Infernal Ramblings
A Malaysian Perspective on Politics, Society and Economics

Six Weird Things About Me

Written by johnleemk on 10:57:47 pm Jan 17, 2007.
Categories:

So, I was tagged. I'm suppose to tell you six weird things about myself. Well, here goes:


  1. I'm at least 62.5% Chinese, about 30-something% Filipino, and have an indeterminate (but minuscule) amount of Spanish blood.
  2. I have attended three different primary schools, two different secondary schools and one college. These include one Chinese national-type school and one private school.
  3. I read on average about six books a month. (In other words, I read 72 times more than the typical Malaysian.)
  4. I am against abortion but believe it should be legal. (I plan on dealing with this in a future article.)
  5. I am against pre-marital sex. (Probably not weird for older readers, but definitely weird for someone in my generation.)
  6. People laugh uncontrollably when I dance.


Now that you know my deepest darkest secrets (actually, you don't, but hyperbole is fun), feel free to slander me for (these are all various things I have actually been charged with): not being Malaysian enough; being a snobbish rich kid who could attend a private school; not being Chinese enough; reading/studying too much; not upholding my moral values; being an excessively conservative prude; and/or dancing too erotically with a guy. (Although, for the record, I am not homosexual. I'm just have lack any sense of decency.)

Update



"moo_t" wrote to me to cheekily complain that the five first things aren't weird:
time for nick-picking ;)

1. not weird
2. not weird also.
3. not weird also unless you are a kampung folks or mat rempit.
4. No weird. it is called control by legislation.
5. Not weird also. Nothing to do with the age.

For the first, well, I just assumed it was weird because I didn't see other people's mothers being confused for maids. I haven't run into many people who've been to such a large number of schools, so I thought I was a bit abnormal in that sphere as well. For the third, the average Malaysian reads one book a year, so I thought it would be a bit weird to read 72 times more than the typical Malaysian. The fourth might not have been explained clearly enough; I am also against abortion in the case of rape, etc. Most people who are against abortion personally but support its legalisation do so because they feel rape victims should not carry any children resulting from the rape. I personally feel otherwise, but that doesn't keep me from supporting the legalisation of abortion. Then again, perhaps I just haven't met enough people who have such apparently odd views as mine. And as for the fifth, I'd estimate that 90% of the people I know in my generation have no problems with pre-marital sex. (Casual sex, though, is a different matter.)

Still, if you insist, I can come up with five replacements:
  1. Today (18 January 2007) I officiated at a lesbian wedding (as a joke, of course);
  2. I can drink about six or seven large cups of Coca-Cola at McDonald's (free refills rock);
  3. Most (as in the majority) of my friends in primary school and college have been non-Chinese, even though I am Chinese - the exception was secondary school where most of my friends were Chinese;
  4. My writings have been criticised by Ivy League students;
  5. For some reason, in college I've ended up befriending a large number of girls, and as a result know more about certain womanly issues than any man should ever know.
I honestly think that's about as weird as I can get, so maybe I'm not that weird. *shrug*

Update II



moo_t strikes again!

That's more like it ;)

reason I think why the previous is not weird

1. With TV, internet, etc, that's nothing weird about.
Ah, true, I suppose. I guess I was thinking about what would be weird to Malaysians.

2. Even the Meng-Zi(Chinese philosopher) mother shift to other house 3 times. ;)
I've shifted house four times. I still think it's a bit abnormal to have been to so many schools, though.

3. Middle class Malaysian read tons of book. The 1 books statistic is terrible. Because it didn't show the details and the methodology of the survey. e.g. language, area, books sales figures,etc.
Yes, I suppose. I guess I should have mentioned that the vast majority of the books I read are non-fiction. Most people I know read only fiction.

4. The abortion issue is 20 years old topic. Since it involve some political-religions, it will take time.
Yes, that's true.

5. Nothing weird/special on age against pre-marital sex. Sometimes the opposite also happens, people who growth older will change their stand on it.
Yes, I'm well aware of that. :) Based on my personal experience, though, it's very odd to be opposed to pre-marital sex if you're in my generation.


If you'd like to keep informed about updates to the site, consider subscribing to our web feed:

Infernal Ramblings is a Malaysian website focusing on current events and sociopolitical issues. Its articles run the gamut from economics to society to education.

Infernal Ramblings is run by John Lee. For more, see the About section. If you have any questions or comments, do drop him a line.


Comments

Thoughts? Comments? Discuss this and other ramblings at the forums.
(Alternatively, contact the author privately.)

Related comments from forum thread "Malays Have Betrayed Their Own Culture":
johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind
Head Administrator
Posts: 948
IP Logged

Posted at 5:08:42 am Aug 8, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4749379.stm

If you can't be bothered to read,
The local government in Kelantan put a stop to Dollah's performances (of wayang kulit). Likewise traditional dance.

They are considered un-Islamic.
All these crafts are being destined to oblivion, not just by conservative Muslims who dress in the Arabic style and frown on their own culture, but also by Malaysia's rapid modernisation.

Malay people seem to love the new and shiny, not the old.
Across the country one sees the evidence of a culture of disapproval.

Young Malay women wear headscarves drawn tight around their faces; something their grandmothers never did.

Nightclubs are raided by the religious police, couples are prosecuted for holding hands and Muslims are sentenced to be whipped for drinking beer.

This is not policy. This comes from the conservative grassroots.
But the saddest encounter I had in Kelantan was with a criminal lawyer.

"What keeps you busy?" I asked.

"Rape," he said. "It's all rape."

Incest, drugs and rape afflict the Malay community far worse than Malaysia's large Chinese and Indian minorities.

Last five replies (1 comments not shown):
Janice1
Member
Posts: 11
IP Logged
Posted at 11:24:23 am Aug 12, 2005
I have been round the world and met many people of different races. I've even met my kind in so many different countries but very few are as kind and hospitable as those Malays in our country. I mean those Malays of the 60s and before. Malays of today have changed, many having become arrogant, rude, self centred and even greedy. It's also ironic they are becoming more religious and Arabised to the extent that they want to shed their culture and former image. What's the point of being religious and have so many weaknesses at the same time? It's not coincident that such weaknesses start to appear with the advent of the NEP and Dr M's rule. Dr M and his race divisive policies really have spoiled the Malays silly, even to the extent that crutches are forever needed to survive. It's really pathetic that some of them wanted to extend the NEP and waving their krises to show they mean business. For many years they blamed everybody especially the Chinese for their failures and very often used other races as their punching bags to shore up support and their Agenda. They failed to see that the real enemies are themselves. Of course their leaders are aware of their shortcomings but for some reasons known to themselves they are unwilling to correct the so many ills of this country and their own race.
But thank god I am still able to meet some of these wonderful Malays that I have mentioned in the rural areas.
johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind
Head Administrator
Posts: 948
IP Logged
Posted at 9:48:02 am Aug 15, 2005
Actually, some of my best friends in primary school were Malays. I don't know many "traditional" (in the sense that they adhere to their old customs in addition to their Muslim ones) Malays, though, but the ones I met in primary school were at least more open-minded.
Vamp
Flamer
Administrator
Posts: 456
IP Logged
Posted at 2:10:39 am Sep 9, 2005
Malays seems so cool now :p
celtic-frost
Member
Posts: 2
IP Logged
Posted at 6:49:10 pm Dec 28, 2005
Nice forum you have here John.

So yes, on this topic, the Malays have been blindly apeing the Arabs over the last decade. What can you expect? The education system and the pro-bumi policies have reduced Malay society to a group of people who cannot think critically, constantly needing someone to tell them what to do and when to do it, etc. No surprise that all it takes are a few authority figures to go "Arab" and the rest of the lemmings take the leap.

On average, the Malays have terribly failed in education, in large businesses, in technology, etc. There isn't one sphere of society in which they haven't been trumped by the non-Malays. And this says nothing about Malays per se, only the system that keeps them down...look at Malays who migrated overseas and Singapore Malays for a stark contrast.

The one thing they can outdo the non-Malays in, and giving themselves a sense of strong identity and something to be proud of, is their religion. So they are all out in excelling at it....but in the mindless sheeple way of following some Arab, instead of moulding and adapting it to the cultural realites of the Malay. And the strong reactions by non-Muslims, although warranted, only feeds this growing and rabid spread of Islamic fundamentalism, better described as Islamo-Fascism. It gives this ever-growing segment of Islamo-Fascist Malay society a sense of importance, something they lack in all other spheres of society outside of politics and crony business deals.

My prediction is that in about 20 - 30 years time, the population of non-Malays in the peninsula will have dwindled down to about half or less of its current size. If China's economic growth and increased liberalization is anything to go by, we're going to see a lot of non-Malays move there, and I don't mean just the Malaysian Chinese. The gateway to opportunity this time is nearer, compared to previously being in Western nations. And within China, there will be a launchpad of opportunities for these folks to move elsewhere in the world.

The Malay culture as we know it today will be non-existent, or near extinction. The current trend points towards a pseudo-Arab society with ultra-conservative Islamic policies in place. This decay of society, together with the mass migrations mentioned above, will be IMHO, due to the dwindling resources of oil and natural gas in Malaysia. There will be no more Petronas to bankroll the country, and foreign investments in the technology and industrial sector would have been long gone to China or elsewhere.

The pitiful state of tertiary education in Malaysia would have ensured that the brightest of students (both Malay and non-Malay) had left to pursue an overseas education and stayed on to enjoy the opportunities of their host nation. Those products of the local universities, especially the Malays, will be completely unqualified and incapable to develop, maintain and transfer new technologies that will crop up in the coming decades...be it in business, biotechnology or advanced quantum physics.

Malaysia, the peninsula at least, will become a complete basket case run by a bunch of ulamaks, or people very close to resembling them. Perhaps Sabah and Sarawak might secede, who knows. Those non-Malays unfortunate enough to remain in Malaysia will face increasing restrictions on their lives and cultures both in their public and private domains of existence. And that would merely be the best case scenario.

The worst case is when the Islamo-Fascist ideology brings together the troublemakers in Indonesia and Southern Thailand together with their Malaysian brethren. They will most likely start terrorist campaigns in order to destabilize Singapore, and probably even Thailand, in probably what will be the world's worst mix of Islamic fundamentalism and rabid nationalism for the creation of an Islamic Malay archipelago.

I'm sure this all sounds very pessimistic. But this is a possibility when a nation does nothing but cultivate a dumbed-down majority that responds only to racial and religious baiting. I might sound racist to some, and for that, please forgive me. I am not a racist. But I am also not politically correct. I call it like it is. If it walks like a duck....

Looking forward to a lively debate.
Arachnid
Member
Posts: 7
IP Logged
Posted at 5:29:36 am Jan 9, 2006
Singapore malays are ok. But when I went to malaysia, I noticed that most of the malays and non-malays didn't mingle very much. At least not like they do here. I've noticed the same trend in Amreica,save it was between the whites and the blacks instead.

There may not be racial strife now, but if the people continue to segragate themselves, it cannot be long in coming.

The only differences between races are those they make up themselves.


Latest:
A New Malaysian Government May Be On Its Way
Popular:
A New Malaysian Government May Be On Its Way

Most Recently Read

  1. Analysing the Beatles' Success
  2. Ethnic Descent, Nationality and Race: What is a Malaysian?
  3. Malaysia's Poor Leaders, Each PM Worse than the Last
  4. A New Malaysian Government May Be On Its Way
  5. Economic Class and Education in Malaysia
  6. Productive, Allocative and Dynamic Efficiency: Trade-offs
  7. Abusing the Internet
  8. Malaysians Deserve Better Than Troops in the Streets
  9. Taiwan Earthquake Knocks Out Internet in Malaysia
  10. Absolute vs Comparative Advantage
Google
Latest active forum topics
Quoth the webserver...
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.
— George Bernard Shaw
Poll
Sorry, only registered users may vote. Please register or login.

There are currently no polls running.