Malaysian-Indian identity

Do Punjabis (an ethnic group of people who originate from the Punjab region of the Indian sub-continent) come under the “Indian” category or the “others” category?

I once asked this question and provoked a small heated discussion among my friends.

According to some of them, Tamils, Malyalees and Telegu (based on the Indian languages they speak) fall under the Indian category while other groups like the Punjabis (majority Sikhs), Gujaratis, Ceylonese (Sri Lankans), come under the "lain-lain" (others) category. Others disagreed and were of the opinion that everyone from the Indian sub-continent is an Indian. To this day I am not sure what’s correct.

It is quite funny that Sikhs are often incorrectly referred to as ‘Bengali’ in Malaysia. Bengalis actually refer to people from the Bangladesh and West Bengal state of India. I won’t mention another term used to refer to them, which is considered derogatory here in Malaysia but is actually derived from a Hindi/ Punjabi word meaning “brother”. Yeah! Its strange.

There are also the Indian muslims who have assimilated with the Malay community and the Chittys but that’s another story.

It was interesting to learn that a founder member of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance was a Sikh. Datuk Mahima Singh Thaliwal who was also the country’s oldest former MP, passed away at the age of 99. Read the Star report here.

BTW, The Indian community in Malaysia is the smallest of the three main ethnic groups and accounts for about 10% of the country’s population.

Happy Endings

Not every saga has a happy ending but recent events which took up headlines and official media as well as unofficial (blogs) in Malaysia ended on a happy note.

The six missing people (four kids in Fraser's Hill and the father and son in Cameron Highlands) were finally found unharmed.

The Prime Minister intervened personally to ensure that the top SPM scorers finally obtained the Public Services Department (PSD) scholarships.

And today the Higher Education Ministry has approved two years' unpaid leave for Associate Professor Dr. Terence Gomez to enable him to take up the post of project manager for research in identity, conflict and social cohesion with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. His forced retirement was duly revoked and thus enable Dr. Gomez to rejoin University of Malaya after his secondment ends.

Proves that in Malaysia, the "Authorities" do listen to the people.

Books Meme

Shsuya passed me this meme and here are my answers:

1) Total number of books I own:

Like Shsuya, I can't answer this. I have loads and can't possibly count. However, most of them are academic books.

2) The last book I bought:

The Glorious Qur'an by Ahmad Zidan and Dina Zidan

3) The last book I read:

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

4) 5 books that mean alot to me:

This was quite tough as a lot of books made an impression on me. However, I will list the 5 books which really made an impression.

a) The Quran (c. 650) Translation by Yusuf Ali
Presented to me by my wife when we were still friends. My first step into Islam.

b) Victor Hugo's Les Misérables
Very touching.

c) Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre
Yeah! The main character is a lady. So what?

d) JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy (actually that's three books, but I will count them as one. A bit of cheating Heh! Heh!)

e) I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. It is actually a collection of short stories. The famous 'Three Laws of Robotics' first appears in this book

5) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out on their blogs:

Sending this to Acat, Chics, Ezu, Ita and Lucia.

Faster Processing of PR Applications in Malaysia

I welcome the Government’s recent announcement that the applications for permanent resident (PR) status in Malaysia would be processed faster.

The Government has also doubled the number of people granted the power to sign the approval for PR applications to four: namely, the Home Minister, the Immigration Department's Director-general, Deputy Director-general and Director of visa. Previously, only the former two had the power to approve the applications.

According to the Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho, they have a backlog of more than 10,000 applications. He added that under the new system, “applicants would not be kept in the dark about their status”. I know of a few applicants who have been doing just that – waiting patiently for several years without any news. Some highly qualified people have since then, moved to other countries.

I just hope they would give priority to professionals married to Malaysians and those who have been working here for a long time. I am sick and tired of hearing of uneducated, unemployed PR holders involved in acts of crime and terrorism. The point system used in Australia is not perfect but I think would be a great system to emulate. It ensures that only people who can contribute to the country and society have a better chance of becoming Permanent residents of the country.

For your information, foreign women married to Malaysians have to approved by the immigration department, while foreign men married to Malaysian women and other applicants have to be approved by the Home Ministry.

Read “Shorter wait for PR applicants” in the Star.

World Environment Day

Yesterday, the 5th of June, was celebrated as World Environment Day around the World. The day was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the creation of green cities saying:

"Let us tap the great knowledge and natural dynamism of urban areas and create 'green cities' where people can raise their children and pursue their dreams in a well-planned, clean and healthy environment,"

Looking around, I can see that whatever green cover we had in the cities are being lost in the name of development. Way up north in Kedah, its not so bad, but it is very obvious in the urban centres of KL and Penang, where we have concerete jungles.

I hope Malaysian town planners/developers would heed his call.

Review of d' Tandoor Restaurant Ampang

Sometime back, my father informed me that one of our distant relatives who now resides in the US would be in KL for business. That was in March. I felt quite bad as he was staying alone and something or the other would turn up, everytime I planned to meet up with him. I finaly got the chance yestrday.

With my wife, my daughter and maid in tow, I picked him up from Lanson Place, Jalan (road) Ampang and took him to the D’Tandoor Restaurant just down the road. Actually he picked the place. Jalan Ampang is known for its killer traffic jams but there were hardly any traffic yesterday.

The restaurant is situated on the Ground Floor of Wisma Chinese Chamber and serves North Indian cuisine. There were only a few patrons and we didn't have to queue and got nice a nice table by the window.

I didn't take my camera so I can't show any of the dishes we had. I had a sweet Lassi, which was terrific. We ordered a plate of Hydrabhadi Briyani (lamb cooked with basmathi rice and spices), plain rice and Naan. We also orderd Fish Methi (fish curry with fenugreek leaves), Vegetable Jal Frezy (mixed vegetables), Palak Paneer (cheese with spinach) and Dhall Tharka. which we shared.

Palak Paneer is one of all time favourite dishes and unlike other places, they had generous helpings of Paneer (cheese) in the dish here. The food was delicious and I had a little too much. However, I made a little room for the Dessert. I shared my Rasmalai with my relative (uncle?), while my wife had Kulfi (indian style ice cream).

Altogether, the bill came to about RM140, which was very reasonable. I was about to pick up the tab but my uncle snatched it away. According to him, he had a policy of not letting younger people pay. It felt a bit odd becaue I was the one who had invited him out for the lunch. Anyway, as they say there is always a next time.

If you want to try out authentic North Indian cuisine in Kuala Lumpur, I wholeheartedly recommend this restaurant.

American Vs Malaysian Kids

Received another forwarded mail from my wife:

Letter to Dad 1:

To all the parents with teenage kids.....

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the centre of the bed. It was addressed, "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:

Dear Dad,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so nice even with all her piercing, tattoos, and her tight motorcycle clothes.

But it's not only the passion dad, she's pregnant and Joan said that we will be very happy. Even though you don't care for her as she is so much older than I, she already owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. She wants to have many more children with me and that's now one of my dreams too.

Joan taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and trading it with her friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want.

In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Joan can get better; she sure deserves it!! Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren.

Your son, John

PS: Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbor's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my report card that's in my desk centre drawer. I love you! Call when it is safe for me to come home.

**********************************************************
That is a typical letter from a typical American kid.

Letter to Dad 2:

A typical letter from a Malaysian kid would be:

Dear Dad,

I have decided to commit suicide. I only got 7A1s for my SPM exam and therefore, failed to live up to your expectation which is to beat Amalina, the Malay girl who got into the Malaysian Book of Record Winner with 17A1s.

Now you will not be able to brag to your friends about how intelligent your son is. And you will also feel that you wasted all the money on my education from kindergarten fees to extra tuition classes, etc. etc.

Bye.

Yours truly,

Typical Malaysian son.

p.s. Dad, I think you also wasted your money on the special milk you have been buying for me which is supposed to increase children's intelligence. I suggest you use another brand for my little sister.