Reason behind the video

On New Year's Eve I released this video that my friends and I were working on for about 7 days.

How It Started

Exactly 1 year ago right after midnight, my friend Subha and I wrote down our 3 new year resolutions on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope. I didn't know what her resolutions were and she didn't know mine (still don't). The idea was to work hard all year long to achieve the things we wrote in that envelope now stuck on the wall of her room.

We agreed to open the envelope today to see if we achieved the goals set for ourselves last year. I'll be Skyping her in a few hours to see if she managed to complete hers.

I won't tell you what my first 2 resolutions were, but the third one was to 'Do something crazy!'.

1 week before 2012

I was sitting at Secret Recipe with some friends enjoying their company while having cakes, tea and coffee. We were talking about careers and old friends and somehow the conversation took a turn into goals. I was immediately reminded of my 3 resolutions, somewhat sadly.

All 3 of my resolutions were pretty general, so the first 2 resolutions were more or less fulfilled. I told my friends I felt a bit sad because there's less than 7 days left to 'Do something crazy'. Unlike the 2 other resolutions, I didn't even give this one a good try.

So we started talking about crazy things I could do just so I could feel good about having given all 3 of my goals a really good try. Some of the suggestions were quite funny:-

1) Dress up as a guy and try to act like one. I think someone did a proper sociological experiment on this. It was really interesting.

2) Bungee jumping. But I was broke and I didn't know how to fib to my mom.

3) Burn money (again, too broke for that).

So in the end, I decided to stalk random strangers and ask them to participate in a video about racial unity. It wasn't exactly crazy, but I figured it's still good since it's for the good of society!

That was December 24th, 2011.

The Incentive

Malaysians like free stuff, and being the constantly broke person that I am, I decided to make some bookmarks! I stayed up until 2am drawing a very clichéd 1Malaysia image of 3 girls - Malay, Chinese and Indian. I decided to make it less stereotypical by making the Malay girl wear a punjabi suit, the Indian girl a cheongsam and the Chinese girl a kebaya.

If you notice, their clothes carry the colours of the Malaysian flag =p

Note: I'm very particular about my art, and I'm very well aware of all the flaws in the above image. I just want you to know that my average standard is much higher. Thank you.

Not that anyone would notice from the bookmark because I printed them in black and white (coz I'm broke, remember? And my brother would smack me for using up all his colour ink).

The next morning, I dragged my friends to my house and made them help me cut some ribbons and tie them to the bookmarks. It's worth mentioning that they're both males...

Because males and ribbons and arts and crafts don't generally mix well. So kudos to both of them for their patience and strong will!

Christmas Day

I KNOW, I know it's not the best time to do a survey. But I needed my friends' help, and they wouldn't be around after Christmas.

And I KNOW, KLCC on Christmas Day was not the best place to go because most people would be tourists busy shopping. I just didn't think about all these things because everything was so rushed.

Anyway we tried. I was really nervous at first. My first few attempts were rejected until I came upon these 2 nice girls =)

I was so excited by my first success that we watched the whole recording on the spot. Muka semangat gila.

So we kept trying, locating potential victims here and there. Willing people were not many, but that's to be understood, especially when I told them that it would be on YouTube.

(Scheming) and finding better ways to approach people and ask better questions. Impromptu strategy making!

At the end of the day we managed to get responses from a whopping number of people of... wait for it... 4!

I felt so depressed and decided to go get ice cream cake at NZ's posh-ier counterpart - the NZ Garden Cafe at Jalan Ampang.

The weather was lovely and my friends and the ice cream cake cheered me up. I decided to make a strategic withdrawal for the day and get this video done in a more effective way.

Guy with glasses is Shahril aka camcorder-man. The other male is a rarely seen creature as he is usually the one behind the camera. This male goes by the name of Anas.

The more effective way

By the next day, I came down with a fever. Don't know which annoying bugger transmitted this horrendous virus to me, but there was no way I could run around KL looking for more victims in this state.

So Shahril decided to help me by volunteering to get some of his friends to participate. As he said this, I wondered where all MY friends went. Then I realised that a huge chunk of them are still in the UK. That's when the harassing started.

I facebook messaged a lot of them, not knowing if it'll work out. But hey, the important thing is to try, right?

To cut it short, the video happened. My friends sent their videos to me via skype and email. A lot of people offered plenty of encouragement once the video was up for which I'm grateful. It might not be the best video ever, but I feel satisfied knowing that in the past 7 days, we tried really hard.

Bad timing & the message

Someone told me that right now is a bad time to talk about racial unity. I don't deny that. But precisely because of that, I think it is important, now more than ever to remind everyone that we should not be fighting amongst ourselves. 

If only more people are willing to be reminded of this simple fact, that most people are good and kind and just want to get along with everyone else as much as the next person. If only more people would give more people a break. If only we remember that rotten people exist in every single race and they are greatly outnumbered by good people in every single race. 

Remember the incident where a Malaysian student was mugged by a bunch of chavs in the UK during the riot? UK residents were horrified and donated more than £20,000 to him as a sign of goodwill. Even in difficult times, people show goodness if only we give them a chance.

Malaysians are not aggressive people. We don't like fighting. We don't like confrontations. We don't like prejudice. We like being accommodating. We like being friendly and nice.

We like food. And if that's the only thing we have in common, God help me so be it, let's fight to protect our food if not one another! 

We cannot chase the Indians out of Malaysia because mamak stalls and curry would cease to exist. Ever tasted roti canai and curry made by Malays and Chinese? Yeacht, disgusting.

We cannot chase the Chinese out of Malaysia because there goes your dim sum and soft shell crab and an entire encyclopedia of amazing food. 

We cannot chase the Malays out of Malaysia because nasi lemak and all the gulai and kuih will vanish with the Malays.

So let's accept one another and enjoy the good side of every race. Sometimes something annoys someone, but that's normal, isn't it? I mean Subha annoys me all the time (and vice versa) so I sulk for half a day and then we're friends again.

That's it. The big reason behind the video. It started as one unfulfilled 2011 resolution. I'm glad I did it. Because with that video, I really feel like I ended 2011 on a positive note.

Regardless of the effectiveness of the video or the reaction, I will continue doing what I believe is right.

And I believe that all that food is here to stay. Nothing is going out.