Foot in Mouth Disease

I think Anon ( re: posting April 7, 2013), or should I say, "you of all people" should beware - and be more precise about accusations of   'intellectual dishonesty',  'anti-Chinese bias' and of an educator objecting 'to the acquisition of knowledge'.

Incredibly, you derived all these from the posting of  " A Sighting"!  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-sighting.html .   I shan't insult the intelligence of my other readers by explaining the actual content of that posting.

But in the light of your petulant outburst I do need to demolish your allegations about my blog.  So let's expose your illiteracy, your vacuous interpretation and the insinuating mischief within.

We can start with paragraph two and your opinion of  "the great strides taken by the malay community"  in Singapore.  Clearly you attribute such  great strides to the fact they live under a Chinese-controlled  government in a Chinese majority (75%)  society - whose 'tolerance' and grooming are crucial to the Malays'  progress - a kind of progress as defined by the Singapore government.

Is this your contention?  If it is, it only confirms my view about some people's arrogance......  If it isn't, why make the link with my alleged  "anti-Chinese bias"?

Fourth paragraph:  How condescending of you to affirm that "the treatment muslims receive in singapore/malaysia is far more even-handed compared to what they receive in France/UK ".  If you had said that to a Brit in UK  ( just change the religion and the country)  they would say,  " Why not, it's our bloody country, mate!"  As for your 'aside' in the last paragraph about foreign languages in Britain, it's so laughable that a Brit would justifiably exclaim,  "What a tosser" !

I am bemused at your ignorance and gumption - especially as you present yourself  as some sort of cosmopolitan who had spent a ' substantial  period '  in London.  I recall that nursery rhyme  "Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been,  I've been to London   to see the Queen".  So where has this pussy cat / tom cat been in London?  The British Museum?  The National Art Gallery?  Harrods?  Marks and Spencers?  Hamleys? Ministry of Sound London? Soho?

Fifth Paragraph:  Excuse me?  What is the connection between my ability to tolerate living in UK and my so-called  feeling of oppression  "by the Chinese in asia"?  Where is the  "intellectual dishonesty"? Are you aware of the correct use of this phrase?

 In the first place I do not merely 'tolerate' living in UK.  It is my husband's country and though it has its warts  ( which I often write about in my postings ), I respect and appreciate its ways and culture without turning into a 'kacang lupakan kulit'  (the pea forgetting its pod)  or a Bounty Bar or a Banana!  Secondly,  in my part of the world, my spouse speaks just enough Malay, Hokkien and Hindi and respects the culture of all people who call themselves Malaysians and Singaporeans.

No one race can make me feel, as you put it, "oppressed".  I take issue with and I write about injustice, mistreatment, prejudice, bigotry, self-righteousness, arrogance and most of all double standards in any society.  Check on the labels on my blog and eat your words!

In Singapore, as a teacher (I don't like the pompous word  'educator'), I had the privilege of teaching in a Malay medium secondary school  (Yusof Ishak Secondary School) and later in an English medium school  (Jurong Secondary School).  Both were "integrated schools".  YISS was "integrated"  ( notice how I use inverted commas for the word  integrated)  with the English medium, JSS with the Chinese medium.  I found myself having to play the role of intermediary between the two opposing mediums and at some and most of the time as a guardian/bouncer for my Malay medium kids in YISS for 10 years and for the English medium kids ( of all races)  in JSS for two years.

The crowning glory of my career in Singapore was when I was shunted side ways to Anglo-Chinese Junior College.
Read my exciting one-month experience in that pukka Missionary Sixth Form College. http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2012/04/x-factor.html and   http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2012/05/acjc-finale.html

And to add grist to the mill - I spared no effort in challenging the self-satisfied arrogance of  some of my mainly Malay colleagues in USM in the early 1990s.  Their brand of prejudice in tolerating and keeping a white American drunkard while giving a brown-skinned woman the short end of the stick, told me I had better get out of that education business at least!

In fact, I found much more joy and knowledge and meaningful experience working with the English working class in Leicester.  Read:  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2010/11/some-good-people.html

Paragraph Three only displays how wet you are behind the ears or, if you're older than I reckon, how immature and puerile you are despite the age.  Malays, especially, wherever they are in the Malay Archipelago, should learn a third language (other than their mother tongue and English) like Mandarin, Arabic or another European language like  French or Italian.  For instance, Ariff, my great-nephew in a KL secondary school  is studying Mandarin as a third language.  Malays must not be like the frog in that poem "Bangau oh Bangau".  Read   http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-digression.html

While Twitter, the internet and blogosphere have widened the net for expression and discussion, at times they have also opened the door for ignorance and cowardice and especially the absence of accountability.  It is like "Kera di beri Bunga"  (giving a flower to a monkey)  or "Casting Pearls before Swine".

Finally here's my "Aside ".  I often refer to the proverb  "What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander".  At 69, I still have use of what my favourite detective Hercule Poirot described as 'the grey matter', and I can't help but conclude that this Anon is the Gander whose sense of superiority is irked by what he reads in AsH.  So he  fabricates what he reads to brand  AsH as anti-Chinese - a very devious and sly ploy.   Alas, he botched it and has instead been hoisted by his own petard!

Now, that is dishonesty and it carries no whiff of intellectuality!