Celebrating the Malay diversity

I have read many writings exhorting Malaysians to look beyond race and consider ourselves as an entity, whereby progress through meritocracy is the goal instead of being handicapped by a preoccupation with skin colour. Nonetheless it is even stated in the Quran that humans are made of many ethnicities, but not to divide ourselves but to celebrate our diversity by getting to know our different complexities. Thus to me someone’s ethnic background is more important in realising one’s cultural identity, as racial definition is no more than a political classification to lump many ethnicities that may share some cultural heritage into a homogenous grouping. Can anybody show me which race can really claim there are homogenous in ethnicity, be they Indians, Chinese, African or Caucasians. If there is truly a homogenous ethnic race, why then the supposedly Caucasian island stronghold of Britain holds people of Saxon, Norman and Celt stock.

As such it behoves me to say, at least for the Malays, that in order to return us to a state of enlightened racial relationships that our forefathers had, we should look beyond Malay as a race. Historically there has never been a Malay race, it is just a classification created under a colonising divide and rule policy, therefore we so called Malays has never been really comfortable with such an identity tag. How can we when at the back of our mind there is a nagging feeling that the source of who we actually are , are actually our ethnic roots that originates from the location of our migrant forefathers. Take my personal ethnicity where I am a pureblood Mandailing. However to me as a Mandailing, what is the worth of this purebloodness as my ethnic group itself has a very diverse blood source. I still remember reading an account of the Mandailing historian Abdur-Razzaq Lubis who visited his ancestral homeland when a village elder said in response to his question of what makes a Mandailing, he is asked to look around at the faces in the village. What he saw was a gamut of features that hints at origins of various ethnic groups, from skin colour of many hues, hair that is jet-black straight to curly red, and facial features that can be aboriginal to outright Caucasian. This truth bears itself out in my own siblings, from the eldest sister that can pass for a Japanese, the second sister a Chinese, I myself a Punjabi and my brother a dark Caucasian. Thus the elder’s gentle reminder that we Mandailings are the result of a melting pot of various ethnicities, whereby our own adat or custom edicts itself encourages marriages out of the clan by disallowing intra-clan marriages without penalty, thus diversifying the bloodlines.

Thus if we realise that this Malay race of ours is a non homogenous entity made up of the Minangs, Rawa, Banjar, Java, Achehnese and so many other indo Malay ethnicity, would it then be difficult to look beyond the artificial Malay race divide and accepting the other ethnicities in our society. Why shouldn’t we if we realise our first PM has Siamese blood, our third Turkish, our fourth Indian and the current one Arab. Should we still pigeonhole them as Malays when their ethnic stock itself is so diverse? If we refuse to recognise that the origins of this hybrid Malay race are of forefathers of various ethnicities migrating here to escape strife, poverty, repression and other difficulties in search of a better life, then we shall continue to be lulled into passivity by artificial racial guarantees. In this new fast paced world of comparative advantages, such protection is just a fleeting fortress of deck of cards that can be blown away anytime, yet it can also be easily strengthened by celebrating our diversity and moulding our own comparative advantages into a juggernaut that can raise all of us into a better future.

Well Malay Sleeper Movie Hits Do Exist

My daughters has been pestering me to see ‘Dunia Baru The Movie’, a Malay version of one those TV series that has made the jump to the movies. It has been ages since the wife and I have seen a Malay movie at the cinemas, usually because we do not think it is worthwhile to pay good money at the Cineplex when the movie will surely be shown at the idiot box when the next festival season comes around. Another thing is because we have not been following the series like the kids, so we thought we would not have been able to follow the story line as is usually the case with such a TV series jump to the movies. However since the kid were so persistent and the movie itself seems to have staying power beyond the compulsory screening period with good takings compared to its nearest competition, we gave in thinking in the worst case scenario both mum and I can at least get a good rest while the kids enjoyed themselves.

Well it is nice to be surprised sometimes as the movie was truly enjoyable, able to stand on its own without you needing to know much background from the TV series, though I guess those who have been following the series would have enjoyed some scenes more. As it is the movie’s comedy was done very well, without any slapstick and flows out very naturally to make you laugh out loud just looking at the funny scenes. Being a comedic road movie helps with the plot as there is no real plot to digest, you just need to follow the pitfalls that befall the cast on their journey to get the jokes. And being based on a TV series, the ending itself was quite neutral as the producers would not have wanted those who were following the series but who did not watch the movie to lose the plot in the new season. So it concluded with the cast returning to their normal lives, with no big impact to shock viewers when the series proper starts the new season. Thus like I said before it is a stand alone movie that should not frighten those who have not been following the series into not watching it, as otherwise you would be missing a very good comedy movie. Especially since the way the comedy was shot is very refreshing, as it has been a long time since I saw a Malay movie, comedic or otherwise that was not trying too hard to make you laugh. I think the last great Malay movies that were able to do that were in the era of the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee.

Nonetheless this posting is no real movie review, so you have to look elsewhere to get the plot or commentary on the technicalities of the movie itself. Yet I would like to congratulate the production crew especially the director, who I have only known before acting as an unassuming comedic actor, so I am surprised to watch his refreshing touch in this movie. It is about time Malay movies reclaim their renaissance with the horror genre leading the pack, though the copycats will then tend to submerge the diamonds in the rough, so you need either luck or patience to unearth such sleeper hits. Some coming trailers like ‘Congkak’ and ‘Duyong’ seems to hold promise the we have really entered the renaissance wave, so we may yet soon watch more Malay movies at the cinemas as a family.

Who's The Dunce Who Authorised These Bottlenecks?

Well yesterday I briefly touched on the horrendous congestions afflicting the incoming traffic into the city on the Jalan Tun Razak, especially along the Kampung Pandan roundabout strecth. Well if you can imagine having three feeding intersections from another three major arteries into this one double lane road into the city, well you will not wonder how three bottlenecks within a stretch of road less than a kilometre long will naturally create a major road clogging that is the stuff of frustration for the early morning commuters. It does make you wonder then who is the dunce or dunces in authority who approved such a road set-up. Are they so unimaginative that to see in having two new highway pipes that was original designed to relieve the strain off the perenially jammed Sungei Besi road has now instead become chokeholds that blocks up further this main artery. How dumb is that. Well let me take you on a virtual journey of the traffic hell I face coming into the city every working morning. Let's start with exit ramp from the new elevated Putrajaya Highway onto the Tun Razak flyover. How can a design that allows the merging of a dual carriageway onto another dual-carriageway that meets a threelane merging lane within metres is allowed is beyond me. Even though the traffic police tries their best to regulate the traffic flow, there is no easy way in the face of this mess. So a road that used to face only traffic flow from one source now faces two merging traffic flows in a narrow point, where there is actually traffic from 2 + 2 + 3 lanes merging into a four lane mess. This especially since there will be motorist from the left lane trying to cut into the right in order to go straight towards Jalan Ampang and vice versa from Sungei Besi to Bukit Bintang will create a latticework of merging vehicles, and that is not even taking into accounts the silly ways our Malaysian motorists actually merge into oncoming traffic. So what you get is a mish mash of traffic hell.

And do not forget that again just metres in front of this hot spot the traffic from the Smart Tunnel will emerge into the Royal Selangor Golf Course underpass, where they will take up the outermost lane before haltingly merging into traffic from Sungei Besi. And to make matters worse, if there is traffic control of cars merging from Jalan Bukit Bintang just in front of the underpass , then another traffic chokehold will be created. The worst case scenario would be if it is your bad luck to encounter a Royal motorcade at the time when all traffic is stopped, which is actuall a recurring occurence, you might as well have your coffee and bread breakfast. Thus even if you are considering to use the Smart Tunnel to escape the Sungei Besi jam when coming into the city in the working day mornings, you might as well use the toll to pay your breakfast of roti chanai and teh tarik as you will still face traffic jams in the tunnel. And that is not even considering again the way our commuters wave in and out of their lanes that contributes to further stop and go traffic. So listen up Messrs Authorities, even though you have set up a high powered committee to look into the Kuala Lumpur City congestion, if the guys who authorised this mess are the ones who will be advising you when you work to resolve the situation, all I can say is that you may find their advice may actually worsen the situation rather than resolving the mess. So take their suggestions with a pinch of salt, and use some common sense to strategically think of all possible scenarios that can arise from any proposal. Better still, try to find real bright geniuses with workable solutions to the mess, I am sure these are no creatures of imagination.

You Think You So Ong Ka?

Man I don't knowlah but I am not being racist when I notice that somehow in this week of the new Chinese New Year of the Rat some Chinese drivers seems to think that they have all the luck or ong in their lingo to drive as they please without meeting an accident. For instance last Thursday there was one bitch who brazenly cut in from the fathest out lane to the most innerside lane that I was on in a forty five degree angle in order to get to her junction as if she was piloting a battleship in an empty port. I don't knowlah but I guess with all the drivers, me included, cursing her she should be getting her most unluckiest New Year. May her Ong be buried in the hail of curses that was unleashed on her. Amen!

But what got me a wrapped up to write this was two incident this morning within five minutes of each other when I was on my way to the office. It happened it the vicinity of the underpass in front of the Royal Selangor Golf Course towards Jalan Ampang that has now become a bottleneck and a bane to motorists coming from Sungei Besi Road. Well today there was an unearthly congestion as I guess people have now mostly reported back to work from the holidays, so there is a stop go queue of vehicles. Imagine my surprise when this other bitch driving a grey Myvi suddenly put her car out into my lanes from the rightmost lane causing me and a couple of oncoming motorcyclist to swerve left to avoid hitting her. The damned thing was she was smiling away at the near miss while holding on to a water bottle with only the palm of her other hand on the steering wheel. What a nutty way to drive but she got her comeuppance when one of the motorcyclist who caught up with her as she tried to edge away when her lane started to move again gave her car a big kick on the side. So much so when I reached her side I saw her sulking away at her just desserts, so she should now realise she is just not invincible on the road even if her soothsayer says she is getting a lucky new year eh.

The other incident was an asshole in a civic also tried to cut in and only just missed hitting my side. This made me stop in the middle of the road as he should have known that when his car is only just inches behind the vehicle in front of him and with me oncoming, there is no way he can clearly cut into my lane in time, even in his so called muscle car. With me glaring at him daring him to continue, he pussyfooted back into his lane and did not dare to cut into the next lane until I was clear away I guess since I had already left him behind as I was myself already late for the office. Anyway these incidents just gave good definition why I had to drive during this season as after more than twenty years of driving, it has become an empirical finding for me to believe that this is the season when all the worst drivers on the road is most likely to show off their driving skills, or rather the lack of it. SO curses to all of you who drive like they have all the ong in the world, as I wish your New Year will be a rat bitten and rat infested one.

Return Visit To Pavillion KL

Well last Sunday I gambled on a return visit to the Pavillion Kl, reasoning that there will be not that much of a crowd as they should still be away for the Chinese New Year holidays and our own guest workers favourite gathering spots itself are away from the area. Well I threw the dice correctly and was rewarded with easy parking, not so hectic crowds and a surprise buy at the infamous JCo donuts. Well more about that that later.


Well the reason I made this return visit is because I wanted to check out the Loaf Bakery and the Mercato Supermarket that seems to be getting some good press. I have no interest in the premium shopping experience because I already work in a similar premium shopping district so this holds no attraction to me. However the main reason was because I wanted to dine at Tony Roma's because my wife just got her bonus and she wanted to give a treat for the family and this was the nearest location to home. Well the experience at Tony's is always great as evidenced by my daughter's reaction in the video below. We tried out some new starters and the kid's loved it so they will become a fixture in our future visits there.




Since Tony's was sited in the Gourmet Emporium, it was a short step away to the Mercato. Expecting a great display of foreign foodstuff, imagine my disappointment that there is actually nothing much on offer except for a good pasta sauce and canned sardine selection at reasonable prices. Although it has an admittedly superior bakery within of Norwegian origin, when compared to The Marketplace at Gardens it is a poor imitation of a premium supermarket and will not see me a hurried return visit. A similar disappointment awaited me at The Loaf, since I was expecting a similar bakery experience to what I have seen in Japan but the store does not actually measure up. You can get similar or better offering from any of the other Japanese Bakeries locally, even the bakery at the now defunct Yaohan was much better, so unless you are willing to pay premium prices just for the privilege of dining at a bakery owned by our ex-premier I would suggest you ignore the hype.

And hype is what bedevils another store for me, that is the overhyped JCo Doughnuts shop that has seen queues snaking around the shopping floor. Well we tend to avoid being like lemmings and sheep in following the crowd, but since this time the queue was much shorter than the first visit we joined the queue to see what the fuss was all about. Well first up the bad impression I received was the fact there is a staff going around saying you can jump the queue if you buy a dozen, without any choosing allowed, together with a beverage which to me is a sign of bad marketing as an ethical store do not resort to such hard sell tactics. I applaud their policy of allowing pregnant ladies to go to the front of the queue, bad this hard sell just leaves a bitter after taste. And when finally we bought two dozen of many types(well they had an offer and this gives an opportunity for us to taste as many types as we can what) and had it at home, imagine my disappointment when my family cannot distinguish the difference between their donuts and donuts from DunkingD for example. Granted they may have some "premium" toppings and fillings, but sorry to say my wife and I especially cannot taste why these doughnuts are so sought after, especially in the dough. So we both agreed that there will be no need for a return visit to this store or Pavillion unless we happen to be in the neighbourhood. Visits to Suria KLCC and Gardens Midvalley would do as nicely. At least our disappointment (so many disappointments are used in this accountlah, I know) was salved by the fact that we had free parking for the occassion, courtesy of spending more than RM100 at one the Pavillion outlets.

Of Trains, Planes and Hotels

Well I have been travelling so I could not spend too much time on the blog in the meantime. Anyway recently I went to Bintulu again to accompany a mission to a meeting with a client over there and I must say that it only took an intermission of three months to change my travel experience. Well first of all I must talk about the train ride I took on the ERL transit service to KLIA. It is a little sad to note that these trains most times travel quite emptily even though they provide excellent speedy service to those who have easy access to their stations to and fro the KLIA. But I guess that is just it. It is only convenient for those who have easy access to their service and coupled with the fact that their fare for two persons makes it more logical to take a ride to the airport from your doorsteps, makes the service not so popular I guess to the majority of the people.

Anyway the check-in service at the airport for people like me who travel for business with as little luggage as possible so that I can usually check-in without baggage has changed a bit. Now they have service kiosks similar to what I have seen overseas. It has made it convenient a bit for people like me who has no problem interfacing with a machine, and I like that for Enrich card holders like me I can choose my seat, but it does take more time than before because the interface is not that userfriendly and the touchscreen is not that sensitive that you may need to touch a few times before it registers. In fact I see many people having problem of not knowing what to do when they make an error so it is no wonder that a ground staff still has to be stationed to assist the people. It does defeats the purpose a bit I guess especially since I saw that for those who needs to board urgently still has to be manually check-in to speed things up. The airline should have done a better job informing people about this new system so that they give sufficient time to get familiar with it. Anyway I did not expect to see the infamous breadbox being served on this three hour flight but it was duly served. On the flight in it was salad roll and chicken pita while on the way back it was three sandwiches. Served in a pretty box that you can take away if you have no appetite to eat bread on board, the bread are just barely appetising and I do miss the rice or noodles they used to serve on board as they were more filling. And I do not know if they really can economise with such expensive looking breadbox. I guess that the real cost saver in making service this way is the fact they managed to save at least one cabin crew from the roster, as there is only two crew to serve the whole economy class instead of three or four previously. But I pity the crew, even though there is not much work in the way of food serving, they do need to jump around when they are paged in the cabin. Well let's see if they can maintain their level of service with such a skeletal crew.

Meanwhile on the ground I found out that there is a new business all-suite hotel just opened in Bintulu. The fact is the hotel was still under construction when I was last there so it was a surprise to me that it managed to open in about three months. In fact they have not even advertised in the net so it was no wonder that I could not find any information when I googled for hotels in Bintulu. Looks quite impressive with nice modern looking suite rooms with king sized beds, hanging LCD widescreen tvs and separate bath and toilet stalls. As the room rates is comparable with the usual hotel I stay in, I will definitely stay here in my next visit but that means saying goodbye to the seaviews and cute wall hanging pictures in the washroom. Nah just kidding as I will not miss the hotel that is actually getting a bit musty and old in room amenities. The only problem I foresee is that the new hotel only has one coffee house, so entertaining would still be a problem but since it is attached to a shopping complex, I foresee no problem for personal shopping. Nonetheless I would still have to go to Bintulu town proper to get my regular fix of layered cake as there is no good bakeries in the immediate vicinity of the new township. Well with things looking up for business in Bintulu, I may make a return visit sooner rather than later. Until then, cheers!

My Ulam Garden

Why is it when people describe ulam in English we usually call them as jungle herbs. Some of the ulam I like are definitely not herbs like ulam raja, petai and four angled beans although daun kesom may qualify although I would consider this more of a fern than a herb. To me these are all Malay salad vegetables since we do not use them to herb our dishes in the western sense, although the ulams do impart some qualities to the dishes they are cooked in, that is if they are not eaten raw with sambal like a salad which is the more common way they are prepared. Well I do not actually want to talk about the classification of ulams but was inspired to mention about some ulam growing in my garden after reading some articles on them.

The first ulam that I have grown in my garden is the king of ulam itself, which is Ulam Raja aka king ulam in English, although the formal name is wild cosmos. Initially growing wild from seeds transferred by the wind from my neighbour's garden, it is now growing well enough in my backyard although the ulam does much better in my wife's village house. I first came across the flower plant when I visited one nursery specialising in such jungle produce, but the impression I got at the time was that it was a finicky plant to grow and propagate. So it was to my surprise that seeds from the flowers was the propagating agent, and if planted in a damp soil area grows easily enough without much care though it is a short lived species. You can see the black seeds in the picture of the ulam raja flowers. But since the plants are easily renewed with new naturally growing seedlings, it is not such a big problem to maintain a healthy community of ulam raja in your garden. With beautiful pink flowers that can qualify itself as an ornamental plants, the shoots are the parts that are usually eaten as the ulam. Nonetheless you need a healthy quantity available to satisfy a meal table requirements, at least a fistful. The taste is quite unique unlike something that is easily describeable, mildly peppery with a little tartness. Deserving its kingly pretensions. Nonetheless this ulam is sometimes substituted by a pretender called daun selom, that has a similar taste although differing in texture and appearance.

The other type of ulam that is growing well in my garden is the creeping four angled beans that has basically colonised my back fence. At one time when I had a maid that came daily to my house, I was wondering why there was only infrequent harvest from the bean bush. After she left was only it was discovered that she had been picking up the beans to eat at her own kitchen. No wonder as this previously lowly ulam has now reached the status of restaurant menu item, with price to boot even at the wet market. In my home the bean is usually eaten raw with sambal or fried with sambal, although some day old beans that has lost their crunchiness can be cut up and rejuvenated in stews or in fried rice. Again something that is quite difficult to describe in taste, it is something that just becomes easily palatable when eaten.

Another ulam that grows in the garden is cekur, a member of the galangal family. Yet this is an ulam that has to my knowledge not been used in my kitchen although it can be used in kerabus, nasi ulam and some other dishes. It was grown by mother in law most probably as a seed bank, as it can die off if not taken care off. The reason for this is probably because of its use in malay culture as more as a home remedy for various ailments, so to ensure easy access it was grown in the garden, some in the pot and some on the ground itself. Nonetheless once it has grown, it does not require much care to thrive, just some watering and fertilisers once in a while as it seems quite pest resistant on its own.

Finally I just want to touch on an ulam that I wish I had a garden big enough to grow. This is the petai or Parkia Speciosa. Stinky beans that are very good health, and for me a good reliever for constipation, they only grow on tall trees. Rarely found in a garden due to their size, I was amazed to find several fruiting specimens growing in the Lukut Fort grounds when I visited previously. Too bad the fruits were hanging from branches that was so high up as they must be century old trees, otherwise I would have got a free feast of this highly priced beans that are now widely accepted by all cultures in Malaysia, even transplanted Mat Sallehs(caucasians). Just be prepared to suffer the embarassment of smelliness when you do your toilet business.

To finish off although my wife dreams of having a western style herb garden, I always tell her that we actually already have a better version, that is a malay salad garden. Anyway to know more on the ulams mentioned above, this webpage should be useful. Cheers!