Sunny Side of Down

Sunday March 29, 2009
Sunny side of down
MIND MATTERSBy RAJA ZARITH IDRIS
It’s heartening for us that there are still nooks and corners in our country where issues of race and religion are totally irrelevant.
WE look at the world around us with cynical eyes. And for good reason too. Every day in our local newspapers, we read about men and women belittling each other and doing so, it seems, with much pleasure.
The spitefulness, the malice and the negativity seep into our minds. Some of us with more optimistic souls feel that all will be well, regardless of the opinions expressed in the media.
Some will look for the cliched silver lining or the light at the end of the tunnel.
I, however, choose to remain stubbornly pessimistic.
With that pessimism firmly rooted in my heart and mind, a little grouchiness too as well as a “Yeah, right” attitude (the latter from watching too many American television series), I set off to join the members and volunteers of the Kiwanis Club of Johor Baru.
The event was a celebration of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21. The guests were the Down Syndrome children from the Kiwanis Club centre where they are taught skills to help them cope with everyday life.
Physically and mentally able babies and toddlers can hold a toy in their hands without much problem but for those who are born “floppy” (in other words, who have Down Syndrome), such a simple action has to be taught.
The one thing they do not need to be taught is being happy. They are trusting. They have few inhibitions and will sing, dance and clap their hands, whether it is in the privacy of their classroom or in the lobby of a shopping mall.
So imagine grouchy me and such un-grouchy children. As I walked with the Kiwanis Club members and shook hands with these children and their parents, a little girl held out her arms wide and gave me an unanticipated hug. She hugged me so tightly that I gasped. But I hugged her back. And I did so happily.
There were other hugs. There were many smiling faces. Even the adults smiled and looked happy. It was quite contagious. So much so I felt the pessimism in me slowly melt away. Oh wow, what a feeling.
No boundaries whatsoever
During the next hour or so, as volunteers from a school and a college performed dances and sang songs, I kept looking at the girl who had hugged me.
She danced throughout these performances. When she looked over her shoulder at me, I gave her two thumbs-up. She smiled and gave me two thumbs-up too. I was no longer Madame Grouchy.
While watching the young volunteers – three of whom were foreign – entertain the children, the racial-laden words I had read earlier in the morning papers faded a little from my mind.
In my opinion, the media very obviously and openly echo the worries of apparently well-meaning men and women regarding race and religion. We adults are being not so subtly told to be distrustful of each other.
Every day, as we read our newspapers, surely but not quite so imperceptibly, we are encouraged to think that those who are not of the same race or religion as us are not to be trusted. As if competing in the rat race is not bad enough, we are also told that there is a racial race going on.
Bearing in mind what I read every day, I felt that the Kiwanis Club members and volunteers were proving the naysayers wrong. They are a dedicated team of Malaysians who are determined to help those children who are born with Down Syndrome. None of their pamphlets or magazines mentions the importance of race or religion.
The children are not as mentally able as other children but they certainly display a touching sense of trust and acceptance. In their little world, there are people who are kind to them and those who look away from them.
We know that they are mentally disabled but if we put aside our sometimes misplaced sense of adult superiority, we may see that there are some things we can learn from them: that it is not a bad thing to accept those who have shown kindness and love to us.
Later at lunch, after the celebrations were over, one of the Kiwanis Club members said to me, “A reporter asked me how many of the children in our centre are Malays, how many are Chinese or Indian. I refused to tell him. I said we want to help as many children as we can. We don’t care if they are Malay or Chinese or Indian.”
And I believed him.
As I got into my car to go home, I realised there was something I hadn’t done: I had forgotten to ask if the girl who had given me the first hug was a Malay, a Chinese or an Indian. I remembered the hugs and the smiles, though.
“Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you on account of religion and do not drive you from your homes – from being friendly with them and acting justly to them. Truly, Allah loves the just.” — Surah Al-Mumtahanah, verse 8.
The writer is Chairperson, Community Services Committee of the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. She is also Royal Fellow, School of Language and Linguistic Studies, UKM, and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Chinese Studies, University of Oxford.