180 Degree Different

Freedom of speech in the land of freedom causes everyone to keep their
thought to themselves. Isn't it a mockery?

In a country where two political parties take turn to run the country, the
citizens do not speak up their minds in the open. They keep their very
thought to themselves. On the other side of the blue planet, in the
Bolehland where one ruling party runs the country for the past 50+ years, I
dare say, with 95% confidence, that everyone talks politics in the open.

To make the cold climate colder, there is not much buah mulut between
individuals in this far away land. Topics that float in lunch meetings or
occasional pantry chit-chat is none other than the weather, the Superbowl
baseball and the children or grandchildren. Weather-talk is kind of
essential because there is simply nothing else common to talk about if
you're neither a baseball fans nor a parent. On the contrary, in
Bolehland, can you imagine people talk about how blue the sky is?

Back to the main question as to why politics is not a table topic. Let's
ask yourself this question: would you openly criticize Party A when there's
a 50% chance that your audience is the supporter of Party A? Worse still,
if your manager supports Party A. Hence, people shut their big mouth.
When time comes, they cast their votes early in the morning and go to work
like usual. In Bolehland, everyone talks politics everywhere. When
Election Day comes, people celebrate the one-day public holiday.

Got vote or not, tak tau lah. Boss, teh tarik kurang manis lagi satu!

Char Seow Pao + Loh Mai Chee = Loh Seow Pao

 

When Char Seow Pao from Malaysia gets married to Loh Mai Chee in the US, she innocently follows the “procedures” stated in the immigration documents to get her last name (surname) changed to Loh.  She did this reluctantly, but caved in, upon bombarded with horror stories of the naming trouble her MIL has to painfully wade through all these years. 

Char Seow Pao has made a terribly big mistake.  The name-change incurs more trouble, on the other hand.  Her passport bears the name of Char Seow Pao.  Her PR card bears the name of Seow Pao Char.  Her working permit bears the name of Seow Pao Char.  However, her driving licence bears the name of Seow Pao Loh.  Her employer got her name logged in as Seow P. Loh.  When employment eligibility verification check was conducted, there comes the red light.  Seow P. Loh does not exist in the immigration system.

So, an easier way out to solve this issue would be to change the name on the PR card and the working permit to Seow Pao Loh, you might think.  If you think a little bit deeper, you might find that Char Seow Pao will be in hot water when she re-enters the territory of the US from abroad.  The custom officer at the port of entry might not let her in because her cute little red booklet bears a different name from her PR card.  By the way, Char Seow Pao has never intended to give up her 32-page-little-red booklet in exchange for a green one.  So, your suggestion to Char Seow Pao to have all her travelling documents names change to Seow Pao Loh is a viable solution but not a workable one, under her circumstances.

To her chagrin, Char Seow Pao found out that all her female Chinese colleagues do not get their names changed upon getting married.  She questioned her MIL’s name, the one that had incurred so much trouble.  It appears that her MIL’s maiden name is Wan Tan Mee.  Upon getting married to Loh Mai Chee’s father, Loh Mai Kai, she changed her surname to Wan-Loh.  With a dash, “-“, in the surname, a typical computer system will treat it as an invalid input.

The moral of the story is, do not follow the “procedures” blindly and do not listen to a one-sided horror story.  First scenario:  a doctor advises the public to take less sugar; second scenario: a person restricts his/her sugar intake.  If you blindly follow heed by not taking in any sweetness at all, you might suffer from low-blood sugar.  To add salt to injury, Char Seow Pao is expecting to give birth to a Little Loh Mai Chee in the very near future.  Should the mother of Little Loh Mai Chee be Seow Pao Char or Seow Pao Loh?

The Reason that I’m proud of being a Malaysian

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's biggest success has been its ability to transform "a potential Achilles heel" into a competitive advantage, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Najib said that the nation had veered away from the quick-fix of the "melting pot" approach to develop the country.
"As such, there is no need to change the name Samy Vellu to Suhaimi or Sazali; Chua Soi Lek to Salleh, So'ud or Ayoub; John Ambrose can remain the same without changing it to Johan Ambrose.

"We should be proud as we are the only country in the world which allows the existence of Chinese and Tamil schools which use their mother tongue as the medium of instruction," said Najib, who is also the Barisan Nasional chairman, at its convention at Wisma MCA, here, yesterday.

Najib said the government has not carried out any attempts to scrap any culture or change the origins of anyone.
"Each is free to retain their identity."

Read more: PM: Each free to retain identity http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/2beeann/Article/#ixzz17M14gfnA

Is Char Seow Pao the same as Seow Pao Char?

The other day, on Facebook, I accidentally read a friend’s friend unpleasant experience opening a banking account in UK.  The reason was: Chee Cheong Fan is not the same as Cheong Fan Chee. 

I believe many Malaysian Chinese, Singaporeans or Hong Kist have 3-syllabus names, such as Chee Cheong Fan where the surname a.k.a. last name is Chee and the given name a.k.a. first name is Cheong Fan.  Our passports clearly state that the name is Chee Cheong Fan.  When it comes to filling up forms in countries such as UK and US, we have to split the name into First Name, Middle Name and Last Name.  Hence, Chee Cheong Fan <> Cheong Fan Chee.

I used to be very naive.  I insist on writing my First Name=Seow Pao, Last Name=Char with no Middle Name.  But some computer system does not allow a space, “ ”, in between names and it automatically concatenates the two words of my first name.  Hence, on some of my important documents, I’m known as Seowpao Char, totally different from Char Seow Pao or Seow Pao Char.  As of this point, I’m Char Seow Pao, I’m Seow Pao Char and I’m also Seowpao Char.

Back in Malaysia or Singapore, if you are Char Seow Pao, then you carry the name of Char Seow Pao regardless of your marital status.  Here in the US, a married woman has to drop her last name and replace it with her husband’s surname, upon getting married.  If Seow Pao Char is married to Mai Chee Loh, she has to change her name to Seow Pao Loh.  Now, all my governmental documents bear the name of Seow Pao Loh.  Char Seow Pao = Seow Pao Char = Seowpao Char = Seow Pao Loh. 

Congratulations to Chee Cheong Fan.  He finally managed to open a banking account in UK on his 4th visit to the bank. 

Neither the Jasmine Tea nor the Earl Grey

Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s views and sentiments struck a resonant chord in me though we are generations apart. Mr Lee was born and bred in Singapore while my father was born and bred in Penang. Both the islands of Singapore and Penang were English settlements. Both Mr Lee and my father grew up under the British rule. They both sang God Save the Queen as their national anthem before 1957. They are both banana, wearing the yellow skin with everything English in mind. The stark difference is, Mr Lee is the father of the developed nation, Singapore, while my father is the father of my 2 elder brothers and me.

My grandparents sent all their children to English schools before Merdeka for the hope that the children will secure good jobs upon leaving schools. In those days, China was still a sleeping dragon. People saw no future in learning Chinese. To add salt to injury, Chinese educated graduates contributed to high unemployment rate. That was the reason Mr Lee discontinued the medium of teaching in Chinese in Nanyang University, later being renamed to Nanyang Technology University. I guess, that was the reason, too, of my father sending my eldest brother to a Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) primary school instead of a Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC). Alas, my eldest brother ended up in a Malay school because the Malaysian government began to change English-medium national-type schools into Malay-medium national schools in the 1970s in accordance to the national language policy. My eldest brother, for being unable to read Chinese, had to memorize the entire Jacky Cheung’s song in which I wrote the pronunciation in pinyin for him, before he could sing in a karaoke during the heyday of HK entertainment.

Race: Chinese. That’s written on my birth certificate. I find no fault in it until Dec 1996. It was my first time visiting Shenzhen, China, from Hong Kong. When I stepped out of Kai Tak International Airport, it was as if I’ve taken a 3+ hour flight from Penang International Airport to Beach Street, Penang. Everything looked so familiar, especially the colonial buildings. When we had our passports stamped and entered the sovereignty of China, I naively asked my mom, “Why are there so many Chinese words? Even the streets names are in Chinese without any English!” My mom answered bluntly, “If Chinese in China don’t use Chinese, who else is going to use Chinese?” Instantly, I realized how stupid I was. Throughout the trip, I found myself uneasy reading everything Chinese; road instructions, tourist signboards, and even the car plate numbers begin with a Chinese character. China, to me, is still a foreign land no matter how many times I’ve visited the country. On the contrary, when I stepped out of London Heathrow Airport in Dec 2008 after spending 1+ year in the United States, immediately, I found myself virtually at home, as if the 7+ hour flight has brought me back to Penang from Chicago.

When I was a graduate student in the United States, I was the only Malaysian. There was not even a single Singaporean in the university I was attending. Communicating with fellow Chinese from China posed to be an awkward experience for me. Culturally, they saw me as an overseas Chinese in the tropical country of South East Asia. They were amused at my habit of taking a bath at least twice a day, even during the chilling months of winter. They accepted my unique connoisseur taste buds of favoring Indian curry and Thai tomyam instead of Chinese food. They enjoyed my Mandarin, which is spiced with jargons unknown to them or structured with funny grammars. On the other hand, there was not as much communication hiccups while mingling with the Caucasians. However, with the whites, we don’t share the same taste of jokes, of entertainment and of family values.

I am a Chinese who can read or write Chinese but still, more at ease at reading English materials. The Caucasians see me as a Chinese but the Chinese from China see me as an overseas Chinese, which is not quite a Chinese. I see myself as a Malaysian but the Americans keep asking me where is Malaysia? On one hilarious encounter, a lady at the immigration asked me, “Is it China?” as she couldn’t find the word “Malaysia” on her computer screen. Therefore, I truly admire Mr Lee Kuan Yew for his success in putting Singapore on the avatar of international recognition. When I am too lazy to explain where Malaysia is, I’d just say, “I’m from Singapore”. I’m neither the Jasmine tea nor the Earl Grey, I’m the Boh tea, which is still in obscurity.