Multiracial neighbours

Today, as i read Anas Zubedy's uniquely conscientious efforts to recolour May 13th (as he calls it),  I somehow, thought about the forms to fill in for setting up Rukun Tetangga(which is now under purview of the Unity Department).  One of the requirements was to list out the percentage of the different races that resides in our area.  

Hence, this photo caption.  Here is a Malay (Indian Muslim i believe) and a Chinese-run coffee shop as its neighbour.  This is good, i said to myself. There is multiracial integration.

Nonetheless, within our residential, it is not so. In SS22A,  we only have a handful of Malay families and Indian families.  We are predominantly Chinese.  It is funny how residential areas progressed to set a disparity in the racial distribution of the community.  And it will become a pattern for intended house buyers for this area too.  One Malay family may say that there too many Chinese living in this area and hence may not consider this most welcoming.

I fear this is some form of polarisation.  When i was growing up, my parents  had a Singhalese neighbour who married a chinese wife. He had 16 children who in turn married other races as well.  There was fun in that family, big and like a melting pot of everything, they were still Malaysians. It was nice to have different race neighbours.  We can learn much about their cultures, beliefs and practices. It is always good to be able to learn their good values and adopt it in our lives.  

But why then, is our area predominantly a chinese area?  Did See Hoy Chan(/Paramount garden) group only targetted at Chinese buyers when they were developing this area? Was this development more appealing to Chinese? if so, why? 

As Anas Zubedy, launches his book "Have a Meaningful Malaysia" to unite Malaysians,  I cant help thinking that we should also find a way to make more races of Malaysia to stay or live together in a community. 

Here's  hoping for unity of community without disparity.