Non's of Malaysia

Once a very erudite journalist commented how terrible that in Malaysia, a large section of its population was described as non’s, as in non bumiputera. He or she (sorry, can’t remember who) was aghast that human beings could be classified with a dismissive demeaning derogatory term.

I am personally not too fussed over the word non as I have used it myself on numerous occasions. For example, I prefer a non-stick pan (Teflon being only a trade name) especially when I have to fry fish or an egg – my efforts would end up with a disintegrating fish (no doubt fried) and an unplanned omelette.

Then there are friends of mine who would only imbibe non-alcoholic drinks. Of course there’s the non-fatty food.

Mind you, so far my use of non describes only inanimate stuff. I suppose I could give the example of non smokers.

But admittedly all my examples aren’t what that journalist had in mind, as the non’s he/she was repulsed by had been in the context of Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution, which as we all know, has been vigorously defended by a ;-) non-UMNO person.

Who? You work it out, but safe to say he/she ;-) had an UMNO connection though he’s now a non but probably wannabe.

Well, while on this allegedly offensive word, Uncle Lim has been pissed off with, according to Malaysiakini, Malaysia’s most well-known Sleeping non-Beauty.

Uncle Lim had wondered aloud whether, apart from Islam Hadhari, PM AAB has conceptualised and created a new form of governance which he (Uncle Lim) termed ‘somnambulant’ governance, or non-awake governance – maybe just non-governance?

Uncle Lim informed us that the Oxford Dictionary defines somnambulism as sleepwalking.

While taking a non non-alcoholic beverage ;-) I did a bit of checking and found out that the original word for sleepwalking was noctambulation but for some unexplained reason, somnambulism knocked out nonnoctambulation.

Somnambulation is derived from Somnus the Roman God of sleep, who in turn was the equivalent of, and probably adopted from Hypnus, the Greek God of the same power. From Hypnus, we get hypnotism. But it’s more appropriate for us to stay with the non-Greek or Roman version, as sleepwalking is what Uncle Lim mentioned.

But before we return to Uncle Lim’s ire, I was told that the Greek playwright Aeschylus once wrote something on love when he had Hypnos saying:

For Nyx* brought me not forth to be the lord of the lyre,
nor to be seer or leech, but to lull to rest men’s souls.

* Night or Hypnus' mum

Yes, we were lulled for four years, but no longer, especially more so now that Uncle Lim has raised the frightening fact. He (Uncle Lim, not Aeschylus) ask:

“Is Abdullah plunging the country to a new depth of shambolic government with his pioneering of 'somnambulant governance'?”

Lim was flabbergasted by various versions of newspaper reports on the prime minister’s reaction to the proposal to set up a Non-Muslim Affairs Department – the one which I blogged in MIC in Ops 'Claw Back'.

Non-Muslim ... ;-)

An irritated Uncle Lim described the differing versions of what AAB had actually said as an “utterly befuddling and confusing response”.

'... utterly befuddling ...'! ;-) see, I am not only one with expressive condemnation.

He added: “No one can make proper sense out of it, as illustrated by the contradictory media headlines.”

In other words, basically nonsense!

But what annoyed Uncle Lim most had been AAB’s claim that various ministers in the cabinet have been charged with the responsibility of looking after the interests of different religious groups. Utter bull, though it’s only kaytee’s improvisation on what Uncle Lim must have in mind.

Malaysiakini reported Lim Kit Siang accusing “... the prime minister of making cabinet appointments on-the-run, with the public and ministers themselves completely unaware of the existence of such portfolios and responsibilities.”

Well, the non-Beauty averred that Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting is looking after the interests of the Buddhists, Works Minister S Samy Vellu covers the Hindus and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Bernard Dompok covers the Christians in the country.

Lim said that, for example, no one including Ong Ka Ting himself in the past four years of Abdullah's premiership was aware that Ong is also Minister for Buddhist Affairs.

Namo Omi Tor Fu, just in case.

Lim asked: “I do not believe that Ong, Samy Vellu, Bernard or Maximus are aware that they are also ministers for these respective religions - or can they give a report as to how they had been discharging their ministerial responsibilities over these portfolios since their appointment?”

“When did the prime minister make these cabinet appointments and why were they never announced to the public. Were these appointments ever gazetted?”

Sometimes Uncle Lim can be a wee pedantic ;-)

BTW, is Ong Ka Ting a Buddhist or a non? Really, you can’t assume Chinese are automatically Buddhist. They could be, yes Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, Bahais, and Christians – the Catholic variety like my blogging mates Susan Loone and Lucia Lai – and of course atheists like ... ;-), yes, the non religious people.