I have recently discovered a website GEMPAMELAYU http://gempamelayu.com/– a platform/forum for discussing and bringing together all good things in the Malay World. Having read a few postings it promises to be an interesting future forays for a rediscovery, reassertion, reintroduction and re…. many other things about my Malay being and being a Malay. It is a good initiative and I hope more Malays will join this march to put the Malay World in the right direction, especially the younger generations, many of whom I personally believe are sadly digressing from their root and heritage.
Why this need to reassert being Malay? For many reasons I believe, but I am not going to delve into that here. Let me just give my 2-sen worth of my own perspective on the subject.
I am a modern Malay living in a western country,yet steeped in the Malay traditions and having much love and respect for them. This despite having lived abroad over 20 years of my life in different countries and visiting many more, and loving and profiting from all the good things the west and other parts of the world I have lived in or visited had to offer me. But never ever forgetting that I am a Malay. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to experience different cultures, traditions and social norms and to make comparisons to that of my Malay (and the Malaysian) being.
There are aspects in which we are better than many others as Malays or Malaysians; in some aspects we are also lacking and wanting. I can only observe, and say this out to some people but I am not an agent of change. I am grateful for the exposure and in many ways it make me have a broader perspective of things, and hopefully I am more tolerant because of it.
At the same time it made me wonder and sometimes sad about some negative traits in the Malay psyche and behaviour, and made me question why we are like that. Again I am not going to elaborate here; suffice to say that I should know where to draw the line in commenting about my own people. Many of us are not necessarily tolerant of criticisms I am afraid, however constructive!
In my early years, I had been accused of not being Malay enough by those who did not know me better. My expatriate friends in Malaysia used to tease me as not being Malay, or Chinese, or Indian but as ‘other’. All because of own ‘peculiar’ or 'original’ approach and lifestyle and my penchant for thing western or foreign. But I know ‘me’ – I am Malay thorough and through, and the older I am, the best I get out of my Malayness and my penchant for things foreign/western. And I feel very privileged to be able to enjoy both sides of me in this regard. I like to believe I have a healthy balance in my Malay and Western/foreign lifestyle and outlook. And that is why I am sad when I see the young generations losing their Malay side in pursuit of a western lifestyle when they can actually have the best of both.
Eventually I will cease living abroad permanently and I will return to my country for good. And I am be grateful to have a country to return to where I can still have the best of the east and west. And this Malay will be eternally be grateful for the experiences of living in so many diverse cultural, social, geographical and economic environment and never losing sight of being a Malay. And I have always been tireless and proud of gently asserting my Malayness and yet fitting in well into, and being thoroughly comfortable in any non-Malay/Malaysian environment.
Some time back a Malay lady married to a European here invited me to their home for lunch. It was a warm and pleasant sight when I saw how her two grown-up sons, who were not born in Malaysia, would walk gently bending forward with right hand lowered as a gesture of respect (unspoken request of permission to pass by) each time they pass by us if we were sitting, as was the expected norm of well brought-up Malay children in my country.
And a few days ago, I invited a Malaysian colleague for lunch and be brought along a Malay friend who was with his teenage son on holiday here. I was charmed when the young boy who had been studying in London these last few years bend down and kissed my hand upon introduction and on leaving. Indeed, he was well bought-up and had not forgotten to be a Malay.
There are many beautiful things about being a Malay - don't let our younger generation ever forget it!
1 comment:
BRAVO !!!
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