How the Malays see nons

On a couple (or more) occasions I had written of earlier Malay movies which stereotyped us Malaysians as:

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(a) the cool mature wise elderly Malay patrician, with well groomed greying or imposing white hair and likewise moustache, sitting on his rattan armed chair beneath a gently swirling fan in an impressive bungalow with gi-normous veranda. Dressed immaculately in a spotless white long sleeve shirt complete with cravat, he puffed slowly on his briar. He paused before he spoke in a gentle deep sonorous tome to some villager-audience, calmly delivering pearls of wisdom that were balanced, fair and wise.


(b) the sweaty fat half-bald Chinaman in singlet sometimes even rolled up halfway to his armpits (wakakaka) with shifty fearful eyes in loud squeaky voice argued his points with crude gestures, while leaning in a indiscipline pose besides his Toyota half-truck which has his dodgy dacing and other tricky apparatus.

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(c) the clownish Indian, sometimes skinny as a scarecrow, sometimes obese as Fats Domino, in dirty dhoti and with wild jerky hand movements and rolling eyeballs, speaking loudly on some points of discontentment in a raucous voice, only interrupting his monologue with frequent expectoration of red beeda-lime coloured sputum.

Thus the stereotypes as summarised would be the Clint-Eastwood-silent wise dignified Malay Patrician with the greasy questionable Chinaman and a clownish noisy Indian.

If a Chinese woman was involved, she would be a flirtatious slut madly in love with the hero (a Malay of course) or be converted into a repentant pious Muslim eventually.

Today the above Indian stereotype has metamorphosed into gangsters with tacky thick gold chains around their necks as they swaggered around in loud Hawaiian shirts, 2 buttons undone, while terrorising sweeties in colourful saris.

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And Aneh, Commander (retired) Thayaparan provided a version of this in his title-telling
Peaceful Malays and gangster ‘pendatangs’, in which he wrote (extracts):

This is really about how a majority of the Malay community, be it urban or rural, view non-Malays – Indians in this case – and the belief systems foisted on them through years of indoctrination and partisan politics, that they are a peaceful community, whose way of life – courteous, religious and sedate – is always at risk because of non-Malay presence on Tanah Melayu.

When inspector-general of police Mohamad Fuzi Harun (photo) says that Aidi did not have any intention of making a racial remark, what he was getting at was that Aidi was merely promulgating the greater narrative that Malays are a peaceful religious people, who would be living in religious harmony were it not for the influence of the “other” races.

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This relates to what Terengganu police chief Aidi Ismail had said, to wit, that the majority-Malay communities In Terengganu were exempt from 'gangsterism' because the population there was 97% Malays.

Some quarters were outraged at his remarks because by implication Aidi has insinuated or indirectly implied other races were the source of gangsters.

Though Aidi did not mention any specific non-Malay community, the Indians which have in recent years been blamed for a variety of crimes took umbrage. That galvanised Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy into demanding an apology from Aidi Ismail for his “race and crime” remarks.

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Aneh wasn't too pleased with what Ramasamy has done as it in turn implies a 'kalau makan cabai, baru rasanya pedas'.

Besides, Aneh believes in our race-conscious society, Malay politics will not countenance any apology for the type of perceived 'wrong' that the Terengganu CPO has done, wittingly or otherwise. To paraphrase Eric Segal, 'ketuanan means never having to say sorry'.

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