No Wonder The World Think We Live in Trees

10th August 2005, Wednesday -- After a 5 week long summer hols, it's back to school.Not to say that I don't look forward to it, but still I would appreciate it if I had longer hols.Really. 5 weeks is just not enough! 6 more weeks to autumn hols! Turkey, here I come!

Yeah, geography lessons! Finally learning about south east Asia!!! Our teacher distributed travel books on Thailand and Indonesia, but no Malaysia.Haih. Learnt about their culture and stuff. I was so proud when finally the teacher distributed an South-East Asian book with the Petronas Towers as the cover. I felt so proud at that moment coz finally, people will get to know more about Malaysia. My Beloved Country. The Swiss know about Malaysia and Petronas Towers coz Petronas sponsors the Swiss F1 Team - Sauber Petronas. Btw, that's the only thing the Swiss recognize. Not even KL Tower.

Finally, stuff and culture of Malaysia. Unfortunately, my proudness quickly turned to embarrassment and not really anger, but yeah, a bit of anger. Why? Here's the story.

Flipped open the book. The most eye-catching picture of that page was the 'Kleiderordnung', which is the dress code in Malaysia. All dress codes like baju kurung with tudung, or any clothing which covered the whole body except for the face and hands and feet were given a huge TICK, and all the dress codes revealing the hair and arms were given a huge CROSS!!!!!!!! My classmates were astonished by what the Malaysian culture is!!! I mean, according to the pictures, ladies were not allowed to where normal Tshirts with sleeves!!! Mind you, its not sleeve-LESS, it's short sleeve!!! & that was considered WROnG!!!

Next, there was a text regarding the dos and donts in Malaysia. Boy.......I was angered by what it stated. Apparently Barbie dolls or dolls in general are banned in Malaysia, coz it's considered 'mengungkit nafsu'. Yeah Rite. And other stuff too. The next text was an interview with our ex-PM -- Mahathir. According to him, we are a democratic country. As usual, students here express what they think and will say it -loud. When they read all these texts, they laughed and said so-called democratic coz it really doesnt seem democratic --at all.

Obviously they have been mislead by the author, by everything. Being THE patriotic Malaysian, I of course spoke up to say the truth. Yeah, we do have some extremists with the dress code, but that doesnt mean that all Malaysians are. Of course they are some open ones too. I spoke and spoke, what the Malaysian culture is, most importantly that we are NOT that reservetive and KOLOT minded. I too added that it is more of the religion than culture. As Malaysia is an Islamic country, the religion too does play a role in influencing the culture.

However, come to think about it, how did the author get the idea that Malaysia is such a reserved and KOLOT country? Did the Malaysians really display such extremism till the extend that the world actually believe that we are that reserved and so 'undemocratic'? Come to think about it, we may be at fault too, not we, but maybe SOME extremists.

Really, we do claim that we are a democratic country. However, sometimes how democratic are we? Not to mention there was even once a case in Malaysia where a Chinese couple were fined --for just having hold hands in the park!!!! U call this democratic?? I wonder what would happen to them if they had kissed. More fines? Prison?

Anyway, at least I cleared things up--hopefully. Yeah rite, for feeling so proud that the Petronas towers were on the front cover. The inside was just the opposite. No wonder the outside world doesnt know much of Malaysia, or rather thinks that Malaysia is SUCH a country. Given a choice, I would prefer them not knowing Malaysia than thinking negative of Malaysia. After all, Malaysia is my homeland. The place I grew up in. My family and friends. Everyone. This might sound lame and so not me -- I love my country.

No wonder the world think that we live in trees.