Memories shape the future

Let’s all view ourselves as Malaysians who leave positive memories that would inspire the youths.

MEMORIES. Does this word conjure up positive or negative images and feelings for you? Basically, memory is nothing more than the storage of the perception of your history in your mind – something that happened a few seconds or days or years ago.

I do not see memory as recording actual events but the perception of those events. Hence, each of us may have different memories of the same event partly due to the fact that we experience it differently.

A good memory is important for survival. It is due to the ability to remember that we can learn and apply what we learn in all aspects of our life.

It is memory that allows us to perform the simplest of task such as tying the shoelace to complex life tasks. Obviously memory has to be accompanied by action or practice for it to be useful. Memorising the process of driving a car without actually practising how to drive a car will not make you a driver at all.

What interests me about memory is this: that our life is actually the collection and creation of memories – for ourselves and those around us. Looking at it from this perspective, one of the questions that concerned me since I was young is this: what kind of memories do I store up for myself before I go to bed and when I grow old? How will I and others remember me?

While the memories we have determine to a large extent how we live our lives generally, the nature of our memory itself is shaped by how we have decided to perceive the events around us.

The factors that influence how we perceive is a complex matter altogether. It is, unfortunately or otherwise, as the case may be, influenced also by the so called “national culture, values, thinking levels and sense of compassion” prevalent at a given time.

In simple words, by the “norms” that have evolved and the norms that have been created by the opinion shapers and “public policy”.

What is the memory we have of our Malaysian history, both pre-independence and post-independence? Do we record history in our minds made up of a coming together of the residents of Malaya before Malaysia was born? If this is our memory then it will be clear in our minds that Malaysians were born on Sept 16, 1963.

We should not be confused between the legal rights and privileges that have been legislated, with the protection of the dignity of the citizen. A citizen is a human being and intrinsic to the nature of the human being is a divine right of dignity which no other human being has the right to revoke.

While any compassionate society must recognise that special privileges may have to be accorded to the lesser privileged members of the society, it cannot however be used as a tool to deny the dignity of other people.

I am certain that a person of dignity will not want to be the recipient of privileges forever beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain the dignity of a human being.

For instance, poverty and institutionalised racism is a major affront to the dignity of the human being. Hence, special privileges may be accorded to the poor or disadvantaged to upgrade their lives (and hence their dignity).

Racism should be removed from the public sphere and the citizens should be educated on how racism is not only an affront to the human dignity but is equally a neurotic behaviour of the bigot.

A racist, without doubt, demeans himself more than his target of hate. We would not want the sickness of racism etched in our memories.

We often speak of education but I prefer to speak of what is in our memory. I believe what is in our memory is more “potent” than the so called “education” that institutions have designed.

For instance, you may have been educated on the existence of the diverse ethnicities, but if you have the memory that we all originated from a “single father and mother”, the “clothing” of skin colour and ethnicity will not matter. Where and in which ethnic group we are born in is a mere “accident of birth”.

What is uppermost in our memory – as Malaysians or as belonging to a certain ethnic class or religion? The memory of how we define ourselves will affect the way we view and react with other fellow citizens. If we all view ourselves as Malaysians, then it is possible for us to sketch a common national dream and plan a common national agenda with compassion. We will behave, speak, work and interact in ways it becomes positively memorable to be Malaysians.

The youth, we say is the future, but they could either be the useful or the useless future. Whether or not they are going to grow up useful or at least try to be useful will be influenced on what they have preserved in their memories.

What kind of memories do the adults who are looked upon as role models and guides in life leave to their children and those under their care?

What memories do the youth have of their parents, teachers, society, religious and political leaders?

Positive memories will be inspirational while negative ones may beget negative behaviours and attitudes. A nation with negativities in their memory is planning to become a failed state.

Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos is a senior lawyer and founder of Rapera, a movement which encourages thinking and compassionate citizens.