Don't Tell Me It's Not A Racial Thing When...

... a Special Report on prime time news sets out to cast doubt on whether food served in a restaurant owned by a Chinese Muslim is really Halal. 

Reporter Irnani Md Nor insinuated strongly in her investigative report aired on TV9 news last night that the Halal status of a restaurant owned by a Chinese Muslim man was questionable.  He apparently did not have on display an official Halal certificate, but had Quranic verses written in "Chinese calligraphy-style". 

He was questioned in a rather accusatory tone by the reporter about his Halal status - "Bila you dapatkan sijil..." "So macam mana you...".  Who does that?  Say "you" to someone obviously much older than yourself when conversing in Malay - one of the most respectful languages there is. 

They also questioned the restaurant workers - with their faces blurred out.  One of the workers said about the restaurant owner, "Dia sama macam kita - Muslim".  He gets it.  We're all Muslim, we're the same.  Then they questioned the patrons and asked if they were "yakin" or confident about eating at the premise. 

The report went on to speak with some Islamic authority (because we need those, you know, on earth).  And Mr. Authority said not only is it important for restaurant owners to get the proper Halal certification, but they and their kitchen workers must understand the Halal way of preparing food.  Somewhere in his mini-sermon I even caught something about needing to have ablution when preparing a meal. 

Interspersed were images of restaurant workers in other restaurants - at one point zooming onto a tattoo of one who was serving food.  The report's subtitle on the screen had the word "ragu" - doubt.

WHAT is TV9 news trying to say? 

Essentially, that Chinese Muslims are not as Muslim as Malay Muslims.  Yes.  That IS what they are saying, whether or not they realise it.  Would it have become an Investigative News piece if the restaurant owner was Malay?  Why have we never questioned the good people we buy Nasi Lemak bungkus from who do not have a certificate?  Because there is no "ragu" there, is there?

What a low-down blow, TV9.  You are News.  Look up what that means.

A Rose, By Any Other Name...

...will still stab you with it's thorns if you handle it wrongly, lah!

From Mat Rempit to Thugs-On-Wheels

Police said yesterday they will now call illegal street racers Samseng Jalanan or Thugs-on-Wheels (TOW), instead of Mat Rempit, as the term appears to have created a "glamarous" image for such rowdies.

Hmm... yes, I think now they will all run and hide under rocks in shame and remorse.

This brilliant idea follows a recent statement by a psychologist, that using the term Mat Rempit makes these wheelie-happy kids feel cool, and so more daring and unrepentent.

So we give them another name. Samseng Jalanan, literally, Street Gangsters. Pretty damn cool name, if you ask me, just a couple of notches down from Hell's Angels. Thugs-on-Wheels (TOW) not so cool, sounds more like a delivery service. But still, guys, it's just another label! It still groups them together as something unique, something elite even. You're still giving them a special group to belong to.

I wonder how many people sat in the Police Task Force that brainstormed through endless kuehs and teh tariks to come up with those new labels. How about using the term Criminals. Or Lawbreakers. That's what they are, right? They blatantly flout the laws, and are causing grievances to others. Would calling them exactly what they are maybe get them to start realising what they've become? Not young, forgivable drugs-induced kids going through a phase, but lawbreakers - sames as thieves and robbers, killers and rapists; and hence will also be punished for their crimes to society.

I say just call it like it is and punish where it's called for. Instead of spending time and my money trying to decide what to call them after the free sky jumping trip didn't work, try focusing on what got them to this stage in the first place.

Just a few suggestions to chew karipap over:

1. Give our children better schools, where they can get a quality education, enough play time and freedom of expression.
2. Better incentives for young people to pursue sports as a career, and the corrupt-free system and facilities to go with it.
3. Much higher minimum wages, plus a commitment to develop vocational and basic-level service jobs into respectable careers.

Of course, all easier said than done, but we could grit our teeth and sink them into the hard work, or we could continue thinking of names.

What Interns Should Learn

A couple of interns started work in our office this week, and a colleague of mine brought them round to our workstations to say hello. Now, I generally try to be nice to interns, because I know how difficult it can be sometimes. So I engaged them in the usual get-to-know-you banter: Which university are you from? What are you studying?

They were shy, and didn't say much. Then one of them gathered up his balls, pointed his index finger straight out at me and asked loud and clear: "You Malay or Chinese?"

I gave him the mother of all evil eyes, told him to take that up with someone else, and turned back to my work. My colleague later came to talk to me, and I told him that really, if his intern learns nothing else but to never ask questions like that again, we'd have done something good with his time here.

My colleague(s) (and my mother) think that I was too harsh on the guy. Maybe. But I'm tired. I'm very tired of being asked whether I'm Malay or Chinese, Muslim or Not, Mixed Parentage or What. I've been asked all my life. All. My. Life. Except for my one gap year when I was in Holland - there they asked me if I knew Kung Fu.

But people are curious, I'm told. They just want to know, and you're being too hard. Am I? I don't think so. I can tell by now when people are asking me because they want to know, or if they are asking for my benefit, or for their own.

It's when they are asking for their own benefit that irks me. People who ask for their own benefit are people who need to box me into a category so they know how to deal with me, how to interact with me. If I tell them I'm Chinese, they pull out their Dealing With Chinese People Template with all its attached generalisations. People who ask for their own benefits are also sometimes trying to prove a point. "Oh, no wonder lah, [insert race-based assumption here]."

They don't always realise though, that they are asking for their own benefit - that much I will concede. But if I don't start making the people around me realise how deeply they are seated in their comfortable mindsets, then they will continue asking, continue enforcing generalised beliefs about people of different races, and continue seeing one another as Malay or Chinese or Mixed and not Malaysians.

Sure, people still want to know. I'm an oddity. I often take time to explain to others about me. I explain to our office boy, to our clerk, to the taxi driver, to the Tau Foo Fa aunty, because really, they don't know but they want to know, and they ask nicely. I want to explain to them so they know that oh, there are also Muslims in Malaysia who are not Malays or oh, some Chinese people are Muslims too; and I enjoy doing that and seeing the acceptance in their faces. But if you come swaggering into a meeting with a bigshot name card that reads Director and asks me "What are you ah?", then I draw a line, and I will be rude to you, too. As for interns - well, you're on your way to becoming a university graduate and potential Director. Start learning how to behave, now.

I've also been accused of being defensive because I'm ashamed of what I am. I was, I'll admit. I went to a Chinese primary school for six years, during my most impressionable years where peer acceptance was very important. I didn't know how to explain myself. I didn't know why I couldn't just be Chinese and not Muslim. So if nobody asked, I didn't bring it up. When people did ask, I shrugged it off.

But now I'm all grown up and I'm not ashamed anymore. I know what I am, and family and real friends would know, I've never tried to hide the fact that I'm Muslim. I fill in the 'Religion' boxes in all forms, because yes, I'd like that Halal meal on the flight and yes, a prayer mat in the hotel room would be lovely. It's the Race box I have a problem with. And no, I'm not ashamed of being Chinese - otherwise what's to stop me from just saying I'm Malay? I would've breezed through my growing up years if I did.

I'm not ashamed, I'm not being defensive, I am tired. What does it matter whether I'm Chinese or Malay? In what ways would you treat a Chinese different from a Malay, and based on what? Based on what you are yourself. Isn't it?

A Sense of Urgency

I hate management books. I just can't stand all the jargons and theoretical ideas and step-by-step ways and the "It starts with YOU!" pep talk to be the best company / manager / executive in the world.

I got Kotter's book for serving as emcee at a Managers' Forum (guess what they talked about there), and only started reading it because I had a long train ride home and nothing else to read after I was done with all the advertisements in the train.

You know, I think I should get his first book too. He referred to it alot in this one. The first book used a penguin colony to represent a corporate team, and there was one penguin called No-no. I laughed out loud - I know so many No-nos... and a couple of Oh No-nos...

In 'A Sense of Urgency', the refreshing concept Kotter introduces was that of the "false sense of urgency". Technically this is the in-between of Complacency and Real Productivity. That's refreshing because all this while it was easy to point fingers at Complacency as the reason why nothing gets done, or done right. But Kotter offers that sometimes, companies exhibit a false sense of urgency, described as Meeting-meeting, writing-writing, going-going, project-project, task force-task force, which also results in nothing getting done.

Meeting-meeting, writing-writing, going-going, project-project, task force-task force. That was what caught my attention and I thought "Hey, that's us!". Meetings all the time - check. Several rounds of meetings with no solution - check. Schedules so full it looks like we're running the country - check. Working late all the time with no tangible results to show - check. Stress levels and tempers running amok - CHECK. Aiyo! It read almost as if Kotter was citing us as a case study. But he wasn't, and apparently, we're not alone. That was a relief to know - that even big companies in Negara-negara yang maju has this problem. So we can get off the edge of our seats now, right? Because we're just like other companies in the super-efficient developed world. We'll get going when they get going.

Kotter says you need to develop a real sense of urgency to get going. And he says "It starts with YOU!" in not so many words. Yea yea... all well and good. I've read the book. Now my bosses just have to read it too. If they do it, I'll do it. Otherwise I'll just be the naive, stupid one - running my head into a brick wall over and over again, with a great big motivated smile on my face, right? Sigh... did I mention I hate management books? But ok, due credit to Kotter, it's a good read, and after reading it I decided to cut my cynicism by about 70%.

Penthesilea on -70% cynicism: I think what we should see is that given the progression curve a company has to get through to various stages of productivity and non-productivity, the fact that we're described in the same breath as big-name companies who have been around for generations, says something - that we moved twice as fast as they did to get here. In a relatively short time we got successful, became heady, got complacent, tried to buck-up with new-age management theories, and started doing the Meeting-meeting, writing-writing, going-going, project-project, task force-task force waltz. In a very short time. So technically, we should be able to get out of this rut faster then, right? Of course. I really believe that.

The question is, what other excuses can we come up with as Malaysian companies to not get going? - Penthesilea's 30% leftover cynicism.

Gaiman's Sandman

My forever-young husband bought this one for me. I thought some of the stories and graphics were morbid at first, but on closer inspection what jumps out at you is the remarkable imagination - both in the illustrations and the story-telling. Makes you almost feel that you are a little boxed-in and... boringly normal.

A great way to just escape and relax after a tough day in a frustratingly real world full of pointless activities.

Another Gaiman book I've read some time ago is this one, co-authored with Terry Pratchett:

It's about an angel and a demon who both love their seconded lives here on earth so much that they panic when they find out the end of the world is due the next weekend. They begin a hunt for the Antichrist to stop Armageddon, not knowing that he's an 11-year old boy who doesn't even know he's the Antichrist. Hilarious!! Really, laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Before Gaiman and Pratchett, I was shielded behind a bookcase of conventional novels, never exposed to such degrees of whacky impossibilities. Then I married a whacky impossibility (loveable, whacky impossibility), and now my bookcase is that much more interesting!

This Country...

... is worth fighting for!

Heard that at a conference yesterday - and it hit home. Just when I was already thinking of Hawai'i as a nice place to migrate to, some fellow Malaysian ups and yells "...because this country is worth fighting for!"

... and he's right. It is.

Even if many of her people are racist and intolerant of each others' differences, and attack each other covertly, like the cowards that they are.

Even if she severely lacks real leaders, of integrity, wisdom and class, to bring her to her fullest potential.

Even if I have to argue every morning with that rude, rude woman who NEVER lines up for the LRT, and even if many more like her exist.

Even if the education system gradually crumbles to pieces, and no one who can afford otherwise will send their children to national schools.

Even if we have to do Yoga in deathly silence.

Even if we lose all its natural beauty and heritage to greed and incompetent thinking.

Because it's my country. And I haven't got another one to fight for.

The God of Small Things

This one nearly made me pass out in the train on the way to work.  I was so engrossed I didn't realise I was hyperventilating until the lights started to go out... A colleague helped me to the clinic where I got a medical chit, then I went home and finished the book. 

It's rather tragic, a great story of forbidden love and cruelly stolen childhoods in Kerala, India - the only democratically elected communist state in the world.  Roy gets the details so right - even spelling out English words the way it's spoken with an Indian accent, you can almost hear it.  She works the story in a compelling but unhurried manner, just telling enough to let you know, not to surprise. 

Great style.  I'd like to get more of her books. 

SO... Let's Talk About Books

I'm starting a category on this blog today on a much safer topic: Books. My commuting time has expanded to about an hour a day since we moved to our new apartment, and that has given me the privilege of time to devour quite a number of books. I thought it'd be nice to review and share it here, for when the days get too hot... you know.

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
(I couldn't find a larger image)

Easily one of the most inspiring autobiographies I've read. Great men like him are made of different stuff, a sort of concrete-like internal discipline and unpenetrable principles. In his book he goes back a few times to his one regret over the life path he had chosen to take: that it cost him his family - the only price acceptable in exchange for deciding to fight for the greater good.

Something else that struck me about this giant of a man - an unexpected sense of humour, punctuating the most difficult, scariest and humiliating moments of his trials and tribulations. I suppose there would be no way of surviving 27 years of imprisonment without some ability to laugh at the atrocity of it all.

Favourite line: "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear myself more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear".

Made me: Laugh, cry, sigh deeply and feel grateful in comparison, and also sad at the same time - Here's a shining example of a man, who, despite growing up in the worst states of discrimination, fought for equality of all races and never harboured a shred of vengeance. The world should have stopped and learned - but increasingly, I feel a form of self-imposed apartheid among the people in our country.

A Quote

I don't agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

~ Voltaire

Reeza said, "just publish them", and then I remembered reading this quote somewhere. Not only does it sound better (and more m-a-t-u-r-e) than "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me", but the truth is, sometimes words do hurt. Not so much that it hurts the person those words were projected to, but it hurts knowing that people who utter them exist.