A Stateless Malaysian

Weather: Cloudy

Temperature: 14 c

Scene 1

Time: September, 2000
Place: Cardiff, Wales

It was the university’s orientation week. Many clubs and societies were busy setting up booths to recruits new members.

A few of my friends and I discussed about which club or society to join. We were nerds (though I really hate to admit that), so aggressive clubs like Latino Club, Basketball Club or Boxing Club were out of the question. We were searching for something mild, gentle and which did not require any physical capability. In the end, we picked one which showed how unimaginative and uncreative we were – the Malaysian Society. We filled up the application form, paid the membership fees, and were officially the members of the Malaysian Society.

The first meeting of the Malaysian Society was held in one of the small lecture halls. My friends and I were there early. However, we were so shocked to find out that almost 99% of the members of the Malaysian Society were Malays. We were the only Chinese there, and of course, we received funny stares. No one approached or greeted us. We surrendered into one dark corner and observed the whole event.

The president of the Malaysian Society gave his welcome speech (in Malay) and (to our shock and disbelief) followed by “baca doa”. We, the only non-Muslims, felt so awkward. What were we supposed to do? Pray along? At that moment, we felt like we had come to the wrong place or joined the wrong club. That was not a Malaysian Society; it was a Malay Society.

Immediately after the “baca doa”, we quietly sneaked out of the lecture hall and never came back.

Feeling lost, we really did not know which other club to join. Some of the senior Malaysian students suggested we join the Chinese Society. They were organizing a party at a restaurant and the tickets were not expensive. So, we went to the Chinese Society. We thought we would not go wrong this time; after all, were we not Chinese?

The Chinese Society was dominated by Hong Kees. Consequently, the whole party was conducted in Cantonese. I have no problem speaking Cantonese, but I would prefer Mandarin if given a choice. Further, why Chinese must speak Cantonese? Shouldn’t Mandarin or Putong Hua be a more suitable alternative? Anyway, I was the minority, I’d better keep quiet. If you can’t fight them, join them.

But, later we found out that those Hong Kees had some prejudices towards the Malaysians. For instance, they called us 马来仔 and 马来妹. We tried to argue with them that it was not appropriate to call us that. Nevertheless, the Hong Kees were not convinced. In their eyes, we were 马来仔 and 马来妹, and we came from a country stuffed with jungles and monkeys. 梁静茹 and 光良 were not famous then, so they knew very little about Malaysia. We concluded that we could not click with the Hong Kees, so we decided to move on.

In the end, we joined the club which we were really reluctant to join: the Singaporean Society. I do not need to elaborate further about the Singaporean’s attitudes towards the Malaysians. They have every reason to look down upon us.

We felt as if we were “stateless”. So, we ended up not joining any club but spending time on our studies instead (what a loser we were).


Scene 2

Time: February, 2008
Place: Shanghai, China

It was our company’s annual dinner. Everyone in the company had been talking about the annual dinner because the lucky draw prizes for this year were extraordinarily magnanimous. The grand prize was a 41’ LCD TV!

We were trained by an external instructor to waltz. Of course, we did not really pay attention to the dance instructor; we just wanted to have fun.

The annual dinner proceeded as planned with music, dance and great food. Everyone was enjoying the light evening. However, somewhere along the line, someone creatively came out with an idea of asking all the foreigners (老外) to perform on stage. Obviously, the American and Australian could not escape. They have to go on stage to either sing a song or tell a joke.

After that, they asked the Malaysians to perform. Wait a minute! We are not 老外, we screamed. We are Chinese, we are not 大鼻子 (big nose), so we should be spared. Nope, too bad. In the eyes of the locals, we are still 老外. Regardless of how well our Mandarin is or how we all look exactly alike, we are still stamped with the chop of “alien” on our foreheads and we have to walk up the stage to be ridiculed – because we are not “Chinese”.


Scene 3

Time: April, 2008
Place: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kelantan Crown Prince Tengku Faris Petra said that Malays had been coerced into giving non-Malays citizenship and the latter should therefore not seek equality or special treatment.

"Therefore, the rakyat must unite and never raise issues regarding Malay rights and special privileges because it is a quid pro quo in gratitude for the giving in of citizenship (beri-paksa kerakyatan) to 2.7 million non-Malays into the Tanah Melayu federation.

“Thus, it is not appropriate for these other ethnic groups to have citizenship, only (later) to seek equality and privileges,” said Tengku Faris.







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