That elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

My father used to buy the lottery tickets and 4D numbers religiously without fail in the hope that one day the Goddess of Prosperity, sitting on a golden lotus would one day shower her petals of wealth in abundance on him. As far as I know, he had never won anything big or small in these gambles! Being as secretive as he is, maybe, he did but he never told anyone of us!

Just the other day, there was a feature article on Mamak restaurants in the Sunday papers. It narrated how the Mamaks have literally landscaped how, when and what Malaysians eat. They kowtow to all the whims and fancies of their customers, poor or rich, as long as you have money no matter how small your purchase is. All they want is your money (don’t everybody?) and the cheap immigrant workers are there to dance to the tune of the customers all day long (and night as some are 24-hour restaurants) to receive abuses from customers whilst the fat bosses buy more gold for their wives and prosper them. In their zest to meet their customer demand and competition from the newly emerging kopi tiam concept lifestyle shops, the mamaks (mamak restaurants) have been hurled accusations of encouraging unhealthy eating habits, sedentary lifestyle and cultivating lepak (hanging around aimlessly) culture. An example of this is sprouting of wide LCD screen TVs at their premises which can be pre-dated from the time of commencement of 2006 FIFA World Cup games. They now screen European nocturnal (by our time) soccer games in the wee hours of the morning to the delight of insomniac night birds. But wait! People who want to lepak will lepak anywhere. Is it not healthier to gulp non-alcoholic beverages a the mamaks than ye good ol' ale down at Finnegan's?

Since they were at it, they also nailed the mamaks for the reason for societal obesity!

The kopi tiam shops are no different than their competitors. They thrive on their patrons' yearn for the comfort of nostalgia and plucking their childhood memories by serving old traditional Malayan and peranakan food, served by foreign workers who probably do not know that Malaysia has 14 states and they will charge you 4 times more than the mamaks!

Talking about gold earlier, I remember listening to a radio interview recently of a childhood friend of mine, Meer Sadik, and his multi-million company dealing with gold and diamond. Meer Sadik bin Habib Mohamad started Standard 1 in 1970 in Hutchings Primary School in Penang with me. We played and worked together in Hutchings and went to Penang Free School. In 1981/82, he pursued the study of gemology in Indiana, USA presumably to continue his father's business. His father had a small jewellery shop (Habib Jewels) in Ah Quee Street in Penang. Over the years, with Meer's ingenuity, hard work, enterprising skills and business acumen, he managed to bring this small retail business to such dizzying heights that the name Habib Jewels has become synonymous with diamonds in this country.

Going through the interview, we realize that our forefathers have always given a lot of respect to the strength of gold in times of need. When in dire straits, there is always your mother's jewels and the friendly Kedai Pajak Gadai manned by the shrewd Chinaman with thick-rimmed glasses, Pagoda singlet and black shorts to dish out money for you at a reasonable interest rate, instead of having to lose your pride and honour by asking from friends or relatives. Of course, you do not want to be seen hanging (lepakking) around the Pajak Gadai shop just in case you are spotted by your friends! 6 months later, you either redeem or re-pawn your gold, no questions asked as long as you fork out the appropriate money. I know, because it was our local bank before HSBC came around and even afterwards!

The final take-home message is this... The proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is anything but an illusion. It is at the end point of our undying dedication and hard work in the kaleidoscopic ride in the journey of life parched with trials and tribulations. So, strive on... Another gem on Vesak Day! Lord Buddha's day of enlightenment!

Some Chinese don’t speak Bahasa at all

Malaysian Insider

By Sheridan Mahavera

May 14, 2011

File pic of a woman praying during Chinese New Year celebrations at a temple in Kuala Lumpur on February 7, 2008. According to a survey, there is a significant class in the Chinese community who only interact with those who speak Chinese. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — A The Malaysian Insider street poll of 107 Chinese adults has found that 28 of them, or 26.1 per cent of those surveyed, had almost no command or could not understand Bahasa Malaysia.
Of the 75 respondents who understood BM and took the survey, 16, or 21 per cent of them felt that knowing or using the national language was not as important in their lives as knowing Mandarin or other Chinese dialects.
About 37 per cent of those who took the survey (or 28 respondents) used BM less than five times a day. While 20 of them said they either did not have to use it all or only used it less than three times.
The results suggest that within the Chinese community, there is a significant class whose members only interact with those who speak Chinese.
Recently, a separate national study by a well-known teachers’ association showed that one in every three Chinese primary school pupil cannot understand BM or English when they prepare to enter national secondary school.
The school survey by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) also found that one in every four Chinese child who enters national secondary school will drop out.
This has led to claims that the dropout rate and the low level of BM proficiency have created a group of Chinese adults who only interact with other Chinese, creating a barrier for greater inter-ethnic integration in plural Malaysia.
In another The Malaysian Insider article on the NUTP survey, educators, parents and former Chinese school students argued that it is not the vernacular education system that is at fault.
Family attitudes, the Chinese community and individual choice are bigger influences on how much BM Chinese children pick up, retain and use once they leave school and enter adulthood.
The street poll is a follow-up to both the NUTP survey and the contention that it’s not really the vernacular school system’s fault. The poll is to gauge how the Chinese community regards BM.
If the vernacular education is not at fault, are parents and the community creating an environment where Chinese kids feel that they can get by without knowing the national language?

Methodology

The entire survey was conducted in Bahasa Malaysia among 107 Chinese individuals. They were asked four questions.

1) Do you understand BM?

2) How important is BM in your life?

3) Which is more important in your life, BM or English?

4) On a typical day, how many times do you use BM?

— Less than three times.

— Less than five times.

— Five times and more.

— More than 10 times.

(This includes occasions such as talking multiple times to one person or talking to multiple people.)
Those who were judged as not being able to “understand BM” were individuals who could not reply to the interview questions. They rejected the survey by gesturing silently when asked “if they could speak BM”.
This group differs from another group of four who understood but declined the survey as they said in BM that “they were busy”.
The survey was conducted in Sepang district, an evenly diverse part of suburban southern Selangor, and in the Chinese enclave of Jinjang Utara in Kuala Lumpur.
Part 2 economic success = social fragmentation
The dominance of Chinese in certain areas of the private sector explains why some in the community feel that BM is not necessary to get by.
The majority 68 per cent in the poll who found BM important were either shopkeepers, salespeople or those working in large corporations where they interacted with non-Chinese individuals on a daily basis.
This group also represents the 62 per cent who used BM more than five times a day. Sixteen per cent used it more than 10 times a day.
Many of those who found BM less important and who used it less than five times a day worked in technical fields such as small engine repair or small-scale construction.

Michael Tay, who works in the property industry, says there is a belief that because you could still get a job just by speaking Chinese, there is no motivation to learn other languages.
“They feel comfortable mixing with people from a similar culture and language, and they don’t have to depend on non-Chinese to survive. But this is not good for integration,” says Tay, a Bandar Baru Tampoi MCA branch leader in Johor Baru.
A majority of the 28 who could not speak the national language were in their 50s and older. Some of the BM speakers said this was a trend with the Merdeka generation who did not enter the formal education system.

But of the 28, 10 of them were individuals aged 40 and below. About five of them were young adults who worked in mobile phone shops and who politely declined and deferred to their friends when asked in BM.

According to their friends, these individuals had trouble understanding BM because they “dropped out of school”.


Part 3 Malaysia: A bowl or pot?

Low BM usage does not translate into feeling it is less important. For instance, a handful of Chinese shopkeepers who catered to a mainly Chinese clientele felt that BM was important. This is even though they said their command and use of it was low.
“Ini Malaysia maa. Semua kena cakap Melayu. Kalau tak cakap Melayu macam mana Melayu, Cina, India mau satu,” said a shopkeeper who sells joss sticks and Chinese prayer items and who said there were days he didn’t use BM at all.
A stationery shop owner refused to believe the survey’s findings that some Chinese could not speak BM.
“Mana ada? Mesti boleh cakap punya. Ini Malaysia maa,” said the 46-year-old. These same sentiments were expressed by 10 of the respondents.
When asked whether BM or English was more important, 33 per cent of respondents said BM while 20 per cent said both languages were important. Twenty-nine per cent chose English over BM, while 17 per cent did not know.
The proportion of those who don’t speak BM versus those who do reveals how the community views integration with the larger non-Chinese environment. But this is not unique just to the Chinese.
Arguably, there are proportions of Malays and Indians who also go days without meeting someone from a different ethnicity.
Historian Prof Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim believes each ethnic community has evolved this way because they have been taught to think of the group first rather than the nation-state.
“We have always been a people who have lived apart from each other. Even the early Indonesian settlers, the Minangs, Banjars, Javanese lived in separate colonies first. They did not automatically become ‘Malays’.”
Malaysia’s model of integration then, which is more a “salad bowl” than a “melting pot”, makes it hard for individuals to adopt a common culture or language as the priority is always with what the group thinks.
“If you notice, Chinese and Indians are not comfortable at all speaking BM to one another. This is different from the Peranakan Chinese in the past who spoke BM to each other,” observes Khoo.
Though the bright side from survey shows a positive attitude among its Chinese respondents concerning BM, it is harder to gauge how deep their feelings of togetherness with Malaysia and other Malaysians as a whole.
And if the same trends are present in Malaysia’s other communities, it may well be that we are still a nation of separate peoples.