This was not being told by Mum until she brought up the issue of 'race discrimination' while we were having dinner. T'was kind of a small-talk which (apparently) got me thinking. To begin the story, I need to provide you with some background infos. He he. My brother was offered a scholarship to pursue his studies. But first he has to complete a two year foundation. So the parents sent him to register. As usual, some documents need to be submitted during the registration process, in particular, the parents' birth certificates. What caught Mrs. Discriminator's attention was the race of the father of both my parents. What's stated there was; Bangsa/Race - Jawa/ Java.
So she started to make comments about that. i.e.- "
Eh, sepatutnya kalau keturunan Jawa ni tak boleh dapat biasiswa".
My mother was shocked with that kind of remark. I don't think that my brother will be offered with the scholarship if he is not a qualified applicant in the first place. With all due respect, I believe that he deserves to get the scholarship based on his achievements and for doing well during the interview and I don't think that the race of the father of the parents matters, here. So this was what my mother said to her.
"Oh yeke Puan, tapi Ayah dia dah pernah dapat pun biasiswa yang sama. Dah sampai pun ke US. Alhamdulillah, dah jadi Professor pun sekarang. Kakak dia pun dapat biasiswa ni juga. Nak masuk tahun akhir dah di IPTA."And Mrs. D decided to hold her tongue. *Smug* Mama, you rock! But honestly, sometimes I just can't tolerate this kind of stupidity. Aren't we living in a multi-racial country? Being a Malay herself, I think that she's supposed to be aware of the fact that Malay people in our country have ancestors who originated from countries near Malaysia for example Java, Sumatra, Thailand or Myanmar. And I think that we are too, Malays, but usually referred as Orang Jawa because our community (in the case of our family, the third generation) still speak fluent Javanese. You can have a Malay from Kelantan who speaks Thai because her grandmother is a Siamese, and like myself, I speak moderate Javanese because it is the first language in our community!
Maybe the reason that my grandfather's race is being stated as Java/Jawa in my parents birth certs was because we call ourselves Orang Jawa. (Does this make sense? :P) Well, I am a proud Javanese, and I think that I'm proud that at least I have a third language which comes in handy when dealing with m*r*ns like Mrs. D. I said to my mum that if I were there, we should start using our mother tongue just to spite her. And my mum said thank God you weren't there. Tahu cari gaduh je. He he. To Mrs. D, you can try Google or Wiki and you'll find a list of successful Javanese Malaysian in various fields.
