Typical Malay

Today, I’m in no mood to do any of my normal daily routine. I’m unsure of the exact reason that puts me in this mode. As far as I can remember I had never felt this way before but I guess what I’d heard thru a friend of mine had left minor impact on the way I perceive things around me. Frankly, I don’t actually give a damn of what others have to say. Every body has their say and their own point of views and who am I to judge others on the way they perceive me. It’s not like they ever care about me. I’ll give a damn if they ever shown their concern towards thru one-way or the other. I started to realise now that my office mates are just a bunch of colleagues whom said ‘hi’ to me if I initiated the ‘hi’.

I guess this is a norm for typical Malay women, once they’re married they don’t keep many friends close to them, as they’re busy dwelling with their hectic marital life. They have their very own family to attend to, a husband to care for and children to entertain. I really don’t blame them though as I know that it ain’t easy to break the norm especially if one is married to a typical Malay man. That’s just one way to look at it, I haven’t gone into the dressing part. Most typical married Malay women tend to dress up to their status and age, wearing baju kurung to almost every function that they go to may it be to office or weekend outing with the family. Like I’ve said earlier, it’s really hard for any married Malay women to break out for the prescribed norm and it’s even harder to change and twist the typical Malay mentality.

Not to mention the deeply instilled sense of “malu”ness among the Malays. This sense of “malu”ness could be easily monitored in educational scenario. I’ve been monitoring this trait since my early education process; most Malays are easily embarrassed when it comes to making mistakes. Making mistakes is normal in any learning process. One will never learn if one doesn’t commit mistakes, hence the saying, “practice makes perfect”. There’s nothing to be ashamed off when it comes to learning. The same applies when one is attempting to learn conversing and talking in English among the typical Malays. I sometimes think that the use of English in daily conversation is forbidden. One has to learn to express oneself in a particular language if one aims to master a command of language, and in this; English language.

Typical Malays have this mentality of categorizing other Malays who try to converse in English as showing off. Come on guys, gimme a break. When and how are you going to master the language if you don’t practice using them in your daily routine? Those trying to converse in the so-called ‘bahasa omputih’ are not showing off, they’re attempting to learn. This is one of the main reasons why most Malay graduates fail to get a better job compared to other races. I’m not being racist but I’m really ashamed with my kind of people. Now, don’t ever blame the government for not helping our kind to get employment. You’ve got to change your mentality, get rid at least a little bit of that ‘malu’ness and stop being prejudice on others or you’ll never succeed in life.

Some of you may say that, “My ancestors were illiterate and they didn’t even need to know English to survive”. If you’re thinking that this still applies in our present time, you’re deadly wrong, man. We’re in the globalization era – those who lack of knowledge and expertise will be left far behind especially when almost all sources of knowledge are highly made available in the ‘bahasa omputih’. Simply put, like it or not you’ll have to learn using and mastering the command of the ‘bahasa omputih’.

You may think that I have no pride for my kind of people, again you’re wrong. I have total pride in my people, cause I realize that without that sense of ‘malu’ness deeply instill within each Malay our ancestors would have failed in cultivating and sustaining our unique culture and ‘adab’. Frankly, I still believe that ‘adab’ is important in our daily life since I think it reflects our personality. I actually passed on the Malay ‘adab’ to my children because it actually differs us from the rest of the world population and makes us unique in our own way.