Intercommunicating culturalation

Or was it Intercultural communication.  Actually it was the latter. I attended a The Intercultural Awareness Colloquium at OUM today. And I have to say that it was interesting in more ways than one.  The talks and workshops were nice but it was nicer to meet some old friend whom i have not seen or spoken to in years. 

I suppose the most important thing that we did today was build up our awareness and consciousness of the ins and outs of intercultural communication. However, I have to say that for all the effort and all the talk, i felt there was something missing.  We talked about intercultural communication which actually happens when people of different cultures meet.  Of course, it becomes important when the cultures cause tension between the communicators.  I believe that there is another side that is more important, the cross-cultural communication side.

Cross-cultural communication is not about contact between people or cultures but about systematically knowing the differences and the similarities between cultures.  It is embodied in the act of building information about the other cultures that you meet: it is about eradicating our ignorance of each other’s cultures, lives and the rest.  This is the part that is sorely lacking in Malaysia in spite of the fact that we have been living together for centuries. on the surface there is knowledge of other cultures: you mention Chinese and every other Malay, Indian or “Other” will spout the common keywords and terms of “kong hee fatt choy”, “cheong sam”, “chee cheong fun” and lion dance, but dig deeper and you will find misinformation more of than knowledge. 

Take the case of halal food, I have yet to meet a non-Muslim who really understands the full implication of the term in Islam and the reason why it is an intimate subject to the Muslim Malays.  Equally, on the other side, I have yet to talk to a Malay layman who is able to tell me the full semantic load of the term “hell” as used by the Chinese in relation to the afterlife.  I had it explained to me long long ago on a walk through the Haw Par garden in Singapore by a friend of my family aided by the terms and “illustration” of the place.  Okay, admittedly a Chinese may say that my knowledge would then be very simplified. I agree but it has a hell of a lot more depth than what I have heard from the Malays and Indians and Others I have spoken to. 

I truly believe that while we are at an important point in our multicultural life as a nation: we are currently re-negotiating the terms under which we live together in this land.  If done well, we will see Malaysia rise to greater heights.  To do this well we must eradicate our ignorance of each other, only then can we live together instead of within the confines of our ‘worlds’ and stare at each other from behind the invisible wall of the prison that we carry around with us every moment of our lives.

Fear is perhaps one important factor that hinders this.  Some of us fear losing ourselves, our identities, when we learn about others.  I believe that if we can lose ourselves so easily then perhaps we should question the strength our devotion to our heritage: perhaps we were not who we thought we were in the first place.