Being Malaysian
Malaysia turns 47 today.
Here are some of my thoughts on being a Malaysian…
I guess, I’d have to rave about the food… My family would go all the way north to Ipoh (500km away from JB) during the holidays just to eat the Ipoh hor fun and dim sum… Hey, the hor fun there is not those thin stripy ones we have here in the south; they are fat, huge and covered with that yummy black sauce. I love the cheap food and durian chendol at the Malacca “Tan Kim Hock” durian stall, though I have to eat in moderation considering their chendol is now RM 3 – it used to be RM 1.50. I love the Chinese and Hakka restaurants in KL, the Cathay restaurant in Kulai which is 15km away from my home, and the Ampang Yong Tau Foo in Ampang KL itself – the rest of them are probably dodgy imitations of the real one. Generally, JB food isn’t particularly fantastic… I’d say, the best food in Malaysia is probably in Ipoh and / or Penang.
To my dad, I think Malaysia means a land of opportunities for him. That’s probably why he gave up his job as a technician at PUB Singapore and went back to help my grandfather out with the petrol business. My dad always says, “It’s impossible to be poor in Malaysia, as long as you try. You can just go to an isolated piece of land, claim your stake, plant some bananas and vegetables, and make a living. The government’s not going to care about you”.
I remember the 1998 Commonwealth Games that we hosted… I was there for the opening ceremony. Malaysia was in a political turmoil then, with the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim just the week before. I remembered I was quite scared when I read about the chaos in KL… and the whole “reformasi” movement. KL seemed like a dangerous place to be then, to many of us down in the south. But I was so proud to be Malaysian during the Commonwealth Games, till the point I was shedding tears when the national anthem was played when the Malaysian contingent came walking in the last. Did I mention Queen Elizabeth was there too?
Mahathir – I guess a lot of people outside Malaysia didn’t really like him, from George Soros to Paul Keating. But I guess to me, he was a shrewd political leader. I think no Malaysian leader would ever make public statements like “the Jews rule the world by proxy”. Mahathir was kind of guilty of nepotism and cronyism through his policy of creating a select pool of Bumiputera businessmen to run the key government companies in Malaysia, e.g. Malaysia Airlines, Renong, Proton, and UEM (United Engineers Malaysia), and many of these government companies were saddled with huge loans when the economy came crashing down on us in 1997… but the way he tried to solve our economic problem was pretty dignified also? I’m talking about rejecting IMF… which well, was probably neo-colonialism in action under the guise of “structural adjustment”. I shook hands with Mahathir before when he came to visit my constituency in the 1999 general elections.
My favourite tourist destinations in Malaysia – KL (for its food, for its shopping, for Concorde Hotel – I’ve stayed there like 15 times since 1997, my mum’s side of the family is in KL), Ipoh (for its food), Penang (for its food), Langkawi (for the beaches, for the seafood, for duty-free shopping), Terengganu (for its beaches, for being in a state where 98% of the population is Malay – an alternative dimension of race composition as compared to Penang, JB and KL).
My 6-month teaching stint at the International School of Johor this year saw the Malaysian staff (from teachers, administrative staff, attendants) always conversing in Malay about how we felt that we were unfairly treated and paid, as compared to the “Other”, i.e. the ang mohs, or orang putih (white people). I mean, the principal was like getting more than 20 k per month, the cleaners were getting like $750 a month, and I was like, as you know, I’ve still yet to get my pay for May and June 2004.
Admittedly, I can’t really say that I know Malaysia inside out, knowing the soul of the nation because I’ve spent 12 years of my life in Singapore, being a quasi-Singaporean. It was by a stroke of fate that I spent most of my life so far in Singapore. I was enrolled in the St Joseph’s Malay school at the start of Dec 1991 (in those days the Malaysian academic calendar began in Dec). I didn’t like the teacher, didn’t like the way the teaching system went and all. So my folks decided to enrol me in Singapore. In any case, the school fees for foreigners then (I only got my PR in Primary 3) was like 50 bucks per month. But no school wanted me because they were full already, and it was like a bit too late to enrol for Jan 1992? Heh. But I don’t know how my dad and mum persuaded Mr Kwong, the principal of Fuchun Primary to let me in. And Fuchun Primary was like the most sought after primary school in Woodlands then. It still is. I don’t really have a Malaysian friend too, unless we’re talking about my Malaysian colleagues back at ISJ. I think, all my friends are Singaporeans too. But I guess for me, home will always be in Malaysia. That’s where my national identity lies.
Waking up late...
Slept at 4am just now trying to finish up the history and political science tutes.. and guess what? I slept through my first lesson, that's the history tute which was at 10am.. haha.. luckily Jeremy called me up at 10am and asked me "eh how come u still not here?" then i realised... "oh god. i'm gonna miss my tutorial! thanks for waking me up though.. i'd have slept through the 12pm anthropology lecture today too :)" erm anyway it's not a big deal... i'll just attend the 11am history tutorial tmrw.. very flexible. :)
I got 84% for my anthropology colonialism essay... urm yeah feeling quite happy. think it was probably one of the highest in class... but the essay's like only 6% of the entire unit, so... yeah. nothing really to be happy about. but of cos, it felt good :)