Sunday, May 23, 2010

See the leg, lah!

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.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Of love and support

Salam, selamat ber-presenting.
Mama doakan petah mcm kat tadika dulu. Amin.


That's NOT a joke!

I've just got back from Melaka Bandar Warisan Dunia. :) Well, it felt good, revisiting Bandar Melaka after like ummm 13 years? But it wasn't really a visit. I've got a paper to present in a conference. Tight schedule. Great speakers. Inspired.

So the title of this post actually refers to an incident which happened during my stay there. The second night, our lecturer said that she wanted all of us (her students) to dine out. Her treat. So we agreed. (Who wouldn't?) Before we went out from the car park, I had to pass the parking ticket to the person in-charged. I parked at the basement, so the 'roaring' engines somehow disturbed my hearing.

#P - P*rv**t
#I - Your's truly

P : Boleh beritahu nombor......(I can't hear what he was saying)
I : Sorry, nombor kereta ke?
P : Room number. Nombor bilik.
I : Oh, xxxx. Sorry, saya tak dengar tadi.

P: (He was saying something else, but I heard this) Balik sini balik (semula) ke?
I : (So I answered,) Ha'ah.
P: BUKAN.
I : (And I was like) What? Saya tak berapa dengar lah.
P: NANTI ABANG NAIK BILIK YE?
I : What the hell?????????? (And I quickly drove away)

Talk about verbal sexual harassment. And what kind of lady he thinks I am? My friends and I were totally freaking out. What if he actually meant what he said? For all we know he can get access to our room if he really wants to. And after dinner, we met the manager and lodged a report. The charming handsome cute Manager named Vincent called P and these were what he said -

- Did you say something to a guest? Room xxxx. (We were worried. He shouldn't mention our room number, right?)
- What do you mean by that? Gurau? (P still remembers what he said to us, obviously)
- What kind of place you think you're working at?
- I'll let the management know about this!

And V changed our room keys and thank God nothing happened that night. I don't think that it is appropriate to say something like that to a hotel guest. We asked V to erase our personal info from their record. Hopefully P learns his lesson.

 
Header image by sabrinaeras @ Flickr