Sang Kancil Forum

27/01/2012 Leave a comment

There was a forum in Malaysia, back in the nascent days of internet comms, which the late MGG Pillai used to contribute to. Someone mailed me a link which said this, almost 12 years ago!:

 

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Re: [sangkancil] Malaysian Dilemma

Thanks Mr Teh and very well said.

>From: Bala Pillai
>To: sangkancil@malaysia.net
>Subject: [sangkancil] Malaysian Dilemma
>Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 13:46:46 +1100
>
>--forwarded message--
>Date: Sat, 11 Mar 00 10:30:00 +0800
>From: TEH THIAN HWA
>To: adnan98@pd.jaring.my (Adnan_xyz)
>Cc: bala@malaysia.net (Bala Pillai)
>Subject: Malaysian Dillema
>:
>:
>:
>
>Dear xyz,
>
>I refer to your email to sangkanchilers dated 10 March 2000. I am a
>Chinese and can therefore safely condemn the Chinese race's shortcomings.
>
>I make the following observations:
>
>1. The primary school teacher incident.
>
>i. I am inclined to believe one can find a vernacular school where when
>the race factor is eliminated, one finds a similar pattern of car
>ownership or qualification for an assistance scheme, between wage earners
>and entrepreneurs.
>
>ii. Perhaps the families which did not own cars had better furnished
>homes or were better clothed. My personal visit to homes of my malay
>friends and chinese friends tell me that malays in general place more
>importance on home furnishing than chinese. Down my street there are a
>couple of beemer owners, but their single-storey terrace units are in
>absolute shambles. My double-storey terrace unit looks like a palace in
>comparison, but my Iswara parked in front is somewhat of a giveaway
>
>iii. More pertinent may be why malay parents were more likely to be wage
>earners than chinese parents. Can one not turn it around to suggest
>employment opportunities unfairly favour malays? I know many small
>business owners who would not have chosen to start those businesses had
>they had better employment opportunities. Is there unfair treatment here
>and by whom?
>
>2. Special class during Friday Prayers
>
>Assuming the students who were praying did not know about the classes and
>would have attended those classes had they known, or assuming those
>classes were not specifically requested by those students not praying,
>the teacher was wrong
>
>3. Students Abroad
>
>I studied abroad. When I left home my father gave me enough money for
>three months. I started looking for part-time work on the third month.
> >From the fourth month on, I worked part-time and continued doing it until
>I left for home 6 years later. At the worst of times (during semester) I
>had one weekend job, working 10-11 hours starting at 5am on both
>Saturdays and Sundays - manual labour in fish markets. At the best of
>times during summer breaks I had four jobs simultaneously. Paper runs on
>weekdays at 5am-7am. "Regular" work as a cleaner/porter in a hospital
>from 8am-4pm weekdays. Ad-hoc work at university faculty in the printshop
>and moving furnitures, after 4pm. Fish markets weekends. Often I did
>paper runs and fishmarkets during semester. All this while, a family of
>malays live one floor above me. A married couple, both sponsored. Neither
>worked. They had children while I was working. Two of them, one after
>another. They had a good 10 years head start in raising a family.
>Assisted. I wasnt abroad because I was rich. I'm no Einstein but neither
>am I an intellectual slouch. I was in a top university in a top faculty.
>It now requires a near 99% percentile for admission. The family man was
>in a university a few suburbs away. In a faculty my cousin whose mother
>wished she had me for a son instead, would have gained admission if he
>tried harder. Merit? Deserving? Sigh ...
>
>I have another cousin whose father was schizophrenic. Left home when my
>cousin was only 2. My auntie became a seamstress to bring him up. There
>wasnt a year through primary and secondary school when he wasnt the top
>student. Guess who fished him out of the poverty cycle? The Singapore
>government.
>
>Of course, apart from my family man neighbour, I knew of another rich
>malaysian kid in my faculty, who was of the indian race. He drove a big
>Japanese car. Spent weekends on some waterfront hangout with local kids,
>sipping beers. Goes skiing during winter break, and out deep-sea fishing
>(read : sailing in some classy yacht, no doubt champagne laden) during
>summer breaks. He chatted now and then with me. I envied him whenever I
>do. I wished somebody had fished me out of my fishmarket routines. I know
>the malaysian government didnt. It plonked instead for that family man.
>And his wife.
>
>Also, the rich kids that malay student you mentioned spoke to? Maybe they
>had money because they worked. Not in fishmarkets may be, but maybe they
>worked. Certainly their parents did. Perhaps their parents were given a
>break from the vicious cycle by someone, huh?
>
>4, 5 & 6. Business cheats
>
>A pure, unadulterated truth - businessmen consider it a job well-done
>when they can squeeze maximum profits out of a deal. All businessmen do
>that. The fair ones try to give the party squeezed, some benefits so that
>they feel they have been fair. They squeeze some harder than they do
>others. Bases for differentiation? Anything. Race is certainly one way. I
>have been taken for a ride by a chinese, just because I speak a different
>dialect. Racist? Almost certainly to a large extent. Many chinese are
>racist. But that su
>
>
>Thanks,
>Teh
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
>
>or go to <http://www.malaysia.net/lists/sangkancil>
>
>

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Australia Day

27/01/2012 1 comment

Australia Day yesterday brought perfect weather to Melbourne. A top of 24 deg with a slight cool breeze and picture perfect sunny conditions saw a few of us sitting by the poolside of Gerry and Jesslyn’s new home, sipping a crisp white and nibbling at fruits and Chinese New Year biscuits. It was a little farewell party for Jesslyn’s mum, who was returning to Singapore after spending close to a year helping them with their beautiful 2 year old. The mum is affectionately known to all of us as Poh Ma Ma and we’re all better for having known her this past year.

We were there from noon, after Tress and I spent the morning grocery shopping and preparing a salad – with yummy barbequed chicken breast marinated in lemon pepper, paprika and tumeric. We only left after 7.30pm, got home and took Scruff to the park for a little bit, before settling down to watch the Federer v Nadal semi-final of the Aussie Open.

It was a perfect day in so many ways.

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Elliptical Ride

24/01/2012 Leave a comment

I’ve been down to a max of 2 runs a week now. Most weeks it’s just once. Other days I’d be on the elliptical cross-trainer – less impact.

This morning it was a very labored 7k. It took more than 45 minutes. Extremely embarrassing except it doesn’t bother me much these days.  It no longer bothers me I don’t do a 10k in 45 minutes, and as long as I’m doing some form of cardio work out at least 3 times a week, it’ll do by me.

The bigger worry is the lack of picture of the future. I don’t know what I want to do. I guess I can go on doing what I’m doing now, but that would mean (after February) coming home to an empty house for a couple of hours before Tress comes home, and wondering what else I can fill my time with other than doing my MST studies. I’m not sure if I should be returning to a legal role instead. It would be more satisfying in terms of doing work each day, to just turn it on, boom booom boom, and then coming home at the end of it all before doing 1-2 hours of MST studies.  The pay packet would be heaps better too, which would come in extremely handy given what has to go to the nation’s capital city to keep kiddo going.

Yesterday I sort of worked out kiddo’s calendar, to have the key dates set out so that we have a better idea of whether any given weekend would be a good one for us to be with her. I think I’ll see a fair bit of the Hume Highway going forward. Maybe missing a few weekends at church here in Melbourne too.

I wish the route ahead is as “non-impact”  as the elliptical trainer.

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Chinese New Year, New Perspective

23/01/2012 Leave a comment

It’s the first day of the lunar new year. It’s the year of the dragon, which means my brother is turning 48 this year.

Last night a few families got together and celebrated a “reunion dinner” (of sorts). Lots of meats. And beers… I had also got some new year biscuits to add to the atmosphere and some angpows got distributed too. We were at Gerry and Jesslyn’s new home and their little soon-to-be two year old is an absolute darling and all of our favourite. Brian and Doreen, as well as Jason and Mel and families were there, together with a couple of Gerry’s relos. Kiddo, Tress and a few others got stuck into a card game so that sort of rounded up the new year mood. It’s good to share this time with folks who have become family to us.

—————————————————-

I’ve been reading something which has made me wonder if I have lived my life under a wrong understanding of self and people around me, all along. I’m yet to find out if David Goldman is a Christian writer but even though I stumbled upon this book through a secular source, it has really resonated with some fundamental insights on parts of the scriptures.

For starters, it has made sense for me, how the west’ preoccupation with the individual and the legitimization of individual rights as the driving principle for all sorts of values and policies is really something which would undo humankind. The bit about loving and “finding” your life means losing it, comes to mind. In my early days of marriage, I had been misled by someone like Paul Ehrlich, and decided I didn’t want more than one child at the most. Reading this book sort of stirs up thoughts that tend to tell me I have been wrong for a long time. I have been equally wrong in thinking life is about enriching one’s own thoughts and understanding, which has created in me a love for the solitude, easily happy with a good book and a good piece of music in the background.

Increasingly, the importance of connection with others around me, including from an inter-generational perspective has been elevated as something that should have been propounded a lot more strongly. The idea that it is not about self but about the community, has taken on a more focused dimension even through just the first few chapters of David Goldman’s book. “How Civilizations Die: (and why Islam is dying too)” has been a good book to kick off the year for me.

 

 

 

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