Opinion: Why do we even need a national dish in the first place?

Opinion: Why do we even need a national dish in the first place?

5 Mar 2024 • 12:00 PM MYT




TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: The Star


A new nation needs national symbols. National symbols are what makes a conceptual idea like a nationhood real. When we say we are Malaysians, for example, we need something real to define our Malaysian-ness, and this is where things like the national flag, national song or national flower come in. Things like the Jalur Gemilang, Negaraku and Bunga Raya are useful symbols to manifest our identity as Malaysians. It is because we do things like wave the Jalur Gemilang with pride, sing the Negaraku with spirit and give the hibiscus a special place, that we have a way to manifest our Malaysian-ness, and make being Malaysian not only something conceptual, but something that is real.


The purpose of having national symbols is to consolidate and manifest a national identity. Consolidating and manifesting a national identity is something that ought to be done during the formation of a nation. Malaysia was formed 60 years ago. Considering that, why are we still making national symbols out of things like Bak Kut Teh, when we are not even a new nation anymore, and when declaring things like Bak Kut Teh as a national symbol is only dividing us further.


Declaring something to be a national symbol, especially when that thing is not exactly fit to be a national symbol, can be a troublesome affair.


Take MAS for example. It is known as a national carrier, and because it is a national carrier, we are stuck with it, even if it is almost perpetually making a loss, because to part with it will be a shameful affair.


Making Proton the national car has also been a troublesome affair for us, because it has made the prices of car expensive for all of us, and it is not exactly doing a very good job making the country proud.

Things like MAS and Proton are also technically, just money making companies, so there is a question as to why we have to view all these money making companies, that make money for someone else, often while costing us money, OUR national symbol, when it only benefits some of us and is not something all of us can identify with.


But as much as MAS and proton were not suitable national symbols, at least they were not divisive symbols.


The same however, can’t be said about Bak Kut Teh.


Today, we have something called a national heritage food, which by naming items like Bak Kut Teh as a national symbol, is not only something that doesn’t represent us all, is actually dividing us further and weakening the concept of nationhood.


The thing is, we don’t even need such a thing as a national dish.


Some people are saying that we needed to make things like Bak Kut Teh a national dish to prevent Singapore from claiming it as theirs, but we could have prevented Singapore from claiming Bak Kut Teh as theirs simply by documenting and recording Bak Kut Teh to be ours, without needing to declare it as a national dish.


Of the other national dish, like kolok mee, burasak, nasi ambeng, dodol kukus tahi minyak, kuih genggang or kuih lapis, kuih karas, uthappam, jeruk tuhau, and air katira, I can only recognise kolok mee, kuih lapis and uthappam.


What is the point of having a national heritage food that most of us can't even recognise? I will bet my last ringgit that if you go down to the grassroots and ask them what things like dodol kukus tahi minyak or uthappam is, at least 7 out 10 Malaysians won’t know it.


Uthappam, by the way, which most Malaysians other than Indians don’t know of, is not even a Malaysian food. It is literally a food from South India. Not only are we creating national symbols that are weakening our concept of nation-hood and are something that most of us don’t even know, they are not even ours to begin with. We have literally hijacked the food of some other people and made it ours for no other reason than to satisfy “Ali, Muthu and Ah Chong” arrangement, which says that if you want to put something Malay and Chinese into something call it “Malaysian”, you have to add something Indian in it too, or it won’t be right.


A bad idea is something that doesn’t have a purpose and creates more problems the more you execute it. The national food idea fits the description.


In Greek mythology, Eris, the goddess of discord, annoyed at not being invited to a wedding banquet, would in revenge, throw a golden apple inscribed with the words ``To the fairest one" into a wedding. Three guests, the goddess Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, would argue over who deserves it, and finally agree to make Paris of Troy the judge, who will choose which amongst them deserves the golden apple.


Paris chose Aphrodite, after she bribed him by promising to make the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, his wife, and her promise to him, which would result in Paris kidnapping Helen off to Troy, is what would trigger the Trojan War.


In the same way that the Apple of Discord started the Trojan war by raising issues that need not be raised at all, the national food idea is our own apple of discord, that is creating problems that need not have arisen at all.


Hera, Athena and Aphordite were all fine with each other before the apple of discord was thrown into their midst. None of them even wanted the golden apple before it was thrown before them.


In the same way, none of us even wanted to have a national dish. The minute the concept was created however, all sorts of discord that need not have arisen amongst us have arisen and the happiness that we used to have amongst us has been taken away from us.


All this for what? Nothing, absolutely nothing.



Nehru Sathiamoorthy is the author of “While Waiting for the World to end”. He was a columnist at FMT and a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, The Star, Malaysia-Today, MalaysiaNow, MalaysiaKini and Focus Malaysia.