The Malaysian Dilemma

I know that this might come a little too early in the year, but I honestly cannot feel overly exasperated by what I see around me. Therefore I feel like I have to speak about it. As you prepare to punch our fists up in the air to celebrate the nations 50th birthday, or as how some of you may view it, but I'd like to think of it as a holiday that saves my back from being broken by unruly people who want to take revenge on me for beating their backs during their birthdays.Merdeka = Week long holiday = No college = NO whack on the back! Anyways, here are a few Malaysian Dilemmas, as I would like to call it, for you to ponder. The first two are rather elementary but the dilemmas No.3 and 4 are rather interesting.

Dilemma 1: The Malasyian Timing.
Well, here's a scenario.
A man sets an appointment with his friend for 3.00 at a particular place. Half an hour after the scheduled time, his friend is nowhere to be seen. He gives a call to check on his whereabouts, and this would be his answer. 'Dei thambi! 5 minutes more I come. I at traffic light. Very big jam. Wait ar!' Upon hearing of the excuse,he waits and waits and waits until a further half hour has ticked away. Worried, he calls again, only to get the same response. And in the end, his friend comes about an hour later, barely apologizing for his delay. Therefore it seems to me that its either the Malaysian education system is rather hopeless at teaching students how to decipher the clock or Malaysians have blatant disregard for common civility, punctuality and severe disrespect towards a persons time. This didn't happen during the British rule.

Dilemma 2: Mang-lish
You see in Malaysia, there is this very popular food. Its called 'Rojak'. Its a kind of food in which anything and everything is mixed together under a blanket of brown gravy and it usually goes well with 'cendol', another popular drink. Just like how they eat that food, they speak and write the English language or any language for that matter. They even deface the national language for gods sake. Fortunately, being a resident in this country for 19 years, which is my second last year here, I am able to decipher what they speak. What about the foriegners? How do you expect them to understand what you are saying? I mean, its OK to speak broken English. But don't get edgy every time someone tries to correct you and worst of all don't be too proud of it. Calling It your beloved Malaysian English. Manglish in short. It only serves to point you out as an idiot who doesn't now what to be proud off. Its like saying 'I'm proud of Hitler because he killed 6 million Jews!! Yay!' Look at the Arabs. They speak broken English. But what separates them from Malaysians is that they constantly seek ways and means to improve their command of the language.

Dilemma 3: Yes mates! We Take Backward Steps. 2020 B.C. Ahoy!
Back in the 80's there was this 'senile' old man who set a target for Malaysia. He called it Vision 2020. What he meant was that Malaysia would reach a developed status by the year 2020. Seem like a long time more ain't it? Well, only if you think that 14 more years would come and go like a century. If you have noticed, other Islamic countries like Dubai, Oman and the Gulf Regions, save for Saudi Arabia have already reached the 80-90 percent developed status. And what puts Malaysia to shame is that, they have done it in a far less time period. They, despite a host of seemingly impossible problems, have manage to wrestle the feat and pin it in a little over a decade. They have turned the desert into a beautiful oasis fit for kings. Marvellous now ain't it? But in Malaysia, they have been struggling for the last 50 years to even reach 50 percent developed status. Furthermore, those countries have far less natural resources as compared to Malaysia. Their oil grade is not as good as Malaysia's. And to make matters worse, the heat in their country is so unbearable during the summer that a large portion of their money is spent on air conditioning. Not to mention their desert terrain and the desert storms. They have most certainly put Malaysia to shame by accomplishing this feat. And if you are hoping that Malaysia will reach its 2020, I'd suggest that you'd better stop hoping. For as long as Malaysia has corrupt politicians who only care about the size of their pockets and the amount of titles they have, and mind you that our titles are not internationally recognized, the Agong was addressed as Mr.DYMM by a doctor at a foriegn hospital, Malaysia will never reach 2020. What this implies is that, instead of taking forward steps, Malaysia is proudly taking backward steps. Read the news papers. Their NAP policy will make you fall of your chair. Recently, President Bush asked Malaysia's PM as to what the NAP is all about and unsurprisingly, he couldn't answer the question! Perhaps the next dilemma will further ridicule the nation.

Dilemma 4: Where have our priorities gone?
Recently, there has been a spate of highly controversial yet shallow minded issues against women. In a nutshell, women are to be blamed if they get raped. Now what kind of bastard would think like that? Honestly, by saying this, they imply that men useless fools who are unable to control their urges when they see a woman and they are akin to lunatics who should be thrown into the mental asylum a.k.a Tanjung Rambutan and left to rot for all eternity. And to make matters worse, it has become a bloody topic in the Parliamentary debates! Once, this dude said that only ugly women should be allowed to hold jobs. Perhaps we should all ask him of his definition about ugly. For in my eyes, all women are beautiful. Size and looks really don't matter to me. Anyway, back to the point. Instead of arguing about how to further develop this country and look forward to a brighter future, these people are arguing about how long a woman's skirt should be. If this were a strip club, I wouldn't give a damn. But this is the bloody parliament for gods sake! Where have all their sense gone to? It really comes to show how shallow minded the Malaysian politicians are in their daily dealings and how much in danger they are of getting their priorities wrong and leading Malaysia into the wrong track. To make matters worse, an Islamic state to the north has passed a law that women wearing revealing clothes like body hugging suits or short skirts will be fined. Another testament to Malaysian stupidity. Furthermore, what right do they have to determine how much skin a woman is allowed to display. In my opinion, the amount of skin shown by a woman is highly personal and should be the judgement of the woman herself. I honestly don't know how Malaysia is supposed to go forward by solving trivial and unimportant issues like this one. Look at the Arabs. The reason they are so advanced is that they look at the bigger picture. They don't try to be moral polices. I was in Doha recently for a stopover in my flight to Egypt and what I saw was amazing. Liqueur was sold in the open. Suggestive pictures were on CD covers, there were no censorship laws and the women were blazing! Yet, they are light years ahead of Malaysia. Don't forget, Qatar is an Islamic country too.

Of course there are more dilemmas that I would like to point out and I would certainly be so happy to do so when I find the time. But after reading all this, I certainly don't know how or why anyone can be proud of being a Malaysian?