauty' of Malay customs and culture. Her writing related well to me at that time, that, on one occasion when I was asked by my teacher what I wanted to do as my future undertaking, I confidently answered : " I want to become an anthropologist." So innocently funny. Only with that one reading, I was 'psychologically' influenced of what my future aim in life was to be. But, as fate has it and as already witnessed by all, I am far from being one.

Even when I studied Ethnography of Communication (i.e a method of discourse analysis in linguistics, drawing from the 'anthropological' field of ethnography, since language is culturally-embedded), as one of the topics covered in my Sociolinguistics class, I did not 'relive' the desire of being an anthropologist. Frankly, I did not even remember I actually had had that 'noble' intention of upholding the values as manifested in my custom or culture. Well, not so much of a 'true' Malay then, after all.

But, every time I reflected on the environment I grew up in back in the old days, I could not help myself from 'reminiscing' the old 'tradition', that has to some extent 'govern' our 'individual' behaviors and shape them so that we could be proud of ourselves as members of a civilized society. After all, we live in a multi-racial country where mutual understanding and high tolerance of each other's differences in term of religious beliefs and practices are vital.

I still remember my neighbor (of Indian family), living next to my house, whom after 10 years of not seeing each other, had made their best effort to appear on my BIG day( which was like14 years ago). As I am writing this, my tears welled up in my eyes, remembering how this simple gesture of 'love' made me feel like I am also 'their' daughter, and it is also their 'obligation' to give me away. In fact, their daughter, my childhood friend, whom we fondly called 'Amoi' (funny, as her actual name is Mala), was a good friend indeed, who gave me 'support' in times of need. That was the kind of 'unselfish' friendship and relationship I had had the rare opportunity to experience in my life.

So, to me whether I become an anthropologist or not, the true fact is that WE, the multi-racial society, have always been AWARE of our DIVERSITY in terms of our customs, culture and  religious beliefs. And WE in actual fact, have always been ABLE to MANAGE our diversity (despite bad tidings and turbulence), and live together harmoniously.  If you ask me, personally, regarding my view of my own customs and culture in relation to the others', well, this is actually the 'beauty' of being different that  we have the opportunity to experience in our life, because then only can we learn to become TOLERANT of each other. And that my friends, simply the 'BELIEFS' that I hold.