Silat of kungfu, kungfu of silat

I read with much delight RPK’s The art of silat, which reveals to us a bit on Ling Liong Sik’s mulling about Chinese (presumably Chinese Malaysians) and their approach to politics.

Why with delight?

Because I too had previously written on a couple of similar issues. For example, RPK wrote the following on one of Ling’s political reflections:

“The trouble with us Chinese,” he said, “is that we are not as skilled in politics as you Malays. We Chinese play politics like kungfu. We just charge and whack. You Malays use silat. You smile and dance and make graceful moves and we don’t know when the keris is going to stab.”

Seven years ago, on 07 Nov 2005, I posted Anwar Ibrahim & silky court intrigues, as follows (extracts):

Once an old (Chinese) pal of mine confessed to me how much he saluted the Malays for their amazing and sophisticated political skills, which were/are subtle as silk - silk of course is also an effective garrote. 

He lamented how raw the Chinese were by comparison. When I asked him why, he pointed out to a tradition of Malay court intrigues dating back to the legendary days of Hang Tuah and his best mate/nemesis Hang Jebat. 

When I countered by reminding him of equally diabolical Chinese court manoeuvrings, with its legends, history, eunuchs, imperial concubines, traitors and whatnot, he smiled and crushed my arguments by stating: 

“Those imperial ar$eh%les were northerners. The Chinese in Malaysia came from the south, and were of ignorant bumbling peasant stock." 

I was outraged and protested vehemently, declaring that my ancestry could be traced back to the bloodthirsty pirates looting, pillaging and raping in the Formosa-Fujian-Guangchow region. 

Chinese pirate Sao Feng wakakaka

Bloody hell, calling me, a descendant of swashbuckling Chinese pirates, a descendant of country yokels! ;-) 

Oh, BTW, Chinese victors in a dynastic struggle ordered dethroned royal families to kill themselves and avoid the shame of public execution, by presenting the unfortunate victims with a sash of fine white silk, for them to hang themselves.

It would seem there are certainly more than a few Chinese Malaysians who have lamented the political naivety of many in their community, but then we should remember we have been the descendants of mainly country peasants (wakakaka).

Chinese peasants - photo from Greenpeace East Asia

The other aspect of Chinese political naivety has been their hitherto refusal to recognize or just blissful ignorance that 65% of Malaysians are Malays who are Muslims where most (though not all*) deeply respect their sultans, culture and tradition. Such has been that the Malays have a saying ‘biar mati anak, jangan mati adat’ which means ‘better your children die than your traditions’.

* read the Hansard of 10 December 1992 to know how Dr Affifuddin Omar, an UMNO man from Padang Terap, no doubt given the imprimatur by his party leaders, described the sultans:

"How can we continue to uphold rulers who are known to be robbers, adulterers, drunkards and kaki pukul (thugs)?" [...]

"They (the rulers) must be made to realize that they do not own this country. They are not Superman but placed on their thrones by the people. The real power did not lie with them, but with us - the representatives of the people."

Now, which ‘non’ could have said that and got away? None! Only UMNO and UMNO alone could have gotten away with its abuse of the raja, who they claim to defend today. Thus UMNO could and indeed would be considered the exception to the rule that Malays deeply respect their sultans, culture and tradition (including religion).

From our limited views (only of Malay politicians, particularly like Dr Affifuddin Omar from UMNO) we non-Malays may think that’s no longer the case (wakakaka), but step into the Malay Heartland, and we can see why such a saying had evolved centuries ago to remain still true today.

However, it’s gratifying to note that today Chinese politicians, especially those from DAP, are more conscious of, and thus able to demonstrate their respect for Malay royalty, culture and tradition.

Previously, some DAP sweeties like hardworking, dedicated and ‘colour-blind’ Teo Nie Ching, MP for Serdang, was reported by UMNO of entering a surau without proper headgear. Notwithstanding her faux pas, Teo had already successfully and effectively reached out to every sector in her constituency. Her popularity among her Malay constituency has been such that, just as an example, she was specifically invited by them to join in their aerobics sessions (much to the fear of UMNO).

Teo Nie Ching

Thus it wasn’t surprising that UMNO attacked her mercilessly by highlighting and amplifying the seriousness of her headgear-less entry into the surau.

Apart from this, our dear Home Minister, Hishamuddin (I won’t mention his illustrious father’s name next to his), a man with a natural flair for putting his foot into his own mouth every time he opens it, condemned Teo on another issue, as being too ‘dirty’ to enter a surau (mind you, at the invitation of the mosque authority) to present some money to her constituency.

Of course, much as Chinese have not been so receptive to and perceptive of Bahasa euphemisms, even then we knew he implied Teo was or could have been menstruating when she visited the Muslim prayer place.

And may I ask Hisham please, how did you know Teo was menstruating at that time? Were you browsing through her rubbish bin outside her house? Wakakaka. For more, see my post The 'dirty' business of menstruation?

But this multi-aspect assault on her character was driven more by fear of her popularity with her Malay constituency than anger at any so-called religious-cultural slight on her part, but obviously it was a straw that UMNO clutched on tightly in desperation to make hay (I love mixing up metaphors and sayings wakakaka), I suppose, in preference to having its division leader or media mouthpieces fabricate horror stories about DAP and son of a DAP leader (wakakaka) - mind, selecting the former option didn't stop them in the latter. For more, read my post A dead chook and many frightened monkeys.

But as I said, that’s all in the past. Teo and her DAP female colleagues have since been careful to pull their selendang (Malay shawl) over their heads a la Catholic women entering a church when they visit a surau or mosque.

Still, some Chinese (pro BN) bloggers want to have it both ways, where they now jeer at Teo for wearing a selendang, a jeering obviously targeted at any chauvinistic supporters of Teo, to show Teo ‘has gone native’ (as if we aren’t Malaysians).

But worse, especially for another DAP ADUN, sweetie Hannah Yeo, those bloggers in badmouthing her hopefully for the same targeted Chinese audience have deliberately mis-described her selendang as a tudung (hijab), where the former is of Malay culture while the latter is of Islamic origin, and supposedly worse for Hannah in the eyes of her Chinese and Indian supporters.

Hannah Yeo with selendang

sweeties with tudung

I believe I am not wrong in stating that the only Chinese Pakatan sweetie to wear a tudung has been Eli Wong (PKR). And I also believe, very strongly, Eli has every right to do so. After all, kaytee wears sarung and sometimes the dhoti (wakakaka).

dhoti

So, boys and girls, unless your heads are missing (wakakaka), do put on your songkok and selendang (or tudung if you wish) when visiting an important Malay-Islamic place or event (like when invited by HRH), and thus show respect to/for your hosts.

I’m also tickled pink by another of RPK’s paragraph which says:

Silat masters will tell you that you must never teach your students everything. Teach them all the moves except one. And you keep that last move in the event the student turns on you when he thinks he has learned enough and can now makan his master. Then, when he turns on you, you hit him with that one move you never taught him.

Six years ago, 01 April 2006, I posted The Master & The Disciple, in which I wrote about a kungfu master by the name of Sifu Ma Ha Teh (wakakaka).

As with most who know something about Chinese martial art, in China the surname of Ma was associated with the renowned Chinese Muslim martial art practitioners, like the amazing Ma Xueli who was the founder of the Henan branch of Hsing I. But our Sifu Ma Ha Teh was not from that family or China. He lived in the land called Arhm Noh (wakakaka).

My story was about him and his love-hate relationship with his erstwhile most fave disciple, Arn Wah (wakakaka) during their leadership struggle in the school of martial arts called Dominating Leopard. In that struggle, it brought out the classical story of the wushu master's last 'ace in the sleeve' that RPK mentioned.

Well, those martial arts schools did have strange names like White Crane, Praying Mantis, Eagle Claws and such likes, so why not a Dominating Leopard … you known, the carnivorous feline reputed to never ever change its spots (wakakaka).

Finally, in ending I need to clarify Ling Liong Sik’s understanding, or lack of, of kungfu (or more correctly wushu, Chinese martial arts). While he was correct in stating Chinese Malaysians had been too blunt and not diplomatic in politics, not unlike the practice of the Western World, he was incorrect in believing kungfu (wushu) has been about ‘charging and whacking’.

While in general, wushu in southern China has been more of the hard style, thus giving rise to an incorrect impression of brutal crude abrasive style of fighting, it has never been about 'charging and whacking' in approach. Besides, there are other Chinese ‘internal’ or soft style wushu (like Taichi, Bhaquazhang, Hsing I, etc of the Wudang Sect, most of which originated in northern China) which are very gentle, slow and graceful in its moves but extremely deadly, not unlike a whip.

Wudang (Taoist) style wushu

Hence we often read in our Malaysian blogs of “Chua taichi Ong” (wakakaka), implying Chua had subtly and with finesse manipulated Ong to Chua’s advantage, or “Ong shaolin Chua” indicating Ong employed a very abrasive, aggressive and confrontational method to combat Chua (though of course, it’s important to remind ourselves that Shaolin martial arts are not specifically about ‘charging and whacking’, or not subtle like its northern internal school counterpart.

Shaolin (Buddhist) style wushu

Okay, so with kungfu wushu 101 out of the way, let me ask you, has Najib ‘taichi-ed’ both Mahathir and Anwar in approving a RCI on the Sabah illegal immigrants? Was Mahathir too ‘shaolin’ in arguing the RCI would not be useful? And has Anwar in stating he was not involved in the Sabahan ‘Project IC’, floated like a butterfly and hoped to sting like a bee? Wakakaka.