"。。。一加二,加块二。。。四块儿,seven-twenty!"
The above speech bubble happened right in front of my eyes at a well known cafe somewhere in the midst of KL. There was this traveller having some food and a drink at the cafe and was asking for the bill. The boss came out and counted all the westerner had consumed in fluent Cantonese and unawkwardly followed by a string of immoral pricing. He had just raised the price for his monetary benefits without caring about the values as an honest business person! Of course, the foreign traveller didn't know that he was cheated, so he casually left the cafe as any other person would, too. But as I watched him leaving, I felt sympathetic, embarassment, a sense of humour, and deserving. Alright, these emotions can't all come together to depict my expression. Sympathetic because he was cheated, embarassed because I am a Malaysian myself, humour in the sense that his stride after paying the cheated bill so ignorantly, and deserving, because of what they did to us decades ago. Yes, I couldn't help giggling to my friend the moment we saw the incident, and a bit of a chuckle watching him walk away. But after that few minute seconds of tiny entertainment, I felt that the businessman was unscrupulous. And after a dip in my thoughts, I felt that this was a way to boost the country's income. And after a little bit more thinking, I felt that the white deserved the cheated bill so much. So much. He deserved a bit too little. Decades ago, the British empire came and conquered us Malayans and put us to fear. They exploited our economy, monopolized the industry, and had us as the hard labour, wtf! Why was all these shit happening in those days?! But the question should be constructed such as: HOW these happened? Wasn't there any sense of togetherness in the community? The British had us divided into three "departments". Chinese, Malays, and Indians were instructed to work and live in different areas. The Chinese were in tin mines and towns, Malays were by the seaside and villages, and Indians were in the estates tapping rubber. The reason Malaya was comquered is the lack of partnership between races. This lack of "click" was even destructive on the 13th of May 1969. Until now, there simply is a wall between us three races and no matter how we dig under it, the connection will not be done. Some say that it is the government's principles' fault, but I don't think so. Without the British, we could just be... 1 Malaysia.
3 Malaysia?
Monday, June 1, 2009
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