Of petai and not being Malay enough...

I recently received a forward email on the goodness and virtues of eating petai (parkia speciosa). Well I have nothing against petai, and maybe some of the things espoused are true. But I do not go out of my way seeking petai and I never eat them raw. I only like them in sambal tumis udang.

Two months ago I was invited to my Canadian colleagues' house for dinner. And surprise, surprise – for the main course, which was fillet of cod in caramelised sauce, the cook had used sautéed petai beans as the accompanying vegetables. Fascinating and not altogether unappealing. Apparently Marilyn had found the petai in some exotic vegetables outlet in one of the upmarket stores here and decided to use them for her menu. Fancy that.

Years ago, when I was just starting my career, a colleague once hung a string of petai on my office door with a loud written message “eat more of this so you’ll be more Malay”! I was more amused than indignant, and thought how pathetic the chap who did it was. I knew he and a few of my colleagues had perceived me to be rather western, just because I like classic music, read English novels, go to the British Council and the Alliance Francais for movies, and by coincidence had just came back after a year’s course in England.

I called him up and challenged him to define what ‘being Malay’ was all about. I asked him if he’d like to debate me on that! He never took up the challenge but kept hounding me for my ‘Mat Salleh’ ways and even called me Mr. Chopin–Choping for liking classical music. Little did he know about Chopin or classical music.

Well all that did not deter me from pursuing the things I like and being myself. And no harm done either. Over the years that colleague and I went on to pursue our careers and a number of times, we even took over from each other at various assignments. We became supportive of each other, especially after I took over one extremely challenging assignment in which he suffered a great tragedy, and survived, and he paved for me to take over the assignment more comfortably. And I think he finally saw me as I am – like the lines in S. Samad Said’s poem beautifully voiced by Sharifah Aini in her 1980 “Suara Hati’ album,

" aku tak pernah barat di tengah-tengah Timur….. dan aku tetap manusia timur di tengah-tengah Barat! ”.

(I am never too western in an eastern environment. And I am still an easterner in a western environment.

And I have always had and am still getting the very best of both worlds. Alhamdulillah!