WHAT IF A CHINESE MAN SAYS TO ANOTHER CHINESE MAN IN MALAYSIA– ‘YOU CAN BALIK (RETURN TO) TONGSAN (CHINA)’? – PART I.
…THE AFRICANS IN AMERICA HAD COME TO TERMS WITH THEIR BACKGROUND AS ANCESTORS OF SLAVES LONG AGO BECAUSE THEY HAD LEFT AFRICA FOR GOOD TO BECOME FULL-FLEDGED AMERICANS.
By Mansor Puteh
THE AFRICAN-AMERICANS DON’T EVEN TALK ABOUT THEIR MOTHERLAND AND CELEBRATE FESTIVALS OF AFRICA…
WHAT ALEX HALEY CAN TEACH US THAT WE DON’T CARE TO KNOW?
BUT WHAT IF THEY ARE SOME WHO DO NOT THINK THEY HAD LEFT CHINA OR INDIA, YET, WHO ARE STILL NOT SURE IF THEY ARE FULL-FLEDGED MALAYSIANS?
What can we call them?
What if there are some recent immigrants to the country who have arrived barely a few years ago, yet who are able to speak in the national language – the Bahasa Melayu, bahasa kebangsaan – better than those whose ancestors had come to this country in the nineteenth century, yet their descendants are still unable to speak well in the language, and who are still fascinated with things and happenings of their motherlands?
Who then are better Malaysians and who are not? Who are still living in fantasy land and who are living in the real world?
Why are no actions taken on those who had charged some Melayu as being Indians or immigrants from Indonesia? It seems that it is okay for them to do this.
How many times has Khir Toyo been charged for being a son of an immigrant from Indonesia and Mahathir for being Indian for which they readily admitted? Yet the charge continues to be hurled against them.
They did not seem to care because they have accepted the facts.
In fact, most Melayu in Malaysia and in Nusantara Melayu are people whose ancestors were either Hindus or Buddhist, who had converted to Islam in the fourteenth century.
Isn’t’ it strange that not many Melayu have been charged for having Chinese ancestry?
Take a good look at the Melayu on television and in the media, and in the streets and see how Chinese or Oriental they look.
It looks like it is not a bad thing to have Chinese ancestry, but not with Indian ancestry.
So who is being insensitive here?
Even the cartoonists and animators who habitually disparage the non-Melayu by having their characters who speak in bad Melayu can be charged for creating images which slur them.
Maybe because they are cartoon characters, this is okay. It is also not okay.
In America, they had an American actor play a Chinese inspector called Charlie Chan who speaks in poor quality English. The television program ran for many years and it was popular.
However, it had been shelved because the character of Charlie Chan was said to disparage the Chinese.
It is therefore not okay to do this, but it seems it is okay to disparage the Arabs.
The fact is many Melayu in Malaysia especially have all sorts of ancestries. So no Melayu looks the same; they all have different features – Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid, the three major racial types that we have in the world.
And no wonder, I have been mistaken for all sorts of people – Nepalese, Myanmars, Siamese, Filipino, South Korean, Japanese, Native American – never mind Chinese and even by the Chinese themselves and at Jalan Petaling even.
I traveled around the world quite a bit to 33 countries and bumping into all sorts of strangers so it’s not a big surprise to be able to be mistaken for such persons.
Yes, in Tehran, Iran, I was asked by a young Afghan refugee if I was his countryman living in Iran.
It has happened. And I have heard it being said in front of my face, by someone whom I had known for a while who said he told his fellow Chinese friend or relative to balik tongsan or return to China’.
In fact the Chinese man can be considered to be a fan of mine who cuts newspaper clippings on me. He had come to me to get my autograph after bumping into me at the Mid-Valley Megamall where I had gone to the Sony Service Center to fix some problems with my Sony HDV camcorder.
I bumped into him few other times and recently at Balai Senilukis Negara (BLSN) or the National Art Gallery in Jalan Temerloh, off Jalan Tun Abdul Razak where I had gone to visit some artists at the box beside the gallery when he was also there.
He seems to be interested in the arts and had even asked me to do a sketch for him with the autograph for whatever reason he may have.
The Chinese man’s father used to work at a cook with the Royal Malaysian Army and had lived amongst the Melayu in the barracks in Jalan Semarak (formerly Jalan Padang Tembak) near Keramat.
And he had bought a house in Kepong which is a predominantly Chinese area. After a while he gave up and sold off the house and moved to the Keramat area which is a predominantly Melayu area. He likes it here and has no problems living with the Melayu although he prefers to speak in English. But I try to get him to speak in Melayu.
The reason why he decided to leave Kepong and sold off his house there was because on one side there was a Chinese temple whose medium seems to be very popular so he got many Chinese coming to visit him to cure their strange ailments.
And on the other side of the Chinese man’s house was a factory making ‘tofu’ or bean curds. It did not look like it was a legal factory since the whole area is a residential one, so how could such an establishment be there?
He could not stand the noises coming from the temple, on one side, and the smell and also noise coming from the other side. Worse, when there was indiscriminate parking and with the many dogs which left their waste everywhere.
He had to give up or else he might have a need to pay the Chinese medium a visit to cure a strange ailment that he might also have.
He chose not to go to another area where there are many Chinese or one which is mixed, but to the Keramat area, which is a Melayu area.
This made his close relatives who were not used to being in the midst of the Melayu feel some angst as it came in the wake of the 13 May, 1969 tragedy which saw some Melayu and Chinese and also some other Indians having a go at each other.
And the areas which were considered the hottest were the Kampung Baru, Chow Kit and Keramat areas.
And this is where the Chinese man had chosen to stay, just after this tragedy. So no wonder each time his relatives visited him, they tried to dissuade him from staying there. But the Chinese man was not deterred; he had established himself there and had known his immediate neighbors and those further down the roads surround his house. He felt safe here living amongst the Melayu which he said he could not feel when he was living amongst his own kind, the Chinese.
By Mansor Puteh
THE AFRICAN-AMERICANS DON’T EVEN TALK ABOUT THEIR MOTHERLAND AND CELEBRATE FESTIVALS OF AFRICA…
WHAT ALEX HALEY CAN TEACH US THAT WE DON’T CARE TO KNOW?
BUT WHAT IF THEY ARE SOME WHO DO NOT THINK THEY HAD LEFT CHINA OR INDIA, YET, WHO ARE STILL NOT SURE IF THEY ARE FULL-FLEDGED MALAYSIANS?
What can we call them?
What if there are some recent immigrants to the country who have arrived barely a few years ago, yet who are able to speak in the national language – the Bahasa Melayu, bahasa kebangsaan – better than those whose ancestors had come to this country in the nineteenth century, yet their descendants are still unable to speak well in the language, and who are still fascinated with things and happenings of their motherlands?
Who then are better Malaysians and who are not? Who are still living in fantasy land and who are living in the real world?
Why are no actions taken on those who had charged some Melayu as being Indians or immigrants from Indonesia? It seems that it is okay for them to do this.
How many times has Khir Toyo been charged for being a son of an immigrant from Indonesia and Mahathir for being Indian for which they readily admitted? Yet the charge continues to be hurled against them.
They did not seem to care because they have accepted the facts.
In fact, most Melayu in Malaysia and in Nusantara Melayu are people whose ancestors were either Hindus or Buddhist, who had converted to Islam in the fourteenth century.
Isn’t’ it strange that not many Melayu have been charged for having Chinese ancestry?
Take a good look at the Melayu on television and in the media, and in the streets and see how Chinese or Oriental they look.
It looks like it is not a bad thing to have Chinese ancestry, but not with Indian ancestry.
So who is being insensitive here?
Even the cartoonists and animators who habitually disparage the non-Melayu by having their characters who speak in bad Melayu can be charged for creating images which slur them.
Maybe because they are cartoon characters, this is okay. It is also not okay.
In America, they had an American actor play a Chinese inspector called Charlie Chan who speaks in poor quality English. The television program ran for many years and it was popular.
However, it had been shelved because the character of Charlie Chan was said to disparage the Chinese.
It is therefore not okay to do this, but it seems it is okay to disparage the Arabs.
The fact is many Melayu in Malaysia especially have all sorts of ancestries. So no Melayu looks the same; they all have different features – Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid, the three major racial types that we have in the world.
And no wonder, I have been mistaken for all sorts of people – Nepalese, Myanmars, Siamese, Filipino, South Korean, Japanese, Native American – never mind Chinese and even by the Chinese themselves and at Jalan Petaling even.
I traveled around the world quite a bit to 33 countries and bumping into all sorts of strangers so it’s not a big surprise to be able to be mistaken for such persons.
Yes, in Tehran, Iran, I was asked by a young Afghan refugee if I was his countryman living in Iran.
It has happened. And I have heard it being said in front of my face, by someone whom I had known for a while who said he told his fellow Chinese friend or relative to balik tongsan or return to China’.
In fact the Chinese man can be considered to be a fan of mine who cuts newspaper clippings on me. He had come to me to get my autograph after bumping into me at the Mid-Valley Megamall where I had gone to the Sony Service Center to fix some problems with my Sony HDV camcorder.
I bumped into him few other times and recently at Balai Senilukis Negara (BLSN) or the National Art Gallery in Jalan Temerloh, off Jalan Tun Abdul Razak where I had gone to visit some artists at the box beside the gallery when he was also there.
He seems to be interested in the arts and had even asked me to do a sketch for him with the autograph for whatever reason he may have.
The Chinese man’s father used to work at a cook with the Royal Malaysian Army and had lived amongst the Melayu in the barracks in Jalan Semarak (formerly Jalan Padang Tembak) near Keramat.
And he had bought a house in Kepong which is a predominantly Chinese area. After a while he gave up and sold off the house and moved to the Keramat area which is a predominantly Melayu area. He likes it here and has no problems living with the Melayu although he prefers to speak in English. But I try to get him to speak in Melayu.
The reason why he decided to leave Kepong and sold off his house there was because on one side there was a Chinese temple whose medium seems to be very popular so he got many Chinese coming to visit him to cure their strange ailments.
And on the other side of the Chinese man’s house was a factory making ‘tofu’ or bean curds. It did not look like it was a legal factory since the whole area is a residential one, so how could such an establishment be there?
He could not stand the noises coming from the temple, on one side, and the smell and also noise coming from the other side. Worse, when there was indiscriminate parking and with the many dogs which left their waste everywhere.
He had to give up or else he might have a need to pay the Chinese medium a visit to cure a strange ailment that he might also have.
He chose not to go to another area where there are many Chinese or one which is mixed, but to the Keramat area, which is a Melayu area.
This made his close relatives who were not used to being in the midst of the Melayu feel some angst as it came in the wake of the 13 May, 1969 tragedy which saw some Melayu and Chinese and also some other Indians having a go at each other.
And the areas which were considered the hottest were the Kampung Baru, Chow Kit and Keramat areas.
And this is where the Chinese man had chosen to stay, just after this tragedy. So no wonder each time his relatives visited him, they tried to dissuade him from staying there. But the Chinese man was not deterred; he had established himself there and had known his immediate neighbors and those further down the roads surround his house. He felt safe here living amongst the Melayu which he said he could not feel when he was living amongst his own kind, the Chinese.
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