Yes, it’s been awhile since I last poured out my thoughts on this site. I just realized that after writing some shitty entries abt farked up comics and meaningless musings on romance, I thought maybe I’d take some time to write sth more “serious” (translation: it’s still stupid, but I’m trying to do sth other than bashing/making fun of women for a change). sure, I could always write an entry abt my dull, uber-boring daily life or post lame song lyrics & crappy poetry that NOBODY gives a shit about whenever I’m out of ideas. I could even put a picture-puzzle of a cinnamon-flavored chewing gum or (heaven forbid) those pointless Quizilla ‘What kind of character are you?’ quizzes if I wanted to; but I’m better than that.
anyways, it has come to my attention (well actually I’ve observed it for a long time, I was just biding my time to find a good opportunity to lash it out) how most of us, Malays of the younger generation’, seem to have so many negative views regarding Malays and our “supposedly skewed and narrow-minded mentality”. I’m specifically pinpointing the younger generation because we’re the ones typically coming up w/ these various harsh criticisms and whatnot. oh you’ve heard it all: “Malays are short-sighted in our way of thinking bla, bla, bla... and that’s the reason why we can never be a progressive and modern like [insert name of race/country which is believed to be ‘better’ than us]”. while I do believe that we Malays may have our own problems and issues that need to be dealt with, there are some things I notice that we never seem to put into consideration whenever we’re criticizing our own ppl. as an advocate of unpopular ideas/beliefs myself, I thought maybe I’d take a chance and write an op-ed piece to present some ideas and (maybe) a different perspective abt this thing from the other side coin.
WARNING: this is gonna be one of those long, and boring entries so if you don’t enjoy reading op-pieces, I suggest you go do sth else like touch yourself or watch animal porn.
for starters, I don’t know if any of you actually realize this, but it’s been said that Malays are typically associated with having a very limited social interaction, esp in terms of having really close/good friends who aren’t Malays themselves. yes I know, there are those of you who may have Chinese roomies or an Indian chick or even a Moroccan as a workmate, but seriously speaking, how many of you actually have really close non-Malay friends that you spend most of your time with hanging out together? (and no, short conversations w/ that American dude you happen to know while you’re on your way to class DOES NOT constitute as ‘hanging out’). I’m talking abt real, close buddies, like the ones that you would bother to call in the wee hours of the morning and ask to join you go out when you’re bored, or like the ones that always come over for no apparent reason just to chit-chat for hours till morning. the ones you spend most of your time w/. I’m sure there are some of you who do have friends like these (sometimes it’s because you’re in a situation where there aren’t many Malaysians/Malays around), but it is an undeniable fact that Malays in general, would prefer to form groups and hang out only amongst ourselves rather than mix around w/ ppl from other races. yeah, it’s sad but true.
some ppl blame it on cultural barriers. or maybe because we have different views on faith and beliefs (but how does that explain why Malays don’t hang out w/ Muslim Turks or Afghans?). others might say that we Malays ourselves are the ones to be blamed because we have this sort of disease-like “clique mentality”, which is perhaps attributed to the fact that we prefer to bond only w/ those who are similar to our skin color and language. before I left, I remember one of my aunts telling me that once I arrived in the States, I should mingle more w/ the locals rather than spend my entire 4 years overseas hanging out w/ my own kind. yeah, I know her intentions was so that I would socialize more and not become your typical, socially-inept, frog-under-the-coconut-shell Malay. she even suggested that I frequent bars (not to drink of course), but to just plainly hang out w/ the Americans and “broaden my perspective”. sadly to her disappointment, after spending abt 3 years over here I still don’t have any close American buddies, and I wonder if I myself am suffering from this so-called “clique mentality”.
I gave a long thought abt it, and then it struck me. yeah sure, you’ll prolly never see me playing a pool game or just plainly enjoying a nice cup of coffee w/ my non-Malay classmates , but every Monday I’d cycle to the local hobby store to play Yu-Gi-Oh! w/ the local geeks from 6 - 10. yes, that’s right. geeks. game geeks. and although I’ll admit I can’t even remember the names of more than half of the ppl over there, but at least they know me quite well (even if it’s just by my face). and trust me, you DO NOT KNOW SQUAT abt what’s a real geek like and what it means to be one unless you’ve been in my shoes or have experienced/seen the things I have. we’re talking abt major fat nerds who dig D&D (that’s Dungeons & Dragons to the ignorant), collectible card games and traditional RPGs here; hardcore gamers who actually spend literally hundreds buying cards, statuettes and various other collectibles for their games. now I’m not gonna lie that social stigmata towards this particular crowd makes me feel a bit ashamed of being associated w/ them at times, but then I realize that I enjoy and am quite comfortable hanging out w/ these geeks/nerds/social outcasts compared to most of the ppl that I meet in my everyday life. so screw everyone else.
you see, the point here is that sometimes it’s not really abt us typically not wanting to mix/mingle w/ others, but I think it’s more abt finding the particular group of ppl that have the same interests or mentality as yours. those that you would be comfortable to be around w/ and do stuff together, regardless of race, age, gender or even skin color. some ppl like parties and going to night clubs, while others prefer watching movies, playing bowling or are game geeks like myself. that’s why I could only laugh myself whenever I hear someone bashing Malays of not being open-minded and only hanging out amongst themselves when in fact, I hardly see this same person hang out w/ say, those alim and religious types who frequent the Masjid or churches. need I say more? some ppl only hang out w/ his/her own ppl initially because the similarity in physical appearance (and sometimes nationality) is already there. but as you get to know more abt others around you, you will automatically spot the type of peer group that you would want to spend most of your time w/. like I said, it’s all abt finding the most suitable social crowd that you could fit in.
EYE CANDY: after several long paragraphs, I thought maybe I'd post some boobies to make sure I still have your attention (sorry girls, I was already thinking of putting up a pic of a dude popping a huge boner, but that'd be too gay for me).
another issue that I’ve always wanted to talk abt is on Malays and the English language (I originally wanted to write it in a separate entry called Mind Your Language, you know, as a reference to that old British sitcom in the 70s starring Barry Evans, but then I thought maybe I’d just squeeze it into this one to save time). I guess it can’t be avoided that as a child, I grew up being largely influenced by my old man who happens to be a vocal critic of Malays who speak English “unnecessarily”. I think some of you might have already heard the argument before, you know, “some of us Malays are so obsessed w/ the English language, we seem to have neglected our own native tongue and ignored the importance of its usage in our everyday life” (it’s more or less sth like that). I’m not saying that we shouldn’t speak in English, I mean hell yeah it’s crucial that we strive to improve our mastery in the language and all that, but sth really irks me whenever I hear a local 7-Eleven clerk or McDonald’s cashier suddenly start to blurt out in the most broken English when I could perfectly understand him/her in Malay. I mean what’s up w/ that?
I can never understand why certain ppl could become such pretentious dicks who talk gibberish in hopes of impressing somebody w/ their second-rate English. the keyword here is “pretentious”, because these assholes/bitches are trying to be somebody they’re not. these are the very same ppl who refuse to speak Malay w/ you because “it has no class” or some shit. they think that the Malay language is inferior and insist the usage of English everywhere and all the time (regardless of the fact that Bahasa Melayu itself is our own national language which means that it should have a higher priority in usage in our everyday life). what pisses me off even more is when some of these dirtbags start acting all superior and looking down upon on others, as if they think they’re more dignified just because they can speak slightly better than most ppl. it’s even funnier still that these supposedly “oh-I-am-so-modern-and-advanced-because-I-speak-English” idiots themselves sound like a hissing Madagascar fruit bat choking on cottage cheese w/ all of that awkward sentence structures and inappropriate word usage. and don’t even get me started on grammar or word pronunciation. please, do the whole world a favor by not flaunting your utterly-horrendous language skills. trust me. you are not a native English speaker, you don’t sound like one, you will never be one and most importantly, NOBODY is impressed. I’d call them a bunch of fucking ‘posers’ but that’d be an insult to hip hop-listening, underwear-exposing, rapper-wannabes.
I really wonder what’s w/ the typical Malay mentality of glorifying English as a spoken language? personally, I rarely speak in English w/ ppl (no, really). I don’t talk much esp around foreigners or anyone I’m not familiar/comfortable with (what can I say? I’m a shy person...), and even during social gatherings (you know, those times when you have to go and meet ppl at the International Center or some stupid shit) I usually keep my mouth shut and pretend that I’m a mime, unless I’m spoken to or if the person I’m accompanying w/ has a tough time explaining/translating sth. in fact, back home the only person I would ever converse in English is my 2nd elder sister, and even then it’s mostly jabs and insults. even when speaking w/ certain ppl like former debating buddies, four-eyed ihsan of rpi, the ambiguously gay mero or bimbos like liyana jamil, I use mostly ‘Manglish’, w/ the occasional bits of Malay here and there. the only times I would actually bother to speak properly nowadays is either when I’m talking w/ a classmate/the professor/ordering at a restaurant/one of my geek buddies at the hobby store, or if I’m trying to annoy someone (usually from the opposite sex) w/ my strange and obscure one-liners.
while I know that some ppl come up w/ the excuse of ‘needing the practice to speak English’, to me it’s more abt how the choice of language reflects one’s own pride towards his/her own identity. yes identity. you could tell a lot from someone’s background and history and how these factors could contribute to why he/she is the kind of person who would speak/behave like some lame-ass American wannabe. it is commonly believed that non-native English speakers who can converse really well are usually ppl who either a) have spent some time overseas (being born or raised somewhere other than M’sia for instance), or b) urban-dwellers of the upper middle class (and above) who could afford buying English books, magazines, etc. and live in an environment (either the location or the ppl around them) where English speaking is common/highly encouraged.
although it is certainly hard to dispute that these claims aren’t true (at least to a certain degree), I myself was born and raised in M’sia and prior to studying here, I’ve only been overseas 3 times (during my dad’s sabbatical in the States when I was 4, 8 months in Netherlands following my dad do his research when I was 10, and that one short week in France when I was 16). do you really think any of those trips had any effect on the development of my English language skills? (HINT: the answer is not yes). other than that, I live in a neighborhood which isn’t exactly in the most urban and developed part of Kajang (trust me, Taman Sekamat is like this really 80s residential area where we’re still surrounded by parts of the forest, orchards, small rivers, sandy pathways, old wooden buildings, squatter areas and the like) and I didn’t have any actual English-speaking buddies until I got into debating in high school. and yet…despite the absence of these typical social factors, I can speak and write pretty damn well (not to brag but a proven FACT, and I dare ask anyone to come up front and prove me otherwise). talent? no it has nothing to do w/ talent. the most logical explanation I could give is those countless hours wasting my time in front of tv, watching shows or playing video games, all the while occupying myself w/ game magazines and comic books during my spare time. so I guess, the environment and spending your holidays overseas doesn’t really affect how well you speak English does it?
yeah, I am very critical abt my language, be it when it comes to the use of proper English or the choice of spoken language. maybe it’s because my own 2nd sister was constantly criticizing me abt my English and the way I speak. today, I still make mistakes and I may have hated her for it, but if it wasn’t for her, I’d prolly never be the considerably language conscious person that I am today. another part of it stems from my own background which made me realize the importance of my own identity, that I’m a Malay and I should be proud of it, esp when it comes to using my own mother tongue. all of that bullshiat you hear abt needing the English language to become more advanced are nothing but lies. the French and the Japanese aren’t obsessed w/ English and they’re still way more advanced than us. again, I’m not saying we shouldn’t master English at all, but Bahasa Melayu should always be given a higher priority because it’s a symbol of our pride to our own ppl’s identity. oh, and not to sound too hypocritical, but in case any of you dolts are wondering, the reason this site itself is in English is because I need a medium to improve my own writing skills while I’m expressing my thoughts and ideas. also, it pretty much reflects my own identity as a chauvinistic scumbag (c’mon, you hafta admit mcp sounds better and a whole lot cooler than ‘babi jantan yg memandang rendah terhadap wanita’). so there you go.
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and last but not least, I’ve always wanted to talk abt this phenomenon I’ve been observing that involves younger Malays/M’sians (in general), having this intense clash of ideals & perspectives w/ those from the older generation. I’ll explain by providing some simple cases/anecdotes. for simplicity’s sake, lets say that ‘the younger generation’ can be anyone who’s a child, teen, or even an adult in his/her early thirties and by ‘the older generation’, I mean those older than the previous group or just abt anyone w/ a conservative-like mindset of the olden days, from politicians, your parents, grandparents, soccer moms etc.etc.
now the basic scenario is that these ppl from the older generation usually have some sort of authority or power that enables them to impose their standards of living on us youngsters. and then, in our typical response, we whine and complain w/ our clichéd rhetorical arguments like “old ppl are like so passé, they’re narrow-minded in their way of thinking/method of doing things, they’re not hip/cool like us young ppl, they do not understand how times have changed etc. etc.”. case in point, I’ve heard that after the M’sian Film Censorship Board decided to cut like 6 minutes of footage from the movie Sepet, it drew many sharp criticisms mainly from (you guessed it) the younger generation. some say the censorship panel consist of idiots, others argue whether the panel are even doing their job properly. I myself have never seen the movie, but many ppl (again, most from our generation) say it’s great. they say it reflects the (supposed) reality of life in M’sia and deals w/ the issue of love and the barriers of culture, religion and ethnicity and the board’s decision was truly unfair. now frankly speaking, I really couldn’t care less if the movie was cut short (only a few minutes? what are you complaining abt?) and yes, I must say sometimes the Censorship Board does make some ridiculous decisions; but again, this op-piece is abt sth from the other side of the coin, so I’m gonna argue from their side.
first of all, you hafta keep in mind that no matter how much you whine, complain and criticize, it’s not their job to just cater to the younger generation’s needs. there are many things that need to be considered. look at the big picture. for instance, as a govt. agency, the panelists realize that their decisions are still tied to the interest of many, from policy makers to every single M’sian in the entire country. they have strings attached. some of the scenes that you see in the movies might not offend you, but it doesn’t work that way w/ certain politicians/govt. officials or conservative-minded ppl who might go ballistic when the board suddenly approves sth which that is deemed as unsuitable for viewing. it’s all abt trying to balance the needs for everyone even if it meant drawing some criticism from a portion of the entire population.
try to compare it w/ a hypothetical scenario where you’re a news reporter/editor w/ Utusan Malaysia for example. let’s say you have many negative beliefs and criticisms abt the govt. now tell me, do you honestly believe that you could get away scot-free if you decide to publish sth unfavorable abt UMNO/the current ruling govt. on the front page of the newspaper? all moral issues regarding the need to publish the truth aside, you have a job at stake and you know that the newspaper itself relies much on political backing, since it may have ties to certain officials in the ruling govt. you see? it’s not exactly easy as it seems.
but let’s make the assumption that the Censorship Board has no ties, and the panelists can censor whatever film they want based on their views and beliefs alone. they say several scenes in this movie need to be cut or it should be banned altogether because they’re not suitable for public viewing. you condemn them and say “what!!?!? who are these jerking morons to tell us what we can and can’t view? why should they impose their skewed + narrow-minded views of entertainment on us by banning/deleting scenes of our favorite movies?”. well in that case, the door swings both ways bub. why must YOU insist to impose on them YOUR beliefs and views of what is entertaining? why are you even telling them how to do their job? the fact remains that the older generation are the ones who control the country. they are the politicians, bosses, teachers, parents and every other authoritative figure, and until our time comes, until all of us replace them as the ruling generation, there’s not a damn thing you can do abt it.
this whole clash of ideals, views and whatnot are not exclusive to only movies. consider an example where you scoff at your parent because he/she forbade you from reading some shit like Irshad Manji’s The Trouble with Islam. I mean what’s so wrong w/ that? so what if she’s a Canadian Muslim lesbian who doesn’t know much abt Islam itself and yet had the audacity to talk abt the religion and how it needs to be modernized? who cares if the book promotes ideas that goes against the very tenets of our own faith & religion? it’s just a printed form of her collection of ideas & opinions. the older generation (our parents) are close-minded ppl and not understanding. we should be allowed to read all kinds of material so that we could learn abt other ppl’s ideas and see different perspectives even if they seem controversial. while I myself am all for the freedom to read whatever the hell I want (hey, I need to read skin mags every now and then when I’m lonely okay?) I wonder...say in 20 years from now, when you become a parent yourself and have a child of your own, what would you do if you found out that your son’s favorite book is Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom? oh come on... he’s already 16...what's so wrong if he loves to read a book that has explicit details abt ppl w/ the most perverse sexual fetishes ranging from coprophilia (that’s using shit for sexual excitement to the uninformed), incest, child raping through sodomy, flagellation, and even masturbation on the faces of seven-year olds…there’s no harm in that...right? didn’t we just agree that we should allow ALL kinds of materials to be read?
speaking of parents, I remember having this discussion w/ this girl who told me how she disagreed w/ the typical Malay way of upbringing because the parents are overly protective and the children are not given much freedom to do anything by themselves. to illustrate her point, she compared her own kid brother who was spoiled by her mom w/ these kids she was taking care of at this day care job she had. she said the American kids are better and much more behaved because the parents let them do stuff by themselves so that they can learn from it. she then continues w/ her own experience of having a very limited social life as a teen because her dad didn’t allow her to go out that much (esp in the evenings) and she was frustrated because he even was trailing her on her dates (talk abt a paranoid parent, eh?). later on, she tells me that when she becomes a mother herself, she’s not gonna make the same ‘mistakes’ her parents did and would train her kids to become independent and have more freedom.
so I asked her if that meant she wouldn’t mind letting her daughter go out clubbing w/ her friends at night, and she simply responded yes. she said her children should be given more opportunities to do what they want because it teaches them abt responsibility by forcing them to take care of themselves. and then I asked her what if her daughter got raped? sure, teens need freedom bla, bla, bla…going out clubbing doesn’t necessarily mean someone’s gonna take advantage of her; I mean she has friends to protect her right? but, a rape can happen anywhere, anytime. worse still, the culprit could be someone she actually knows. if you were a parent, how would your own moral conscious feel, knowing that you were in a position to prevent or at least reduce the possibility of such tragedy from happening? your daughter’s farked, she could be pregnant and she’s psychologically scarred for the rest of her life. and you could have actually done sth abt it by monitoring her whereabouts or just by preventing her from going out at night altogether. stunned for several minutes (after being pwned by my arguments), the girl then said that maybe she could hire a bodyguard to watch over her daughter when she goes clubbing. a bodyguard? who follows her everywhere to make sure her daughter’s safe? how is that any different than her own dad who was stalking her on her dates when she was a teen?
whether you ppl realize it or not, this conflicting views, values and ways of thinking between the older and younger generation is actually a cyclical phenomenon. today we’re bashing the oldies who impose their conservative standards of living on us. we say the way they decide how our way of life should be is unfair as it does not suit ‘the current modern trend of living’. ppl are more open-minded nowadays, you might add. we should all be a bit more liberal. pfft. let’s see how liberal you can get when 30 years from now, our sons and daughters will start bashing us when we tell them that showing a clear shot of a cleavage in M’sian films is unacceptable. and I don’t even want to imagine what’s the scenario gonna be when I’m a grandpa or after I’m dead. the future generation protesting that kiddie porn be made legal or that incest is acceptable? w/ the way how we are becoming more & more “understanding and open-minded”, nothing’s impossible anymore y’know...
a professor of mine says it’s like a phase that we all go through. we, the younger generation, are upset w/ the conservatives’ old-fashioned way of life and thinking. we decide not to conform and rebel against it by venting our criticisms & expressing our so-called radical beliefs to show that we are against the masses. and this would be reflected pretty much in our choice of lifestyle, fashion, religion, art, entertainment and even sexual orientation (exposing a nipple during the halftime Super Bowl show as a form of entertainment? what will they think of next?). we want to be edgy and keep pushing the envelope, all the while showing our displeasure when the oldies do not approve of it. and then, when our time’s over, the phase shifts and we become the ones who will be attacked, bashed and criticized by the future generation because we insist that they conform to the mass and not go over the boundaries that we’ve established. you see the point I’m trying to make here? and the cycle goes on and on...
so I hope some of you understand by now (or at least the gist of it) why we can never seem to see eye-to-eye w/ the policy makers, our parents, or just typically anyone w/ a different mindset than our own. I’m not saying you hafta agree w/ them, but arguing/criticizing gets you nowhere and is a waste of your time and breath. while I can understand that as the younger generation, we feel the need to reform everyone’s various perspectives so that it’s more liberal and unconstrained, keep in mind that the development of an entire generation’s mindset does not occur overnight just by shoving in our radical views, ideals & opinions down their throat. you could clear forests and build skyscrapers at some small rural area and call it development, but it takes many decades of living through various periods of time, having experienced many things and being influenced by a wide range of social elements to form a certain generation’s way of thinking. and different periods of time, elements and experiences guarantees that no generation shares the same mindset. ever.
that being said, I guess I’m done rambling for now (geez, I already sound like one of those old fogeys who give those “you young ungrateful whippersnappers don’t know what’s good for you; back in my day..” speeches). I really don’t give a rat’s ass if any of you agree w/ me so don’t bother posting comments like “while you’re entitled to your opinion, I think...” or “I agree you w/ you but...”. who cares if any of my writings has influenced you or not? spare yourself the trouble of typing sth pointless. hell, I personally think that ppl who are easily swayed just by watching some tv show/movie or reading 2-3 books/magazines/the blog entries of a male-chauvinist-pervert w/ Napoléon complex are morons who should shampoo my crotch (get the green Smooth & Sleek Pantene Pro-V. makes my pubic hair more “wavy” & fashionable). think abt it for sometime and then decide for yourself goddamnit. now begone. the IMCP has spoken.
"desperate to boost her declining popularity, an aging Anita Sarawak decides to pull off her own 'wardrobe malfunction' stunt for a cheap controversial spotlight"
), and even during social gatherings (you know, those times when you have to go and meet ppl at the International Center or some stupid shit) I usually keep my mouth shut and pretend that I’m a mime, unless I’m spoken to or if the person I’m accompanying w/ has a tough time explaining/translating sth. in fact, back home the only person I would ever converse in English is my 2nd elder sister, and even then it’s mostly jabs and insults. even when speaking w/ certain ppl like former debating buddies, four-eyed ihsan of rpi, the ambiguously gay mero or bimbos like liyana jamil, I use mostly ‘Manglish’, w/ the occasional bits of Malay here and there. the only times I would actually bother to speak properly nowadays is either when I’m talking w/ a classmate/the professor/ordering at a restaurant/one of my geek buddies at the hobby store, or if I’m trying to annoy someone (usually from the opposite sex) w/ my strange and obscure one-liners.
