Very Handsy Melayus
I'm a Melayu and I'm pretty proud of it. I feel good about it, too.
Once I learned some Silat, way back when. I learned that I had more body parts that I didn't know exist - and they all hurt after 3 sessions. There was a kind of scare training, too! The teacher gave us half a lime fruit and we were not supposed to eat it. It was to be squeezed into both our eyes. It's like learning to overcome fear when you bounce off on a trampoline and do your first somersault!
Rais Yatem is a keen enthusiast of Melayu culture in all its ramifications. It's rumored that he might challenge Zaid Ibrahim who has declared, "Saya pun Melayu" (I'm Melayu, too!)
I'd spend some cheap Air Asia tickets if they can give 4 weeks advance notice should Rais and Zaid stake it out on a Silat Challenge. ARTERI thinks there might be one.
Keep up your hopes on it. It might even turn out to be a Royal Rumble after May 7th!
4 comments:
I just read Bakri Musa's review of the Zaid's book, "Saya pun Melayu" and I must say I find it most amusing reading what Bakri had to say, don't think those imbeciles in UMNO aren't gonna like it - yang makan cabai tentu merasa pedas!
" A more appropriate comparison would be Mahathir’s The Malay Dilemma, written some 40 years ago and also at a time when UMNO and Malays were going through a critical crisis. This book will have an even greater impact than The Malay Dilemma.
Like Mahathir’s, the first run of this book quickly sold out, but unlike Mahathir’s, this book has not been banned. This is not due to any greater enlightenment on the part of the authorities today, rather a tribute to Zaid’s skillful and subtle approach. Whereas Mahathir is frontal and polemical, meant more to shock if not insult readers, Zaid, ever the accomplished corporate lawyer, takes a softer and polite approach. In contrast to Mahathir’s anger and indignant rhetoric, Zaid is more sorrowful and disappointment over UMNO’s current malaise. Zaid persuades us with his rational arguments; Mahathir barrages us with his accusations. Mahathir caters to our baser emotions and sense of victimization; Zaid to our intellect and pristine values of our culture.
Our culture goes for Zaid’s halus ways, of subtleties and obliqueness. Thus he is devastatingly effective, as for example in upbraiding his former cabinet colleagues who are lawyers. Rais Yatim, Syed Hamid Albar, Hishammuddin Hussein, and Azalina Othman, among others, are chastised for failing to live up to their professional ethics and obligations as shown by their disrespect for the due process of law and basic human rights. In Malay, Zaid’s polite criticisms are very damning. It would be difficult to maintain this tone with this style had the book been written in English. The translator should ponder this point."
ooops, here's Bakri Musa's link:
http://www.bakrimusa.com/archives/saya-pun-melayu-me-too
Oops correction, 1st para should read:
"...in UMNO are gonna like it - yang makan cabai...."
Sorry!
I think a few some, though only muttering under their breaths, in UMNO might think this is fair socio-cultural comment and would like to see more. It's just distressing that they keep thinking and debating the Budi the Malay Mind but never allowing anybody else to air anything out. We could have done quite a lot in the last 25 years, had Mahathir not hogged the limelight and prevented everybody from saying anything. We are great book "banners"! The only Malaysian who ever got away with anything was a Perak man, Lat! Your countryman!
Now we have another Malay Champion, Rais Yatem, who thinks RTM and Bernama are the "Voice of Melayu Raya" which includes Indonesia! Let's hope he doesn't create another "Konfrontasi"!
I read that the Indonesian blogs were saying that if ever there was one again, the only Malaysian left standing would be Siti Norhaliza! They adore her.
Obvious, isn't it? She's better looking than Rais! :))
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