Sunday, August 05, 2007

This Ain't No Sandwich.

Comments coming in like rain about NEP, Malays and English grammar are being posted by people who have been worked up pretty good by the kinda sandwich I make when I'm feeling all worked up inside especially in the stomach department, which is different from the heart department. And you don't need no medical degree to know that. You know where your stomach is and you gotta know where your heart is simply because you don't want the sandwich to get into the wrong department which I bet can cause a pretty nice heartburn or something like that. For this you gotta have a medical degree to know for sure.
I don't know who those people are and I am certainly not going to find out who they really are since you and I know that we can be anybody we want on the net. I can be the Naked Chef and you can be Nigella. No, I don't know why they posted the messages about all those big topics they talk about knowing very well that mine is a blog dedicated to garlic, onion, pots and pans. No, I'm not angry but I'm not sure if it is a good idea to post messages like that because it can get the Malays pretty worked up inside especially in the head department which is connected to the heart department and it is also connected to the arms and legs department which is pretty close to the parang and keris department.
It is common, I reckon, to assume that Malays can't speak or write English as well as the non-Malays. You know this is a fallacy. Just because the Malays don't speak as much English as the non-Malays, people have the tendency to jump the gun that Malays are hopeless at English. Quite frankly, it's not a big deal to be able to speak or write in English since here in Malaysia one can pretty much get by without English. Or Malay. So I don't see this as an issue. But you know as well as I do that the non-Malays don't speak and write all that good English either. You don't see the Malays making this into a big issue. The big issue is 13 May 1969.
And we all know it was started by a group of non-Malays going around in the open truck with the brooms chanting 'Melayu balik kampong', 'Melayu bodoh'. You'd get any Malay worked up if you do this. And now you are saying the government is behind all this? And you write a book about it accusing the government that they were the one who incited this 13 May to happen? You won't have me fooled there, mate. Not in a million years. I got a guy who posted his comment in a blog I can't remember. He said something like the non-Malays are not afraid of another 13 May, in fact he wrote something like, bring it on. I take that seriously. And this is the very reason silat classes are opening up like mushroom all over the country, especially in Selangor. Do you really think all this is for exercise?
I'm not angry. But there's no reason to bring this up in the month when we should all be proud to live in a country like Malaysia where you can have your tea, or beer by the roadside all night long without being bombed or shot by gunfire. Once again, and you can obviously see that it's not the Malays who is fanning up issues that can get the Malays angry. Even in this harmless blog of mine the non-Malays are coming in with comments that can get even the non-Malays irritated.
Please, we don't need another 13 May 1960. I was 10 when it happened but in Dungun nothing happened because how could we burn the houses of Awang Chia, or Mek Marang, Mek Sung, Mek Poh or Lichung Gemok when they speak like us, laugh like us, and most importantly, they were loyal clients of Aunt's batik sarung. But it's different now. The non-Malays and the Malays are drifting further and further apart. We speak different now. We don't laugh at the same thing anymore. We don't support the same team anymore. I don't think it's a good idea to widen that gap. What we gotta do is figure out a way to trust each other once again, since 13 May changed all that we had. Looks like the scars never really healed.
And the silat classes are opening up because when the bullets start flying, it's the common people on the street who have to pay the price. Your mom, or daughter, or dad could be out there driving or having dinner when it happens. Don't let it happen, mate. It's not good. It ain't good for you and it ain't good for me. Instead of harboring mistrust, why don't we leave that on-hold and focus on making this relationship works for us. Once that done, then we can bring out the mistrust and figure what to do with it.
Maybe you have the impression that I am one of those ultra-Malay kinda guy. It's not wrong if I am. And neither it is wrong if you are ultra-Chinese or ultra-Indian or Ultraman. You have a right to be proud of your race, heritage and culture. But I know it's wrong to start making comments or making fun of other's cultures, or religion. And I know for sure that you can get the Malays worked up with you keep on saying 'Melayu bodoh' 'Melayu malas'. Say something like this to Chinese, Indian, Italian, American, Indonesian, Blacks, Hispanic, Kadazan, Iban and I'd bet you my right ear on it that everyone of them will get angry too. You would too. Unless you are pretty thick in the head, or made of stone.

19 Comments:

Blogger IBU said...

Mr Berg

Awat la dari ceghita ghoti boleh meleghet jadi ceghita lain?

When I spy with my little eyes, (can't help it, anak polis pencen...hahah), all those uncalled for comments are spaced out one after another between 3-6 minutes each. All in a span of abt 45 mins.

Fofular sungguh ka your blog ni Mr Berg that readers are willing to line up in a disciplined timing to post their comments like that?

Hehehe... My conspiracy theory tells me, somebody must have gotten wind that your blog is one of those that is read by bloggers of all races alike (Everyone loves roti & sandwhich maaaa!!!)

And hence he/she/they/'it' could've spammed your commentary box with all these racists remarks - which as we can see, not all related in any whatsoever to the subject of roti & sandwhich, perhaps in an attempt to incite & provoke trouble. These could've just been cut & pasted from other sites in fact.

To Mr Berg & all peace loving fellow bloggers who come here often, we all know who we are, don't we? So let's all not fall prey to such dirty tactics.

To Mr Berg, roti canai satu!!! Teh tarik kurang manis satu!

Cheers !
Ibu

p/s You were already 13 in 1960? Oh...banyak dah makan garam yer? :)

1:33 AM  
Blogger IBU said...

Sorry, I mean 10 in 1960. Okay la..so less 3 years' worth of salt consumption. Hehehh!

1:37 AM  
Blogger demonsinme said...

Master Bergen:

I agreed with what you and Ibu said.

I heve seen these coments before in one or two blogs.

As I said before, this space of yours is a mecca for good souls.

And to me, those who oposted such racist remarks are - devils.

2:20 AM  
Blogger Bergen said...

Ibu: You've the eye for details. I never thought about it until you pointed it out. Excellent police work there, ma'am.

DIM: So all those are cut and paste job? LOL, I shouldn't have gotten all excited about it to write a counter entry on it. LOL. I learnt something today. Thank you, sire.

12:44 PM  
Blogger The Ancient Mariner said...

Ibu is absolutely right. I have seen this happen in a couple of other blogs and I believe the comments all come from the same nut.

2:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

received a strong indication from an insider this morning that the company is facing a financial 'discrepancies' and the first thot that came to my mind was - apa mau buat sekarang? makan roti lor...

sigh.. if only i can get a bite of a sandwich now!

5:20 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

There are nut cases everywhere. Just give me a peanut butter sandwich and I'll forgive them.

8:56 PM  
Blogger mad redo1 said...

to think all this while this fella Bergen is a Malaysian in Norway, turned out that we were separated by mere kilometres... though, not anymore. The distance has increased to hundreds of kilometres, and the longing for a good monster sandwich has grew exponently...

hehehe...

9:00 PM  
Blogger demonsinme said...

Master Bergen:

Regardless the of the method these SOB used, they are still insensitive and very much rude.

Hence the counter entry you posted is not a bad idea - it tells them don't play play with issues such as this.

9:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bergen dear,

Just find out who she/he is, then I go whack them for you. Rude people!

Take care

11:57 PM  
Blogger Mior Azhar said...

Salam Bergen,
Sheeeesh bodohlah that nut case - and being so intelligent , he sure got lots of time to show us all that how stupid he is.

12:22 AM  
Blogger demonsinme said...

Just in the mood of giving, really need a new hobby …

The day I dread the most,
is the day my sight is lost,
in which cometh all ghost,
hiding me the sight of you my rose…

The day I wish to flight,
is the day I lost my might,
in which could no longer fight,
the demons that cause you fright…

The day I hope will not come,
is the day when I lost these arms,
sadden be all me charms,
when I could hold you no more in my arms…

The day I pray is never,
is the mid of a long winter,
in which all the seeds of all the flower be made somber,
hindering my sacrifice for you my lover.

I bid you, owner of this space a prosperous day and a blessed life.

12:25 AM  
Blogger Monster Mom said...

Sometimes we need someone like you to stand up and just shut him/her up!

On the other hand, just take it easy mate!

UltraMom

8:41 AM  
Blogger dee3 said...

present!

9:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Funny thing what the humble sandwich can do! Must be your wonderful combination of flavours - never fails to entice! Have a good day - stop by my place for some 'lemons' - if you haven't had your fill yet! :)

11:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr.Berg,

It's really interesting to observe lately that so much interest has been invested on the malays.There is a so-called scholarly book "contesting malayness" written by a Singaporean professor to prove that there is no such race as the malays from the anthropological point of view. And this is followed by a controversial 'review of the book' by Michael Chick to further proves that malays do not exist.

The focus now like what you wrote sire should be on building the trust among the three races. What we need now is a muhibbah sandwich that will bind everybody! Will make similar sandwich like yours and invite my non-malay neigbour next door to join me for breakfast this weekend!

By the way, that was the second time your blog being swarmed by these unwelcome racist remarks. Should just omit the 'sampah", the next time someone litters your blog!

6:28 PM  
Blogger tokasid said...

Salam Bergen:

I didn't blog much during weekends and miss your replies in the Dagwood sandwich entry. Tak ada rezeki to meet you in Masjid Tanah.
I'm about 30 minutes away from Masjid Tanah. Next time, InsyaALLAH.

About the coments that you mentioned, I think there are persons out there who thought, by inciting anger and hatred is a lot of fun.Maybe they are deprived of certain things during their childhood. Maybe they didn't got the chance to play guli gundu or gambar or main tikam or lastik mempelam or even football back then. Maybe they were locked up for English tuition for their weekends. maybe they only had Ultraman or Tramsformer or doraemon while growing up. Suddenly they realized they missed all those fun that other kids had. So these cranky people hated others esp Malays and Bahasa Melayu and suddenly they realize its fun to incite people to get angry.

I pity them. Most of us couldn't be bothered to continue reading their comments after 2 lines.

Why not you invite them to have some Chili Padi Sandwiches?

1:15 AM  
Blogger Sayuti said...

same thing happened to my blog three times already. well, i just delete the comments. i believe they are copied from a forum full of people who hate malays.

just ignore them, sir.

7:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello, it's me again. It's amazing how people just read the things they want to read and if "Jumping to Conclusions" was an Olympic Sport, Malaysia would win hands down. Many of you read "Conteting Malayness" with such fervent "warmth" that I couldn't help but notice how all of you have missed the point completely. It is so easy to simply point fingers and say hurtful things. Let's digress a little.

"How can you cay that the "Malays" are not a race? Well, a thinking person should ask, then who are the Malays? The constitutionally defined Malays are no more than asians. Hence the jibe "Truly Asia". As such, this should prevent people from casting racist remarks like "Malays are STUPID" simply because some Constitutionally defined Malays are whichever ethnocentric race YOU come from. To say that the Malays are tupid, means that, for example, if you are Indian, you are also saying the Indians are stupid. And the same would apply if you were a Chinese saying that the malaysa are stupid of lazy, or anything to that effect. It's this ethnocentric behavioral pattern which is causing much unneeded strife among the ethnicities of Malaysia.

What the hell am I talking about? Read on

The majority of whom we call Malays a migrants from China, (if you read the recomended books, then this is for newbies) via Indonesia, via the Phillipines and via Taiwan. I call it the Alisan Migration 6,000yrs ago. Therefore whom we call Malays, are actually a subethnic group of Southern Chinese people to be classified like the Hokkiens and the Teochews. They are still Chinese. Nobody ever calls a Cantonese a “race” would you? That would be an uneducated statement! Therefore, to completely answer the question on who the Malays are, this is the answer. The majority of Malays are a sub-ethnic deviant from mainstream southern Chinese. The rest, who assimilated into the constitutionally defined "malay race" are Indians, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Thais, Greeks (if Sejarah Melayu is correct...), Indonesians, Phillipinos and Israeli.

Did that raise an eyebrow? Did you not know that all Syeds’ are descendant of Prophet Muhammad (real name Ahmad)? Did you also not know that of his 13wives, 3 were Jewish? Did the Prophet also notclaim that he was a direct descendant of Moses and Abraham? So who do you think Moses and Abraham were? Hokkiens? Of course not! Abraham and Moses were Israeli. And ALL their descendants are called Israelis. You may be of mixed parentage, but you still have an ethnicity of origin. Usually, they will follow the paternal side for simplistic labeling.

If you looks at statistics, then you would also not that approximately 75% of the Peninsular "Malays" are Javanese Migrants. Johor consists of mostly Bugis (Sulawesi) and the west coast northern states, Achenese.

But to go into an anthropologically defined term, the Malays are not correctly labelled as a race. You cannot change your race. If you are Tibetan, then you are an Tibetan. You may change nationality, but you cannot change your race.

Just think for a moment the term "Indian Muslim". This is a very common term used in Malaysia. It names a race, then the religion. Would you consider an Indian Muslim an Indian or a Malay? Thnk about it. Then the question about why people even label themselves that way? Do you ever hear about someone addressing someone as a “Buddhist American”? Is that even possible? Well, just to name one would be Angeline Jolie. But she never addresses herself as such. Why? Go ask her yourself.

Now also think for a moment…. There is no such thing as the American Race. There are Hispanics, British, Swedish, Dutch, French, Asian, and even an African American. Go up to an American and ask him what race he is. He will tell you of his origin. For example, an Italian American. Now also consider this; if a Chinese from Singapore migrated to America. He would call himself a Chinese American. Despite the fact that his grandfather’s grandfather was living in Singapore next door to Raffles for the last 200years. He will still be identified as a Chinese American.

You see, he has changed his nationality, but not his race. Race cannot be changed. Do the Americans feel angry if you say “there is no such thing as an American race”? Of course not. Then why should the Malays feel upset that they are now told that they are not a race?

I am all against stereotyping. Pernicious names which are sometimes very derogatory. The less we use it, the better. How can you stop racial isues if the very nature of the political parties are racially skewed. What is the STUPID call-sign of MCA? “We will fight for the Chinese”. And what does UMNO say? “Long live Ketuanan Melayu!”
Aren’t these ethnocentric racist statements?

Let’s all ask ourelves this. “Over who does the Melayu have Lordship over?”

And no, I did not forget the MIC. In all the 9 Malaysian plans designed to obliterate poverty, in which Malaysian Plan was the word Indian even mentioned? What is our Vellu Boy doing about it? Go ask him yourself.

Conclusion. The racial mix of Malaysian are much closer than what we are willing to accept. The “Malays” being the most universally of all. Stop the racial tags. And what does it prove? That the Malays are migrants like everyone else.

Go read those recommended books. It’ll really open your minds like nothing else…

Final word of advise to the Malays. Do NOT sing-song the Koran in Arabic like some Karaoke. Go read its teachings in a language which you understand. Muslims, don’t disobey the Koran by not reading it. Any Muslim who tells you that you do not need to read the Koran is a BLOODY LIAR! BTW in Sura 2:58&59, it tells you that the (Jewish) Torah and the Injil (Bible) are the word of Allah. So you might as well read the other two as well.

There is hope for Malaysia after all.


Truly Asia Boleh

4:27 PM  

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