I remember being a Form 5 (Upper Secondary) student exactly a decade ago now; writing essays on the daily about the glories, the trials and tribulations that Malaysia used to face, is facing, and is bound to face in the future.
The more ornamented your view of Malaysia in those essays, the higher the marks you'd garner. Add in a gaudy poem for extra brownie points and you're all set for a glittering A+.
If that is the kind of orthodox piece you are expecting to read today, unfortunately, you will be thoroughly disappointed. This article may not be the most glitzy or decorated, but on the contrary, it is a hard-hitting and honest evaluation of the single thing that ossifies our status as Malaysians. Optimists call it "being chill" while pessimists would call it "nonchalance".
Go to a mamak restaurant and do a quick survey. You will notice that diabetics are bastions of support to our mamak outlets. If you catch one sipping away at a cup of piping hot "teh tarik" , while using a teaspoon to indefatigably stir at the condensed milk settling towards the bottom of the cup, try suggesting to them that it might be in their best interest to stay away from the sugary stuff. The likeliest reply you would get is a mini lecture series on how everyone has diabetes anyway and how life is short and is meant to be enjoyed to the fullest.
"I've got diabetes, so what? Nowadays, everyone has diabetes and high blood pressure. Life is meant to be enjoyed lah. When the calling from upstairs comes, just go lah. If our time is up, it is up. It's all fated anyway", says our fictional diabetic uncle in the most poetic tone possible.
You see, we may misconstrue this to be a blatant act of ignorance, but this scenario in essence summarises what being Malaysian is all about. We take everything lightheartedly/with a pinch of salt.
I remember when I had just applied to the UK for a job as a Foundation Doctor(the equivalent of Housemanship in Malaysia). A close friend of mine, who was a fellow Malaysian and a fellow Irish graduate, had been ruminating deeply in the days prior about which path to take post medical school: To head onwards to the UK or to stay on and serve in Malaysia. He had eventually decided to go with the former. We were seated at a food court together on the application closing day and he dropped a bombshell: he had yet to send his application through and there were only 2 hours remaining! By virtue of us being graduates of an Irish university, it meant the application to the UK was very straightforward; no further medical exams or requirements needed, as both nations had reciprocal degree recognition policies in place. This meant the whole process would take just about 10 minutes of work.
"I think you should do it like right now cause there's only like 2 hours left", I said.
In return, I received the most nonchalant response ever: "Chill lah, I'll do it after we get home from dinner." I was gobsmacked; to say the least, and he never ended up joining me, but again it was yet another pleasantly startling reminder of how chill and spontaneous everything is in Malaysia.
We don't have to look far, for we are the proud architects of our own distinct version of the English language- dubbed Manglish in Malaysia and Singlish in Singapore. Nobody truly knows the origin of Manglish/Singlish, but perhaps I can offer a cheeky hypothesis.
Back in the day, some Malayan chap probably got invited to high tea with the presiding British officers. They told him: "Hey young man, you've been a distinguished comrade here at our outposts in Malaya. Would you like to join us for dinner tonight?"
He went home to his wife. In the time it took him to get home, gone were the inflections and gone was the grammar. The sentence was too long and the neuronal synapses just didn't seem to process it all. But the message was crystal clear. In a most succinct and unadulterated form, he blurted to his wife: "Love, wanna go dinner tonight ah? White people inviting lah!"
Voila: the masterpiece that is Manglish was born; an ultra efficient spin-off from English that cut down the usage of words in a sentence by upwards of 50%, all whilst delivering the same cutting edge accuracy when it came to content/message delivery- a testament to Malaysian simplicity in its rawest form.
Some detractors may argue that our chill attitude and nonchalance is a by-product of the modern era; an attribute closely tied to the rise of the wave of Gen Z. This is an abject mistruth. Being chill and nonchalant has been the Malaysian way since before the inception of Malaysia and I will tell you why I am bang on the money. Proof of this lies at the heart of our flag.
There have been 14 stripes on the Malaysian flag since 1963 but there are only 13 principal Malaysian states. Today, we proclaim that the 14th stripe refers to the Federal Territories but the first federal territory, namely Kuala Lumpur, was only anointed in 1971. That is because that 14th stripe on the Malaysian flag originally represents the then State of Singapore (today a sovereign country in its own right following its split from Malaysia in 1965). With most other nations globally, secessions and separations are marred by war and bloodshed. Such was the case with Kosovo (split from Serbia in 2008) , the Republic of Ireland(split from the UK in 1921) and even South Sudan(split from the Republic of Sudan in 2011).
On the contrary, the split of Singapore from Malaysia was akin to a divorce settlement between a couple that deeply loved each other; but who decided that they had to part ways due to irrevocable differences in ideology. The split was sealed not with drops of blood, but with drops of alcohol on a night of inebriation and banter. On the day the agreement to sever the union between Singapore and Malaysia was signed on the 7th of August 1965, high ranking representatives from both sides met. In the words of the then Singaporean Law Minister E.W. Barker: "We ate, and we drank till past midnight".
Well, if you didn't take my word at the start of this article, I believe now you see that this chill attitude and nonchalance is what makes us distinctly Malaysian; stemming back from the formation of this nation in 1963 till this very day.
As a doctor, I wouldn't recommend much alcohol to go alongside your Malaysia Day celebrations, but I would definitely recommend that you get thoroughly inebriated in the spirit of what makes us Malaysian- our lightheartedness and nonchalance!
Happy Malaysia Day, Everyone!
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