I still have a dream.

Yesterday, Today, Tommorow.

Yesterday.

After 102 years Saiburi has separated from Kingdom of Siam, after 53 years of Malaya independent and after 47 years of establishment of Malaysia, our Bumiputera status are still; in debate. Bumiputera: the son of the soil. Our ancestors have occupy this soil for more than a thousand year. We are not just Sam-Sam race who are migrated from Kingdom of Siam to occupy Saiburi. Long before Srivijaya kingdom, way long before Nakhorn Srithammarat Kingdom, we are Siam-Asli or Aboriginal Siamese ( http://suttiporn.blogspot.com/ ) who've lived on this soil for thousands year along side with Semang and Sakai. And yet, our status as the children of this soil; is still in debate or in more accurate words; still far from reality. Much worse, we sometime just known as Malaysia- born Thai.

What went wrong, I wonder. What have refrain us from enjoy this privileged, what have stop us to claim our birthright? Even we are; rightfully deserve it when our ancestors opt to become the citizen of this country over Siam 102 years ago. What went terribly wrong? Is that because there are no Siamese lawyer or there are no Siamese minister in this country? Or because we are a peaceful race and too comfortable with what we currently having and we never unite to fight for our right? Or it's just simply it is because of our ignorance? We care more about personal gain more than Siamese right. In so doing, we will pay a major price. Or our negligence of our history rob us our right? Or, we're so focused on instantaneous gratification like; new 'balai raya' or new 'jalan tar' before PRU often become long term problem? Like what Michelangelo said,"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it" I don't know. I'm not a politician or an elected senator to represent Siamese people in the parliament. I'm just a cook with only SPM education, it's just too much for me to comprehend.

Today

But in all honesty, in a population of 70,000 people, and after more than a thousand year our ancestors live on this soil, most people from other race in this country don't even know that we are the citizen of this country. Much worse, they don't even know that we are exist! I remember few years back, when I haven't change my ic from Kad Pengenalan Bermutu Tinggi to Mykad when the dateline is approaching, I was stopped by a policeman in a road block. When he see a peculiar name in my ic, he ask me,"Orang apa ni?" Then I answered, "orang Siam." Then, he warned me if I don't change my ic soon, he will 'halau' me 'balik' Thailand. As a warganegara (and MAYBE a Bumiputera) of this country I was felt insulted and shock! If you think that is worse, do you know what is worse? Most of the Siamese people don't even know our own history. Normally they can't answer a simple question when other race ask about our origin and how we ended up in this country. Sorry,but true. If we don't even know ourselves, how you expect other people know us? But, who to blame.

Neither I'm expressing my ingratitude nor I'm fervently denounce my own race and my own country. Despite some difficulties, I love Malaysia the dearest. The point is, in the population of 70,000 people we still can't find one person who is good enough to lead us forward, to be known by other people. So our children don't have to tick the 'dan lain-lain' box as their race when they fill the form to apply to enroll to the university. The question is, what we can do, today, so our children and our grandchildren will live in a better social status than we currently living? We need to start something, with great sense of urgency! That is simply means, we need to do something now. The best way to predict the future is to create it TODAY!

I still have a dream

I say to you, my friends, so even though we face the great difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deep rooted in a young boy's soul who used to sing, 'Saya Anak Malaysia', by Dr. Sam, with great pride and deep love for this country. I have a dream that one day this nation will granted what is rightfully ours. This is our hope. This is the faith that I'm leaving Kuala Lumpur after 15 years and go back to the north with. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to stand up for our children's right together, knowing that we will finally recognize as; 'the children of this soil.'

I still have a dream.

But today I dream as a practical man who believe in Buddha philosophy, 'attahi' attano natho.' I'm a cook, who make a living and build my dream base on what I can grab and what I can hold to. Dreaming without action, it's merely stating a preference saying, "I'm interested in having this happen, if I don't have to do anything." That's not Siamese spirit! It's a weak prayer made with out the faith to launch it.

I still have a dream.

But we can't live in the political delusional any more. Sometime enough is really, enough. We can't wait any longer. Bumiputera or not we have to move forward or at least find a way to move forward. If we can't find a way, we must make one. If we notice our action in the past is not work out, we must change our approach.Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is what Albert Einstein call Insanity. We must do what we can, with what we have, right where we are, using whatever lives gives us along the way. But we must decide, to find a way no matter what! If our children can't get into the IPTA because we are not under the Bumi's quota and we can't afford them to go to IPTS. We must create a new form of education. So we can develops our strengths, skills, and innovative capacities and therefore we can continue to contribute more to this country's development in our own way, the Siamese way. Ask not what this country can do for us, but we must ask ourselves what we can contribute to this country. We must sow before we can reap. Only with the plan of that size we can develop ourselves and our race. Because our wellness is depend greatly on this country's prosperity. We cannot walk alone.

I was born into under privilege environment and because of my unfortunate circumstances, (which is I never regret) I never get the chance to go to the university. Despite my lack of understanding of what they've been taught on that menara gading, I still believe university is the best place for us to develop our seed of greatness for our future generation. So, whatever I will say, just don't misinterpret that I'm undermine the importance of university's education and I'm promoting sekolah menengah drop out or I'm encouraging our young boys and girls not to go to the university. We must go, when we have opportunity. What I'm trying to say is, if we can't enroll to the university under any circumstances, we shouldn't settle far less than what we potentially capable of. Within every adversity is the seed of an equal or greater opportunity or advantage. We must not stop educated and develop ourselves in our own way. Because seed of greatness and opportunity may truly come in disguise. If we miss that opportunity, maybe we meant to plant our seeds of greatness in our own way. We must take every setback as a spur to greater effort, we must look upon temporary defeat as a signpost that says "STOP, go this way instead." Because the education is not only what you can get in the university. Again, please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that university education is important, even though I never been there, I know is important. I'm just saying that, we must plan something else rather than just wait for the Bumiputera status for our children. I'm just saying that, hospitality, culinary, entrepreneurship is also a form of education. We must execute it rightly to turn this into outstanding professional.

I still have a dream.

I still have a dream, but today I dream as an awaken man. In my previous blog I've stated clearly what is our strengths and our critical success factors. We maybe lose our privilege to be Bumiputera, but we still have our right to be different. That difference is our privilege, that privilege is our genetic advantages; that advantages is our area of excellence. We can achieve our full potential only by throwing our whole heart into developing talents in this area. And why not develop a tangible and concrete plan to become excellent in the areas that help us the most? We must focus in the field that will bring Siamese race to rise even greater height. To drive ourselves forward, we must fully utilize our strengths and we must develop it in excellent fashion. To become a great race we must specialize in something. We must single mindedly focus our energies and our resources in the area where we can dominate. We should withdraw ourselves from the area that we don't have competitive advantage, the area that we can't contribute significantly for this country.

'Saiburi United Project' is a big dream. We won't achieve the dream of this magnitude just by being interested. We must committed to that goal, we must strive constantly and consistently to that magnificent direction together. I believe life is constantly test our level of commitment and life's greatest reward are reserved for those who demonstrated a never-ending commitment to act until they can achieve. This level of resolve can move Gunung Jerai, but it must be constant and consistent.

This is our opportunity to leave our mark, creating a legacy that make true difference in Siamese lives. You want to predict what will happen to our society future? The answer is, it depend on what you are creating today.

In our community today, especially in the Facebook, I've read a lot of pretty instense argument in our Siamese persatuans, under so many different name. Despite our noble intention, we fail to conduct ourselves with knowledge, integrity and discipline when we debate sensitive issues. We fail to choose the words wisely to make our desires known. Rather than we use the power of words to move ourselves emotionally, to challenge and embolden our courage, and to strengthen our spirit of brotherhood, we fall into the fatal trap, we use the power of words to destroy rather than to build, to divide rather than to bridge our small community. Our failure to express and share our opinion with others, our failure to debate these issue with integrity and in the spirit of brotherhood, our failure to improve our vocabulary is pulling us in the direction that we wish to avoid. We raises the intensity of these negative conversations to; making the provoking, cheap,rude,contempt,frivolous, offensive, and above all unconstructive statements. It's not just destructive but it's also denigrating our moral's value. This unconscious poisonous mix doses choice of words, it's represent our mentallity not just as individual but, of our community at large. Like the old Malay proverb; 'kerana pulut santan binasa, kerana Facebook badan binasa' and 'kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga.'

The truth is, it is not the critic who count, not the man who points out the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The only way you can tell what a person really believes is by their actions, not words. It is not what you say, or what you intend, or what you wish or hope or pray for, but only what you do that counts. Your true values and beliefs are only and always expressed in your behavior. One person who will take action is worth ten brilliant talkers who do nothing. The credit are belong to man and woman who are actually in the arena. Who have and demonstrate the great devotion to spend themselves in a worthy course. The one who teach our children Thai language in the temple with no salary, the one who volunteer in the religious ceremony, Phra' ajarn who are teaching Dharma, the people like my late dad who, despite his adversities and live in poverty for most of his life but because of his knowledge and his character he became one of the most respectful person in our society, and the peoples who strive for great triumph of high achievement for themselves, their community, and their country.

500 thousands ringgit is not too much to ask in this country. I refuse to believe in the country of great wealth and just unveiled an ambitious 10-years investments of US$444 billion (RM 1.3 trillion) to power the nation towards becoming a high income economy by 2020, half a million is too much to ask for the project of this size of benefit. What we must do is we need to plant this seeds of idea in a form of massive action, this germinal idea will have potentiality of bringing forth the bigger things; entrepreneurship, hospitality and tourism. 500 thousand ringgit is not too much to ask. But how we can raise the fund of this much? I believe some where out there, there are a lot of Siamese people who are influential and prominent in our society. Will some one step forward? So then we can start to walk rather than just talk. For now I don't know. But like I said in my previous blog; I will work valiantly, with sweat and blood. The worse, if I fail, I'll fail while trying daringly.

Tomorrow

Maybe one day, when we add great value to ourselves, so it's reinforce the value to our race, therefore we can expand our capacities to contribute to this country's development. When we stop pursuing something that we lack control of, and start moving toward the accomplishment of something that is more important to us, on one fine day in near future, Bumi status will come to us. Maybe, just maybe, on that day we are no longer need it. Because even without the Bumi status, with the spirit of rock solid brotherhood we've overcome a great adversity and won through, in spite of the odds. And it's makes orang Siam is a highly competitive race. And IF this country finally grant our children the Bumi status, is just commentary. Then, only then, Siamese is truly a great race!

The question is when? The answer is; when you want it to be?