It had a long run in both the printed and celluloid media - a story of a (sometimes) doomed relationship between a white 'goddess' and a hot-blooded, sultry non-white male, usually Arab-Muslim.
We know of Shakespeare's Othello the Moor and Desdemona the Venetian.
Then in 1924 E.M. Forster wrote "A Passage to India" about Adela Quested's fantasy of Dr Aziz Ahmed's sexual attraction for her.
From Hollywood in the 1920s we had the smouldering sex icon, the 'Sheik' and 'Son of the Sheik' starring Rudolf Valentino.
Another movie 'Island in the Sun' (1957) touched on the delicate story of a black activist (Harry Belafonte) and a blonde beauty (Joan Fontaine).
So, I was quite chuffed to discover this same motif in my 1934 Woman's Needlework Magazine.
By the way, this was the period in-between the two massive European Tribal Wars aka the First World War and Second World War - when there was rampant unemployment and poverty of the lower classes (or the Great Depression) somewhat like today after the Banks' Crisis.
There was this icy-cool English brunette ....
.........who was irresistibly attracted to ......... the Dark Cavalier.......
who actually turned out to be ... An Arab ......... Sidi Zarouk ben Mohammed ben Amor Metlaoui!!!
...... from a noble and royal Moroccan pedigree! (Well, it had to be aristocratic enough for our fine English lass, hadn't it?)
"You see they are really still living centuries ago - they have their brutality and splendour, the magnificient qualities and the terrible faults of another age." (Hold on mate, you're only making it more exciting for the English rose!)
Well, these words (the ones in italics) could have come from our present-day journalists, academic and social commentators and of course Cameron and Sarkozy and America's super-hero.
The one difference is this: present day magnificent savages have ... OIL!
Well, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, if only you and your father had played the game right. Instead of feasting and feteing sultry western maidens like you did ......
...and English political scroungers like your father did .......
..... and donating loadsofmoney, to the tune of Sterling 1.5 million, to the London School of Economics ...... you should have spent it on more worthy causes, if not in your country but to other poverty stricken people. But rich Muslim potentates seem to have a penchant for throwing money at institutions in the West. Shouldn't charity begin at home?
Undoubtedly your father provided Libya with an impressive education and health system that put Cameron's to shame - but other issues seem to have been neglected or made to look more dire.
Your father tweaked the Judaeo-Christian's tail once too often and he had to be run into the ground -in fact lynched by a mob while the self-righteous mullahs in the West looked away. (Remember, they allowed Chilean dictator and murderer Pinochet to get away with his "crimes against humanity").
And so, poor Saif, finally in your blackest moments you donned your traditional Arab robes.....
..... but you will not be a heartthrob like the 'Sheik' (Rudolf Valentino) and other glamorous male Arab-Muslim 'heiristocrats' for the trophy collectors in the West.
Perhaps , your father might have lasted longer if he had fostered this image of the Arabs - as seen in this video "Ahab the Arab". Long live Coca Cola and McDonalds and cheap oil!!!
By the way,it was not until the 1967 US Supreme Court decision that US-based inter-racial marriages were allowed.
If I was born in 1997 I would have a tough time right now coping with the pressures of being a female Muslim teenager, especially my sexuality.
There are all these early photographs of me ......... especially this one looking like a cool dude in my dad's shades, at the Singapore Botanical Garden when I was 4/5.
According to LGBT ideology this is most likely an indication of a non-female sexuality trying to 'come out' of the oppressed female/feminine Muslim's sexual ethics.
Should my parents be hauled over the coals for repressing my 'true sexuality'? I think this is probably what they will say.
PARENTS: Sometimes, in our culture .........
VICTIM-FEMINISTS' WATCHDOG (VFW): You mean the oppressive Patriarchal Culture !!!
PARENTS: ....... in the hope that it will catch, parents will dress up their daughter in boys' togs (mind you, not for all of the time) so that the next baby might turn out to be a boy.
And hey presto, it worked! Mustakim was born giving them an ideal number of two girls and two boys. Of course it's not as certain as going for a scan and then aborting the foetus if it's not the desired type. After all, abortion is another much-vaunted human right like the right to happiness and freedom. It has even been resorted to as a form of birth control for some busy women in Britain.
VFW: What about this then?
The scruffy kid on the right (front row) looks like a Hari Raya 1948/1949 version of Richmal Crompton's 'William'.
PARENTS: Well, we can't stop her as she loves her boy's outfit. We know she feels a little left out being the second child, stuck between the special first-born sister and the first son and the youngest one, you know, the second child syndrome.
But she seems comfortable and happy - we think she will grow out of it. Children do go through such phases of wanting to be different, to demonstrate their distinct identity.
VFW: What do you mean by that? So you think that her dressing like a macho-male female is only a phase. You believe that she could or would grow out of becoming a feminist/lesbian/transgender - that she will recover from this - like getting over a nasty flu?
PARENT (ABAH): Hey, hold on a minute. Where did you get the idea that a girl who likes to dress up as a boy is a budding lesbian?
PARENT ('MAK): Abah, lesbian 'tu apa?
ABAH: Nanti Chah. Nanti abah terangkan.
VFW: How about this picture then? She's now 15 and she's still trying to express her true sexual identity - to escape this patriarchal cultural agenda.
Above is the Kampung Abu Kassim 'samseng' at Jardine Steps sporting her butch hairstyle.
15 YEAR OLD TEENAGER (pleading) : Stop it everybody! Let me have my say. I was born a girl and I'm happy to be one. I love wearing those comfortable 'boy outfit' because I lead an active life riding bicycles, running around the backyard chasing the chickens in the evening to get them into the hen-house, wandering around the kampung with Mus cutting grass to feed the geese, cleaning the goose-house and uncovering their eggs as well as cleaning the rabbit-hutch. Also I love climbing up the hills along South Buona Vista Road (or The Gap) with my brothers - you can't do that wearing a frock or a baju kurung, can you?
Sometimes I dress up in the same girly attire as my sister which my dear ole mum had sewn for us.
Admittedly till today, my sister Maznah always, always looks prettier than me. And she's a better cook too!
By the way Abah, what is a lesbian?
ABAH: It's ... it's a girl who ....likes girls ...ummhh ... prefers girls to boys. And don't tell your mother. She might throw away all your shirts and shorts!
But Abah, I like boys too. Did I tell you about my boyfriends when I was in Primary One?
FRONT ROW: Au Guat Eng (2nd from left), AsH (5th from left)
BACK ROW: My boyfriends, Tan Aik Chuan (5th from left) and Ang Hock Kee (8th from left)
When I was thirteen, I fell in love with Ng Kian Ann. It was a love that dared not speak its name because he was Guat Eng's paramour. Guat Eng and I were always placed in the same team whenever we played netball. You see, one day she fainted during PE. When our teacher lifted her up, I had to tell the other kids to keep quiet (in those days, us demure girls never use the word 'Shaddup') and behave themselves - because they were all yelling, 'her knickers .... see her knickers!"
And then in 1957, on our last day in Pasir Panjang English School, before we all went to separate Secondary Schools, Kian Ann waited for me at the bicycle shed ......
ABAH: All right, all right. That's enough!
31 August 1957, Tengku Abdul Rahman called out "Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka" and I saw my father's tears.
Now, if I had been born in 1997, I would have to ask these questions.
Abah, what's this "Seksualiti Merdeka"? Has Merdeka got a gender? Is it because freedom must be made more sexy? Or is being sexy and doing all kinds of sexy stuff, freedom? You said Merdeka has to do with seeing our country free from British Colonialism, of working hard and being responsible for our country's safety, well-being and freedom?
Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan mentioned the "marginalised LGBT" in the campaign for "Seksualiti Merdeka". Can the 'marginalised' include the poor, the orphans, the single mothers, the drug addicts, abused children and women, the OKU, the alcoholics? Will there be a "Merdeka" campaign for them as well?
I know now that 'L' refers to Lesbians. What is the meaning of Gay (G), Bisexual (B) and Transgender (T)?
The dictionary says 'gay' means mirthful and cheeky. I am always a happy and cheeky little sod. Does that mean I am Gay too?
ABAH: Look, I've got a headache. Please get on with your homework and then help your mother with the laundry and the gardening.
That's yucky work. Can I wash the car instead and Mus can do the laundry?
ABAH : Just go!!!
Am I glad I was born in 1944. Life was so much simpler for tomboys then, with no worries about being deconstructed by the Post-Modernist brigade.
------------------------------
Of course, Hamid's daughter Number Two had many girlfriends like Tai Ann, Geetha, Sumijah, Soh Khim, Maimunah, Asmah, Yvonne, Jeya, Dorothy, Ann, Aysha Bevee and a string of boyfriends stretching from Singapore to Brunei, Leicester and Penang.
When Hamid's daughter Number Two had enough of her wonderings and wanderings, Iain Buchanan managed to clip her wings (only with her permission of course) and got her started on wifely duties like cooking and marketing and sewing. Strangely enough, she likes it.
But she still wears the trousers. Here's the middle-aged Dominatrix, boots and all, happily married to the unflappable cameraMAN.
Mus, you refused to give me any chance to wash the car but you made up for it - years later - by introducing me to David Armand. Thank you.
This posting is dedicated to our Pahlawan, past and present.
Ya Ilahi Tuhan-ku Rabi! Pokok yang rendah menjadi tinggi! Sa-lama kuching tidak bergigi, Tikus tidak bersopan lagi.
Pileh2 melipat kain, Jangan termasuk baju kemeja. Pileh2 tempat bermain, Jangan di-patok ular yang bisa.
THE FIRST BATTLEFIELD IS THE RE-WRITING OF HISTORY - Karl Marx.
54 years after Merdeka and 63 years after the declaration of insurrection by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) we are once again being taunted - this time by a rising clamour from Friends of Chin Peng (FOCP) for the canonization of the terrorist Lim Chin Peng (LCP), the leader of the MCP since 1940. Some of the voices are hesitant and timorous; others are loud and self-righteous.
The champions are both local and foreign. Sharing the same bandwagon are academics, historians, Salon-Lefties, dinosaur Marxist-Leninists, 'radical' writers, young wannabe revolutionaries, slick journalists, opportunistic politicians and a motley crew of Political Fashionistas.
They have woven a fabric of myths around LCP and his Party.
1. The first myth is that LCP, who led the bloody insurrection from 1948-1960 and again from 1967-1989 is a national hero who deserved the status of Malaya's foremost, if not the first freedom fighter, our liberator from British Imperialism. Dr Chen Man Hin (DAP Life Advisor) for one, regards LCP as a 'freedom fighter'. LCP's champions all agree his return to Malaya should be granted and lauded.
Really? Let's look a little more deeply into the matter. Let's examine the context of that critical period after the Second World War.
In February 1946 Stalin declared that for as long as capitalist societies existed, wars were inevitable. Then in March 1946 Churchill coined the term 'The Iron Curtain' and asked that all English speaking countries should stand together against Communism.
And Mao Tse-Tung, whose Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not gain victory until 1949 responded; "world war should be avoided but there should be no compromise towards internal conflicts".
The Cold War had begun.
In Malaya, of course, 1946 also witnessed a huge protest by the Malays against MacMichael's Malayan Union, which would have reduced the Malays to a minority people in their homeland and lose them their political clout as well. This period also saw the formation of UMNO. As in other colonial territories, the worm was beginning to turn, but not without severe complications.
During WW2, LCP and the MCP fought with the British against the Japanese. Their participation in the MPAJA (Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army) has often been extolled as the Communists' unstinting loyalty and sacrifice in Malaya to expel the Japanese. Indeed, after the War the British awarded medals to LCP and other CPM leaders for their services.
They were not of course the only ones who deserved such recognition for defending Malaya and Singapore: remember Lt. Adnan Saidi and his platoon from the Malay Regiment who paid a heavy price with their lives fighting the Japanese at Pasir Panjang Ridge, Singapore. It took some time before history text books in Singapore were willing to acknowledge the Malay Regiment's ultimate sacrifice.
However, there is one difference between this and the MCP's commitment in the MPAJA. The Malay Regiment were in battle for the sovereignty of their tanah air. LCP was not fighting as a patriot of Malaya but as a revolutionary inspired by the wider world vision of Communism and by the humiliation that smaller Japan had inflicted on larger China from the 1930s.
The MPAJA were motivated by their hatred of the Japanese and what they did to China after the 1937 invasion. And when the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya were picked upon by the Japanese during Occupation, it was a continuation of the violence and hostility already evident in China. The bitter enmity and violence of the Sino-Japanese War had been transplanted to Occupied Malaya, to Ma-Rai-Ee.
After all, the Nanyang (Overseas) Chinese had rallied to the call of the Motherland from both the nationalist Kuomintang and the CCP for help and aid. Anti-Japanese supporters ranged from ordinary people to millionaires like Tan Kah Kee, known as the Rubber King of Malaya and Singapore who managed to get enough funding for the Chinese Air Force to buy 13 fighter planes. Incidentally, Tan departed for Indonesia to escape the wrath of the Japanese. The Chinese in Singapore boycotted Japanese goods and even Chinese trishaw riders refused to accept Japanese passengers. Committees like the China Salvation Movement were set up to collect donations from rich merchants and ordinary workers who were committed enough to give regular monthly contribution. Some even volunteered to leave their jobs and families to serve as motor mechanics and drivers in transporting war materials.
But if loyalty to China was a matter of blood, it was also a matter of ideology. And when LCP and MCP 'served' in the MPAJA and later turned to armed insurrection in 1948 to begin the People's Revolutionary War, he was fighting as a soldier in the service of both blood and ideology.
So, when the British decided to team up with the Communists in the MPAJA, they became in effect, the patron and godfather of the coming 1948 Emergency. Both had the same war objectives but different post-war intentions. By 1943, the MPAJA-cum-MCP already had a strategy to set up the People's Republic of Malaya; and by 1945 there were already 10,000 well-trained, well-armed and disciplined Chinese Communist soldiers in the Malayan jungle.
2. A second strand of myth claimed by the FOCPs is that the insurrection precipitated Malayan independence. If it wasn't for the Emergency the British would not have given Malaya her independence in 1957!! This was also LCP's adamant stand. And so to that extent, they say LCP should be recognized as the father of Malayan independence.
Well, British interest in Malaya was part of a larger design than merely responding to Lim Chin Peng.
Britain may have won the Second World War but 1945 marked the start of the decline of "the Empire on which the sun never sets". It had been bombed-out, the country's infrastructure was damaged, there was not much left in the coffers. One by one the colonies got an independence of sorts: India/Pakistan in 1947, Ceylon in 1948, Malaya and Ghana in 1957, Tanzania in 1961, Uganda 1962. Only Kenya's independence was preceded by rebellion, to thwart the agenda of the White Settlers. The leader of the Mau Mau rebellion Kimathi, was captured, executed and buried in an unmarked grave. That was how the British dealt with their coloured dissidents. Even their home-grown traitor Lord Haw Haw was hung for his pro-German broadcasts during WW2 and buried in an unmarked grave.
But imagine, if the MCP had succeeded in establishing a People's Republic of Malaya - it would be similar to the American War of Independence when the non-indigenous white colonists fought the British for independence, to the considerable disadvantage of the Natives. There would be one big difference of course; Malaya would become a dollar-earner satellite state (or another province) of the People's Republic of China. We would have to practise the adulation of the great leader Lim Chin Peng and Lim's Little Red Book would be in every home.
3. A third strand of the myth is that LCP and MCP had strong Malay support. Few academics could deny that one major reason for the failure of the insurrection in Malaya was the refusal of the great majority of the Malays to participate, either physically or spiritually, with Communism and the MCP. Even that pioneer of Indonesian Communism, Tan Malaka gve up trying to recruit the Malays in the 1920s.
Basically Malays do not relish being led by 'foreigners'. British Colonial authority was tolerated only because the Council of Malay Rulers backed British Administration. There were of course many Malay nationalists and leftists who were anti-British but they did not see the MCP as an ally.
The lack of Malay support is a weak link in the FOCP's attempt to legitimise LCP and the MCP. They needed to find ways to suggest that the insurrection was multi-ethnic. They wrote articles like........ http://www.thenutgraph.com/the-voice-of-the-malay-communists/
...... to support their cynical agenda. For every Abdullah CD one can easily locate thousands of Malays whose fathers and brothers and husbands were killed fighting the Communists.
But there is one fact that LCP's champions are loathe to accept and expand. Membership in the MCP and the Malayan Peoples Liberation Army (MPLA), the militant wing of the MCP was unquestionably over 90% Chinese.
So too was the Min Yuen (the People's Movement), a most potent wing of LCP's insurrection. These were Commmunist soldiers without uniform and wages who played a crucial role as a support network, living and working for their ideology among the general populace. Out of 30,000 to 40,000 members, 90% were Chinese, made up mainly of the labouring and squatter classes with the rest from Chinese school teachers and students and professionals.
The Chinese squatters played a decisive role during the Emergency.
At the beginning of the insurrection there were about 500,000 Chinese squatters (15% of the Peninsula's population in 1951) living on the fringes of the jungle, especially on the west coast states of the Peninsula. In Johor for example, squatters occupied 40,000 acres of land growing vegetables for Johor and Singapore.
This is from my Primary School Malay Language textbook. What is most revealing are sentences 5, 6, 7 and 8..
These squatters "established settlements on land not set aside for that purpose" and even in the Forest Reserves and Malay Reserve Land. They came to the fringes of the forest during the post-1929 recession when unemployment was high. During the Japanese Occupation they did the same to escape repression and also because of a dire shortage of food in the urban centres.
There were also Malay and Indian squatters among them but their numbers are negligible. Of course, not all 500,000 were keen on aiding the insurrection but the 'strong-armed' tactics of Min Yuen in extracting food and money and information for the MPLA made certain that the squatters kept the guerillas ticking over. Also these squatters were not sure that the British could win this 'war' and hence decided 'to go with the flow'. So effective were the Min Yuen in sustaining the Revolution that by 1951, 200 police and civilians were killed each month - the authorities were fighting a war with shadows they could not pin down.
The Briggs plan to resettle such squatters into New Villages was a device to break the hold of the Communists on their major source of survival. The objectives and implementation of this scheme make up another story. Most versions relate to the ruthlessness of the scheme and the impositions on the squatters. However, rural Malays of that period also had their woes but they were largely untold.
Why was membership in the MCP, the MPLA, the Min Yuen strongly Chinese dominated? Perhaps we need to look into the cultural make-up of the emigrants.
Even before the 1920s and up to the present, the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore and in the rest of Southeast Asia had a remarkable and admirable (depending from which end of the telescope you're looking at) sense of oneness, of a common identity wherever they were in their 'diaspora'. Only recently (1 Oct 2011) Joceline Tan wrote in The Star , " Chinese from Malaysia and Singapore may see themselves as cousins......" in the wake of Lim Guan Eng's disparaging remarks in Singapore about another state (Johor) in his own country. http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2011/10/1/columnists/joceline/9609411&sec=joceline
They regard one another as tong pao or 'of the same womb'. And in that context, in Southeast Asia especially, the umbilical cord between the MCP, KMT, and CCP then, and the Nanyang Chinese and PRC (Communist China) and ROC (Taiwan) today cannot be severed.
The economic prowess of the Nanyang Chinese and their kin connections in Southeast Asia are almost legendary. This blood loyalty between colonial emigrants - and between colonial emigrants and mother-country - has been a strong factor in the economic success of the Nanyang Chinese. But it was a matter of networks rather than genetics alone, as Joe Studwell suggests in his Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. He 'dismisses the common assertion that being Chinese confers an unusually high potential for economic success, showing that the predominance of ethnic Chinese among the godfathers devolves from the colonial era and emigration patterns rather than genetics'.
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Lim Chin Peng as Malayan Hero : A Malay View
In this crusade for the resurrection of LCP, his adherents are keen to quote past Malay PMs and other senior Malay voices to bolster their cause. These Malays speak for themselves. Malays reckon they are being harried to adjust and change their opinions to fit into the FOCPs box - to have to cut their coat according to other people's size and cloth.
Just think for a moment. Malay feelings about the Chinese Communists and the insurrection have a lot in common with Chinese feelings about the Japanese in the 1920s and 1930s.
The ousting of the Communists cost the deaths of 1,346 Malayan troops and police (albeit including a minority of non-Malays). In comparison, British and Commonwealth fatalities were about 519. The Malays were not incidental casualties - they enrolled in the Police Force, the Special Constabulary, the Home Guard, the Malay Regiment and as British Army Malayan Soldiers (BAMS), making a stand to defend the tanah pusaka.
All the insurrection did was to aggravate the tension between the two races and intensify the hostility and mistrust. It is not up to only the Malays, but also the Chinese and others to face and talk squarely about the causes, the effects and the repercussions of this dark, bloody history.
Promoting the wishes and woes of one man, without consideration of the wider tapestry of lives blighted during the insurrection aggravate the dissensions and serves only to 'menanggok di air yang keroh'.
Malaysia's big neighbour Indonesia often scorns the way Malaya's/Malaysia's independence was seemingly handed on a silver platter. They tend to ignore the bloody price paid by this country's people and especially the Police and Armed Forces to uphold its peace and sovereignty during the Emergency from 1948-1960, from 1967-1989 and during Konfrontasi.
My father and his students from the Malayan Police Force attending the Hygiene Assistant's Course at Nee Soon, Singapore, circa 1950s/early 1960s.
For the Malays in the Uniformed Forces, fighting the MCP during the Emergency was not a simple matter of taking sides. It was a battle against two outrages in their land - by the Chinese Communists and the British Imperialists.
Turun ka-sawah memakai tudong, Padi di-huma layu lengkesa; Sa-ekor sawa (ular) sa-ekor tedong, Bersama2 mengadu bisa.
Then of course, came the sequel, another insurrection between 1967-1989, (which had the encouragement and blessings of the People's Republic of China's Chairman Deng Xiaopeng) which was fought almost entirely by Malaysians.
Conclusion
This campaign to resurrect LCP, so that he can expire peacefully in his bed in his 'hometown' and be buried next to his father, will most certainly persist. We are fed selective pictures of a smiling, jolly-looking, rotund elderly man, looking like our taukeh kedai runcit who has been living just next door to us for the last 40 years. How could anyone have the heart to deny this simple wish of a man who "at the tender age of 18" (Susan Loone's paean to LCP) joined the CPM, conjuring an image of an innocent choir boy?
There are many men with fewer bloody culpabilities who would not dare to hope for such a benign end.
When the man finally meets his Maker, I predict Friends of Chin Peng and especially the Political Fashionistas will be parading in T-shirts, or ribbons or wrist bands or bandanas adorned with Lim Chin Peng's image and words like Che Chin Peng, a la Che Guevara. Green caps decorated with a red star (or 3 red stars) will be the latest 'must-haves' to demonstrate solidarity with their cause celebre and to vaunt their liberal humanitarianism.
But then perhaps it is all to the good this way. What an ignominious fate it would be for the man who wanted to be Chairman Lim Chin Peng of the People's Republic of Malaya - to end as a mere fashion statement.
NB: All three pantun were taken from Kalong Bunga Buku 1, oleh Za'ba, 1964 (DBP)
I hated History. When you were in the Arts Stream, history was a must to make up the 8 subjects required for the Cambridge School Certificate and the 4 subjects for the Higher School Certificate.
This Examination Time Table shows the nature of the History Papers for the School Certificate. very telling of the times. They were History of the British Empire and Commonwealth and History for Candidates in Malaya.
Earlier Primary School history was mainly made up of the history of English Kings and Queens and the achievers in the British Empire. I recall how my my history and geography lessons throughout Primary and Secondary School referred to the Peninsula - what is now West Malaysia - as Malaya.
It was in fact a term manufactured by the British to 'create' an image of a single political entity of the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and the Unfederated Malay States. Malaya not only referred to the indigenous Malays but also the non-Malay immigrants. In this way the British did not have to account for the nefarious (or otherwise) tactics and subterfuge they employed to take over the Peninsula and its resources - in the guise of bringing peace and prosperity to the country. The 'treaties' they made with the Malay Rulers in their bid to expand their political control became mere details in this larger picture of developing Malaya for the 'benefit' of all. Also their cynical policy of promoting the entry of millions (from China and India) of what in today's terms would be described as 'foreign workers' to 'develop' and enhance the Imperial coffers would be rationalised and legitimised.
If the climate had been agreeable to them as in Zimbabwe (the old Southern Rhodesia named after the arch-Imperialist Cecil Rhodes) they might have set up permanent settlements in all the choice spots on the hills, in the most fertile areas or by the seaside and renamed the Malay Peninsula Rafflesia or Edwardia!
I have spent all week reading and digging into versions of the History of 'Malaya' from the 1920s to post-World War Two. What a minefield it was.
The earlier narrators were mostly British and Australians; more recently they have included a number of non-Malays, some Malays, more Australians and now the addition of some colourful Malay fashionistas (most of them, it seems, emanating from institutions in Singapore). With copious footnotes and citations and reference lists, they excel in presenting a linear history of pre-War and post-War British 'possessions' in the region. Instead of Kings and Queens it was all about Sultans ( emasculated and compromised - my description), Residents and Governors and High Commisioners. There were the European Captains of Industry and Agriculture and Merchant Houses and their immigrant counterparts and the tale of how these were the people who made Malaya then and Malaysia what it is today.
They hold the view that 'the Malays might have lived in it (the Peninsula) longer, but no one had done as much to develop it as the Chinese'. This point however, has to be considered. Although "the vast majority (the Chinese) arrived as labourers, many soon found in the stability and order of Malaya opportunities for demonstrating their entrepreunerial talents. Becoming the largest element first in the urban centres and then in the country as a whole,they came to dominate the retail and commercial life of Malaya". There were no barriers, no competitors , no hazards - success was almost handed on a plate.
As for the natives, left on their own, the Malays would have remained backward serfs - a sweet but sorry looking lot of Mats and Minahs who would happily dive into the sea for coins thrown into the water by the wealthy and civilized Others. The context of Malay culture, political suzerainty, economic activity and sustenance - the existence of Malay peasants and fishermen, small Malay craftwork and industry as well as regional and localised forms of political organisations were marginalised and ignored. It seemed that the Malays contributed almost nothing except to allow all and sundry to exploit and profit from the resources in their homeland while they remained protected and 'nurtured on subsistence-level' paternalism. Keep them quiet and sedated - that was the ploy.
Words like immigrants, bandits, terrorists, Emergency, communists, nationalists, freedom fighters and liberators pepper the texts. The 'left-wing intelligentsia' have done a good job in questioning the choice of words used by the British to describe the post-war insurrection by the Communist Party of Malaysia. Terms like 'bandits' to describe the Communists were later discarded because they give the connotation of MCP guerillas as being 'small fry' like pesky flies that can be easily swatted and worse, that could make them seem almost semi- heroic, like the Robin Hoods of Malaya. Certainly the ambitions of the MCP were stronger than that.
Now the word 'Emergency" was regarded as a typical British understatement of a critical situation. It's a nifty word because it promises only a temporary hiccup. It also enabled the owners of the plantations and tin-mines to claim insurance for their temporary losses.
But, most of all, this word 'immigrant' fascinates me. Here are its various meanings.
1. a person who comes to a country where they were not born to settle there.
2. one who comes to a foreign country to live there permanently.
3. someone who leaves one country to settle permanently in another and
4. a plant or animal that establishes itself in an area where it previously did not exist.
But the term 'immigrant', as used in texts concerning the history of Malaysia from the 1920s, is a misnomer.
In the first place, the large scale movement of Chinese (and Indians) into Malaya and Singapore was orchestrated by the imperialists' hunger for cheap labour to work the tin mines and plantations, to construct the buildings, roads, railways and ports, to clear the jungles and later to be the clerks and petty bureaucrats (after a good dose of education in schools run by missionaries) and more importantly to play the role of middlemen traders and conveyancers of lucrative exports (especially) and imports with the cosmopolitan hub, to lubricate the wheels of imperialism.
Secondly they came as transients. They did not come to settle permanently and were not, for the most part, immigrants. They were foreign workers allowed entry and permit to make a living and for some fortunate ones, a fortune, by the British Colonial Rulers. They were sojourners - making a temporary stay in a foreign country amongst people who were not of their culture. They came to escape poverty and unrest in their own country. To 'balek Tongsua ' was a common attribute of the Chinese attitude when I was growing up in the Fifties.
Throughout the 1920s to the 1950s, and even after Independence, the Chinese ( except for some of the Peranakan) did not regard these British outposts as home. China was their Motherland. Up to 1948, the 2 million Chinese, many second generation born in Malaya gave their loyalty to their family, their clan and to China. The land of the Malai Kwai (Malay devil) had no significance for them except as the goose that laid the golden egg. Furthermore, China allowed them Dual Nationality enabling them to eat their cake and keep it as well.
The concept of "Dimana bumi di pijak, disitu langit di junjung" remained primarily a Malay folly.
Given such a background, it would be very glib to suggest that racially based politics began with the Alliance of UMNO, MCA and the MIC as of the 1957 Independence. One could safely claim that it started between the 1920s and 1950s when the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party competed for finance and support from Chinese coolies and taukehs and nationalists in Singapore, Penang and Malaya.
Among the notable personalities of this period was Sun Yat Sen, memorialised as the Father of modern China in the Sun Yat Sen Museum at 65, Macalister Road, Penang and in the previously named Nanyang University at Wan Qing Yuan which 'has been preserved and renamed the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, and gazetted as a national monument of Singapore on October 28, 1994'.
Another notable personality is Lim Chin Peng. Now there's a cry and a campaign to remember him as a kind of Father of Modern Malaya.
Sometime in the early half of the 1990s I had to travel alone to Kuala Lumpur because of a family emergency. The spouse drove me to Heathrow but we were caught in a bad traffic jam because of an accident on the worst Ring Road in Britain, the M25.
I very almost missed the check-in at MAS counter and as a result I could only get one of the worst seats on the plane, in the smoking area. At that time they had the ridiculous idea that it was fine for non-smokers if the puffers were kept to the back of the plane.
When the passengers on either side of me started to light up their cigarettes, I found myself gasping for breath. I had to ask the stewardess for a change of seat because I could not cope with this for the next 16 (?) hours. I could see the plane was full and she would have a problem getting me another seat. To get some respite from the smokers I had to get out of my seat and take a 'walk' away from the two and other chimneys in the rear of the plane. Then about half an hour or so I was informed that they had got a seat for me in the non-smoking zone. I almost cried with relief.
As I packed my stuff I saw a young Malay man approaching to take over the infernal seat. I realized then that he had responded to the stewardess's effort to help me by giving up his non-smoking seat. As I left, I grasped his hand and said, "Terima kasih 'nak. Macik tak tahan asap rokok". He smiled and said "Tak apa macik".
I was taken to a seat next to an aisle seat. The young Malay man stood up to let me through, made sure I had settled down properly before he sat down. He asked me in English, "Auntie okay now?" I smiled a grateful 'yes'. I then informed him that I'm actually a macik, in other words a Malay. He was taken aback and apologized for getting it wrong. I assured him that this happened to me all the time. After all I had a Chinese grandmother! He nodded and smiled.
There were 6-8 other young Malays sitting nearby. They all had the same haircut typical of men in the Services. They were neatly dressed, long-sleeved shirts and slacks and neck ties. I found out later they were ratings from TLDM (Royal Malaysian Navy) and had just ended a training stint in a new Destroyer that had been purchased by the NAVY.
Their bearing and manners were immaculate and faultless.
I smile whenever I recall this experience. After the meals, my young neighbour would very kindly ask me if I needed to go for a 'comfort stop'. I though that was so considerate of him. Whenever I did, he would remove himself completely from his seat and stood to the side to let me through. The whole scenario was repeated when I returned to my seat.
Much later, the young man who took over my seat from hell came to see me and inquired, "Macik selesa sekarang?" I nodded my head, smiled and thanked him.
Bless them all, bless the training they had, bless TLDM for producing these kind and caring Malaysians. And they did all this without bothering who they were doing it for. That is Satu Malaysia from nearly 20 years ago!
Two weeks ago, when the spouse was resting in the Hospital, I would wander off to Mydin for a bit of shopping. Of course my 'bit' ended up with a full basket. When it came to my turn to pay at the cashier, the young Malay man who was before me, lifted up my laden basket to place it on the counter. He had almost exactly the same haircut and same straight bearing of those TLDM men on that MAS flight.
Yesterday, on my way home from Immigration Damansara the meter on the taxi chalked up the lowest fare of all my six taxi trips. The taxi driver had just started his new occupation. He told me he had only recently retired from the Army.
What training do they give to such members of the Armed Forces to make them a cut above the rest? Can this be transferred to the other Government Departments, to the schools and Universities? Please????
A Malay Man from A.W. Hamilton's "Malay Proverbs"
I know I've been slagging off most things Malaysian. We are not the most efficient and well-organized country but I believe there's a core of softness and decent flexibility which is absent in some robotically-efficient and many developed countries. Malaysia has an accommodating heart - that is why those who originate from foreign shores can gain entry and gain a livelihood here , even though they now kick up such a stink about their so-called plight.
Orang yang kenyang kalau di jamu, lauk yang sedap di-kata tawar.
A well-fed man if offered food Will say nice dishes are no good. Those who are with good things sated Often call them over-rated.
From Malay Proverbs, Bidal Melayu, A.W. Hamilton , 3rd Edition 1947 (First Edition 1937)
That last taxi driver who took me home yesterday by the shortest route reminded me of the generous and unsolicited kindness of some members of Malaysia's Defence Forces to a litle old lady.
Now that we have the movie 'The Last Communist'. Can we have another of 'The Last Pahlawan' ?
Oh yes, mission successful at Immigration Damansara yesterday.
Last week on Thursday I went to Immigration at Damansara to extend Iain's Visa. They were good enough to accept his absence (with the help of the letter from the Specialist). But to be on the safe side I brought along the marriage certificate in case they queried our liaison.
The office for Visa Application and Extension is well and truly a waiting room. You must be prepared to wait and keep awake because the air-con has given up the ghost. Also the escalator doesn't work and this room is on the top fourth floor. One good sign: the counters for "Social Visit Pass' were fully manned.
After submitting the form, I waited an hour before I heard the call for my number (4034) to report to Counter 7. I was informed very nicely that the application could not be processed that very day, that "Keputusan akan diketahui selepas 3 hari bekerja". Fair enough I thought, because this was the second visa extension from this office. We don't normally have to do this because we always travel to Singapore to visit the Rainbow Kids . But this time Iain was just not fit enough to travel that distance.
This morning I got to the office by 9.30. As I was queuing for my number, this mother and son (no, they're not Malaysians, they look like Central Europeans) tried to potong my jalan. I spoke to them very nicely (through gritted teeth) and said that this was a queue. The son, aged about 17, replied in a somewhat bolshie manner that it was only for one question.
So, I capitulated. As I suspected, it was more than a question. And HOORAY, the officer behind the counter told them to go to the end of the line. YAH, BOO, SUCKS!!!!
There was still no air-con, the escalator was just as kaput as on Thursday. I waited again (only standing room), and after an hour my number (4044) was called. At Counter 8, the young officer went through a pile of papers to search for the spouse's application. Nothing. He tried again. Still nothing.
Why? I asked. "It's still waiting for the Director's signature."
When can I get it, because I was advised to come here today? "You could wait here".
For how long? "I don't know - maybe all afternoon."
But my husband has just had an operation and I cannot leave him on his own all day. "Then maybe you can come here tomorrow."
So, tomorrow it has to be, to wait for the pen-pushers to get going.
As I left that packed, sweaty and noisy office I looked at the patient, weary faces of the men , women, mothers and fathers, restless and crying children , toddlers, babies in buggies or in their mothers' arms waiting and waiting. What am I fretting about?
Got back home at 11.30. I vented my frustration at the spouse - he could not get away hee hee! I grumbled a text message to Din. He was as usual - cool and comforting.
But .... I am now conversant with the many ways of getting to Immigration Damansara and to our abode by taxi. They range from MR17 to MR20. Who knows what route tomorrow will bring? And as for the spouse's visa, please, please be there!
I shall not fret. I shall not get frustrated. I must not be upset. I must not be defeated. I will be philosophical. I will smile at this confounding circumstances and .....
When I was working at CPI in Leicester, the youngsters would nudge me to listen to this song whenever it was played on Radio 1 because they think I am too serious when I'm at work.
Aaaahh ....... now that I feel a wee bit better after that lovely reminiscence, here's a rib tickler.
At the Immigration Office I saw this notice.
Petition Writers and Touts tidak dibenarkan Masuk
Years ago when we were in Tawau, I took a photograph of this notice stuck to the door of the 'Ketua Pos Tawau'.
SORRY!!! SALESMAN/FORTUNE TELLER WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED.
Just been upstairs to give the spouse his bed-time mug of Milo and as I shut the bedroom door he said, "We're blessed".
Today's blessings came in the form of Lely and Oi Bek.
It had been a hectic morning sorting out the two workmen who were here to make cupboards and book shelves for the rooms upstairs. The spouse had to be shunted from our bedroom to the guest room and after taking him his breakfast upstairs I went down to the kitchen for my toast and coffee.
Then I heard Salam Alaikum through the din of the workmen's drilling? Now who could that be at this time of morning?
I saw Lely with her face pressed against the French window and Oi Bek strolling in through the front door. You could have knocked me down with a feather!! Must admit I was a bit tearful when I saw them!
They had taken the 7.10 am flight from Singapore to give Unc and Teech a surprise visit - to cheer up Uncle and to take over the cooking and the tea-making and the washing up from Miss Hamid. And for all of Saturday, until they left for the airport at 7.30 pm they did just that - and lots more.
After a brief chit-chat to get over my shock, they prepared two trays. One with coffee and tea, the other with Lely's home-made tuna sandwiches and then proceeded upstairs to give Iain a happy shock. He was over the moon and their presence cheered him up no end. We had been feeling a bit blue and worn-out during this period of recuperation. Oi Bek and Lely brought the sunshine.
And we all sat around his bed eating up the curry puffs (from Lely), and downing mugs of tea. I also encouraged them to nag him to behave, to reduce his speed while jogging on the Zimmer frame and to always listen to 'she who must be obeyed'. I too got a dose of telling-off. I was ordered to sit down and do absolutely nothing. Oh what joy! Later, when the sky brought down a little deluge of rain and as the cool breeze blew into the room, it felt like our cup of joy had runneth over.
They left him to rest later in the afternoon while they sorted out the clutter in the kitchen. Lely bagged the rubbish and together they carried it to the bin outside. Oi Bek did a smashing job of the washing up ( and she gets 8 out of 10 for that performance) while Lely cooked the rice for the cats' dinner, scrubbed the top of the stove and all the other nitty-gritty jobs in the kitchen.
We had late tea of Oi Bek's apple pie and my custard, a must for the spouse whenever he has apple pie. Time flies when you're having fun and all too soon the taxi came to pick them up to get them to KLIA.
Oi Bek and Lely, how can we thank you? Words fail us. What did we do to deserve this loving and selfless concern? All I did was to have been your teacher for two years.
So thank you to our two angels. Loads of love and kisses and God bless you.
