Manggis: For my love of Malaysia, A reply to "D"

Assalamualaikum,
Dear D,

Ok, I agree to disagree with you on the interpretation of Tun Dr. M’s speech.

But I stand firm to my believe Tun Dr. M does not hate Jews. He is not a racist and does not hate the Chinese or Indians of this country. Whatever, so called rhetoric speeches he has made were only meant to defend the underdogs, which nowadays, include Palestinians in the mid-east crisis, Malay and Bumiputra in Malaysia. There were and are still many poor and less capable Bumiputras and during his ruling (for 22 years), he managed to make this little correction. With the right balance in races and moderate temperaments of its people, Malaysia achieves its peace and stability.

I stand firm to my believe that Malaysia and its people, will not stage a “holocaust” to the Jews or any race. It is foolish, for anyone to do so or even to think so. The race composition in Malaysia (with very2 few Jews), and the nature of its people, would not allow such horrendous act to be committed. Alhamdullilah, I have lived in this country all my life (minus some significant years abroad) without ever witnessing any war or serious destabilization in the country.

Some foreigners tried to destabilize our country (remember operation lalang?) and recently in 1997/98 (remember how well Al- Gore behaved during his speech in KL?), but by the maturity of the Malaysian people, we were able to diffuse the effect. Malaysia is not a perfect society, but we manage to solve our racial problems. Moreover, where on earth can you find a perfect society?

Those Malaysians who live abroad quietly admit to me they remain being foreigners and could not easily make friends with the white people even in the great USA where “equal opportunity” is but only a slogan and a lip service. I am not sure of Canada where you live perhaps the situation there is better. These Malaysians are for the monetary gain; and this is OK and I have no problem with this since the grass is always greener on the other side.

On the brain drain issue, it is not as bad as that being portrayed in that link you gave me. Trust me, I am in the business of “brain gain”, I know very well the issues of brain gain and brain drain. If these Malaysians go away, we can always get talents from other countries. Foreigners love to come here. One Swedish professional told me his friends have come to Malaysia 18 times within the last 5 years.

We may not pay these professionals and experts well, but Malaysia has other charms to offer. To start with, it was said (by the Australian Expatriate Magazine) Malaysia has more pretty girls per sq feet in the world. Our pretty girls are being snatched away by so many foreigners and these days we read this in the newspaper everyday. Oh, I can write a long list of things Malaysian can offer but you will think I am bragging. If you have talent and brain write to me, I can find a place to fit you, for a short visit or a long term contract. Malaysia is an interesting place, and but you need to experience to know and love it. Where on earth people enjoy public holidays, every now and then?

On the problem of kaum pendatang etc…let me rebut by an anecdote from my own experience.

As I was slowly backing my car from a parking space in Air Keroh R&R (the North-South Highway rest area near Malacca), I accidentally hit the bumper of a car. The driver, a Chinese man came out and started shouting rudely and loudly to me demanding to pay for the damage, which in my assessment only a small dent and could be patch with simple spray. His rudeness and unreasonable demand just induced me to speak rudely back to him. This is not my nature. He was with his family and I was alone, by myself. Since I was alone, the commotion started to draw a few Malays to see what happen. They did not interfere and trust that since I am a physically big person I can handle the situation. And this Chinese man started to use racial prejudice issue. He called the police, and I agreed. But the police never came because the accident is really not worth recording. We went on for nearly 3-4 hours, (by the car parking space), from quarreling to near fist fighting, to negotiating, to politely ending the situation by settlement and eventually we made friend with each other during the last 30 min. At the end I paid what he asked simply because he became polite to me. He even asked for my name card, but of course I did not give since I like to remain anonymous like now in this blog.

Now, the reason why the Chinese (2nd 3rd generations) get such a treatment sometime (as you complained), is because they are usually impolite and make unreasonable demand. Jangan kurang ajar. In the Malay psychic, nothing is more important than beradab sopan. “Biar mati anak, jangan mati adat”. Adat Melayu, mesti bersopan santun. Protocol is very important. The elders must be respected and Jangan kurang ajar. Let’s hope after this the next generation (i.e. 4th ) will improve.

So it is not the Malays want to or purposely treat the Chinese as “kaum pendatang”, but when anger rages, it is easy to slip your tongue. Remember when Malaysia was formed, over one million citizenships were given to the non-Malays including Chinese. Thanks to the founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first and wisest Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I suspect the impolite Chinese are those mainly less educated, and likewise the impolite Malays are less educated. So it boils down to bringing up the level of education and nurturing these people (both sides) with the right values.

Our education system over the 50 years since independence has to some extent being able to raise the level, if not to the world class or European standard, but significantly higher than that from the pre-independent period. I am definitely cleverer than my mother and father, both of whom could not read and write.

The Malays are really wonderful people.
The Malaysian Federal Constitution article 160(2) defines Malay as someone who is a Muslim, speaks fluent Malay and practices the Malay custom or a descendent of all of these.

By this simple definition, anyone can become Malay including many Han people. You must have come across those fair skin slanted eyed Malays. In Malaysia, Malay is not genetically defined. Even our former PM Tun Abdullah is a mixed Chinese Malay. Hence as has been long predicted by Hang Tuah, the great Malay warrior, the phrase Tidak Melayu hilang di bumi, is very aptly, because what defines Malayness is a cauldron of growing genetic varieties as the world become more globalised and which can never be destroyed.

Anthropologically, they originated from those aborigines (mainly Orang Asli) who live along the coast line of the Malaya peninsular and came into contact with foreigners, the Indians, Chinese, Thais, Arabs traders and so on. These aborigines welcomed and embraced foreigners and their cultures easily. The fusion between these aborigines and foreigners made up the Malays. Of course this process happened over thousands of years. The Malay language is full or foreign words (including Hebrew). What is important to note how easy the Malays mixed with foreigners? How welcoming and compromising the Malays are.

Until these days, try talking to a Malay, he will naturally imitate the dialect of the foreigner who try to speak Malay and not the other way round. Hence, we develop bahasa Melayu pasar, the market Malay language.

Bahasa Melayu pasar is not the official Malaysia language but the latter is base on Bahasa Melayu Johor-Riau. As you probably recalls Johor-Riau was an empire established after the fall of the Melaka when the Portuguese invaded and colonized Melaka. The Sultan fled to Muar and started his new dominion. So the main Malay language and culture are very much influenced by Johor-Riau Sultanate, the palace language and culture. In contrast, the Indonesian language also Malay like is very much more rough (kasar), because of the influence of the market. The Malays in Malaysia will normally use “saya, kami, kita, awak, mereka ”, while the Indonesian will use “aku, engkau, gua, lu” instead. Once I communicated by email with a French who wanted to come to Malaysia. He has learned Indonesian language. He wrote to me in Indonesian language, although I understand him, I feel his language construct was rough (kasar) almost to rudeness. It was this incident that has made me to reflect on the background I describe to you above.

Of course, in Malaysia the different states have their own dialect, some I do not understand, like the Kelantanese and Sabahan etc… I am a Johorean (was born in Singapore) and very proud of my background. Actually, the great Johor-Riau Empire included Singapore and naturally, I studied the history of these places well.

Do you know the Sultan of Johor (Sultan Mahmud) passed away (mangkat) recently?

The new Sultan i.e. his son is actually another mixed blood, his mother is an English lady. So there you are, we have a half English Sultan in Johor. I like the new Sultan Ibrahim and his wife Her Royal Highness Sultanah Zarith Sofiah who is the Patron of Red Crescent and also a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause.

What is the simple Palestinian cause? Well only to have a place to stay in peace and dignified. Is this so difficult to fulfill?

Thank you for reading my long reply, my dear D.

p.s.
I will comment on the meeting with Yeshua later.

Manggis