Malaysia Boleh!

Joy here…Let me be clear right at the start:  I'm not Malaysian; I'm not a Malaysian scholar, and I'm not even all that up on the ins and outs of Malaysian socio-political history or culture; I don't speak Malay; I'm not even lain lain ("other") in the parlance of Malaysian ethno-cultural groupings, but merely an ex-pat, a Mat Salleh, someone forever marked as an outsider.

That said, I love this place.  I love the culture; I love the food; I love the climate; I love the craziness of it all, and I love the sense that this chaotic city gives me that anything and everything is possible.

But most of all I love the people.

Now I spent a good part of my adult life in universities theorizing the complicated hybridized identities emerging out of the liminal sites where the divisions, fractions, and fissures of nomenclature fail to capture the multiplicities that we all possess and embody, so I'm not about to make some grand generalization about how all Malaysians are nice or all Malaysians are friendly, but dammit, it sure does feel that way!

So I'm a bit dismayed at the current row over whether or not the Catholic Church in West Malaysia will be allowed to use the word "Allah" in its Malay language bibles and materials to refer to the Christian God rather than the Muslim one.  The government's stance is that it can't use the word, and the other side says that it can.  Emerging out of the two sides of this controversy has been some harsh words and the potential for ugly behaviours.

To be clear, I don't want to wade into this bruhahaha at all.  I'm not going to pick a side, and I'm not going to make an argument one way or the other.  Heck, I haven't been in a church for a long time, probably since my sister was married in one (and that was back in 2006, and I had a big, black eye and was juiced up on some pretty serious pain meds, so I don't even think I should count that one since my memories are pretty hazy).  But what I will say is that all of these hard-line stances that some politicians are too happy to spout don't seem to tally with the everyday Malaysians (Malay or otherwise) who I come in contact with in my day-to-day life.  The Malaysians I come across are super friendly, people who love a good joke and a belly laugh, and people who are only too happy to sit down for makan.  In fact, I'm starting to be convinced that Teh Tarik may just be the route to world peace.

Cycling cures the world's ills!

Every weekend as I kit up in my cycling gear and head out for my bike ride, I enter into a world where smiles, waves, and cheering seem to be the order of the day.  And I don't just mean out there with other cyclists.  Sure we cyclists wave to each other as we pass each other (or get passed), and we're quick to stop at the side of the road to check on a fellow cyclist who may have had an accident or mechanical incident on the bike.  But it's not just people out there pedalling who are friendly.  The guys and gals riding by on their motorcycles make sure to give me a wide berth; sometimes I get a friendly honk and/or wave.  When the big lorries are stuck behind my slow-moving cycling self and can't pass because the road is winding, they wait patiently, and as I wave them by when the road is clear, I often get a little toot of their horn and a wave.  This weekend, as two separate cars at two different points in my ride drove past me, children waved and smiled out of windows that they had rolled down expressly for that purpose.  The smiles on their faces were beautiful, and maybe they'll be inspired to ride a bike!

Malaysia Boleh!

So when I read the news headlines and get discouraged, I just need to head out there on my bike and have interactions with the everyday folk to remind me of all the great things about people here, no matter what their "race," category, religion, political beliefs, or gender may be.

And maybe if some of those who have nasty things to say would ride their bikes they might have fewer nasty things to say (or at least they just might be too out of breath to say them!).

Over and out,
Joy