Lost genes or lost soul?

As just I feel sorry for one old man wakakaka, I feel sorry for this man too. Both suffer from the same problem, that of seeking a 'meaningful' role in life wakakaka.

The latter portrays himself ardently as a Malay, making statements like 'kita orang Melayu' to emphasize which race he considers himself as belonging to, constitutionally of course, because when it comes to genes he’s as Cinapek as the old man wakakaka.

The Malay pronoun ‘kita’ implies his articles were meant for Malays and not non-Malays [not that the old man knows anything about this finer point of Bahasa, wakakaka].

In the kindest language one can describe him as an ultra conservative – though whether ultra conservative Malay nationalist or ultra conservative Muslim, I leave that to you to decide as your guess will be probably as good as mine.

There is humongous irony in his attempt to excoriate the Dong Zong's demands as 'insolent' for what he claimed as the 'ultra kiasu' Dong Zong having no intention to integrate and to push for a national agenda, focussing only on 'Chinese, Chinese, Chinese'.

Firstly, it should be noted he has shown a particular preference for the Singapore term ‘ultra kiasu’ which he had previously reserved for columnist (and now blogger) Helen Ang. Maybe now that my dear Helen is rabidly anti DAP and in particular anti Lim GE (just as I am portrayed as rabidly anti Anwar Ibrahim wakakaka) they have made up.

I’ll return to the term ‘ultra kiasu’ at the end of this post.

Secondly, it’s a bit rich for Dr Tee to accuse Dong Zong of having no intention to integrate when his own regular pronouncements and articles have been highly divisive, laying clear stark lines of demarcation between his 'kita orang Melayu' and 'mereka yang ultra kiasu'.

Thirdly, when he condemned Dong Zong for focusing only on ‘Chinese, Chinese, Chinese’, wasn't he pointing to himself given his regular reminder to his readers (Malays only of course) of 'kita orang Melayu'.

At least Dong Zong has not disguised itself other than being a NGO for Chinese vernacular education. What does Dr Tee expect Dong Zong to promote? Swahili?

And talking about 'disguises', what about Dr Tee? What is he promoting?

However, I have to concede he hasn’t blushed, blanched or blenched when he audaciously presented himself as a Melayu. Most certainly he has the constitutional rights to do so, but there have been times I wonder about the conscience of his genes when he made so much emphasis on his legal ethnic status, a racial metempsychosis made possible only by fiat of the Malaysian Constitution.

Admiral Zheng He

Yes, I wonder only because the 22 million Chinese Muslims in China haven’t, for 1400 years, rejected their cultural heritage, from luminaries such as the famed Admiral Zheng He and Ming dynasty generals Chang Yuchun, Lan Yu, Ding Dexing, Mu Ying, Feng Sheng and Hu Dahai to the redoubtable Ma family of Hsing I (Xinyi) martial art fame.

And as a pointer to cultural roots, I am informed that a mosque is called qīngzhēn sì (清真寺) in Chinese, meaning ‘pure truth temple’.

Xian Mosque

Only Dr Tee himself can explain why he prefers to be known as a Melayu, and what part this would play in the role he seeks.

I wonder why he doesn’t drop the ‘Tee’ altogether and replace it with Tawfiq, which means ‘good fortune’ or ‘to be successful’.

Huaisheng Mosque

Perhaps that will meet the needs of his role more appropriately. More importantly, as Ridhuan Tawfiq Abdullah, he then doesn’t need to remind his audience of his ethnic status via his ‘kita orang Melayu’. Maybe then, he need not be so 'ultra kiasu' himself.

Niuejie Mosque in Beiing