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  • Melayu Suka Pesta dan Karaoke di Kolong Blok

    Melayu Suka Pesta dan Karaoke di Kolong Blok

    amy cheong_50dollar wedding

    Amy cheong

    Semalam di kampung aku, ada keluarga Melayu buat satu pesta (nak kata majlis walimah bukan).

    Mungkin pesta berkhatan atau hari lahir. Siap dengan belon. Majlis dibuka dengan Marhaban.  Bagus, Alhamdulillah.

    Tapi selepas itu, dia orang melalak berkaraoke sepanjang hari sehingga sampai waktu isyak.

    Oh Melayu ku, bila kamu semua mahu sedar. Pergilah berkaraoke di kelab karaoke. Nanti orang bangsa lain “complain”, kamu semua naik darah.

    Bangsa lain buat “bising” disebabkan kepercayaan agama mereka.

    Begitu juga majlis walimah kita dengan hadrah dan kompangnya kerana adat resam Melayu.

    Tapi kalau majlis berkaraoke – tidak payah lah. Menunjukkan orang kita suka sangat berhibur.

    Tidak ada faedahnya melainkan mengganggu ketenteraman orang lain di hujung minggu.

    Cukup lah dengan Majlis Persandingan – bagus sekali tidak perlu berkaraoke.

    Fikir-fikirkan lah.

    Kiriman pembaca Syahrul

  • Primary 5 Student Harbour Racist Sentiments Towards Minorities

    Primary 5 Student Harbour Racist Sentiments Towards Minorities

    How do you react to racism from a P5 child?

    this is a convo that occurred at the very beginning of class. I teach creative writing to three classes of P5 students on Mondays. This was during my first class today, in fact, just an hour ago. I have been teaching these kids for half a year now.

    girl: teacher are you singaporean? as in are you from India or are you from Singapore?
    me: what do you think?
    girl: I don’t know but I think you are from India
    me: why?
    girl: but if I say why then I can be sued
    me: it’s okay, you can just say it
    girl: cos your skin very dark so you must be from India
    me: no such thing, there is a huge spectrum of skin colours. and do I ask you if you are born in China or singapore? 
    girl: but I’m not so fair like ppl in China
    me: what? have you been to China?
    girl: no.
    me: I lived in China for a month, I can tell you for certain not all Chinese there are very fair.
    girl: teacher you know just now when I was walking to class I was walking behind you
    me: yes I realised, why you never say hi?
    girl: I didn’t know it was you, you usually wear dress and then today you got braid. teacher you like braid ah?
    me: I just felt like it today, why?
    girl: just now got so many Indians at the busstop, so smelly you know, and then their hair already curly they go tie braid then so ugly, I hate it when my mother ties braid for me, after she tie I quickly take out and comb it straight again

    You see this is a class of 9 kids. by this point of the convo we are 10 min into class time. I need time to cover the syllabus plus they need time to complete their essays in class. also, I refuse to combat racism with any equivalent racist stereotypes. I also have a very silent 8 other kids listening to this convo. what to I do? I don’t utter another word and begin the lesson.

    I’ve run through the worksheet and they are now writing their essays. and I’m sitting here feeling annoyed, angry, sad, and incapable (of nipping racism in the bud).

    And the one rare day I decide to dress down, I get closeted by racial stereotypes. and what are this girl’s parents teaching her? or not teaching her? I feel like I’m in primary school all over again dealing with and experiencing racism.

    Teachers out there, parents also, how would you deal with this?

    ‪#‎feelinglikeatotalnoob‬
    ‪#‎ughhh‬

    If you read the comment thread of this post, you would come across a particularly brilliant suggestion (among many good ones) by Hemma Balakrishnan. and I took her advice. let me update you on how this story ends.

    After collecting their essays, I had 5 min left before I had to dismiss them. I drew a table on the board with 4 columns – Chinese, Malays, Indians, Others.

    me: so this is a pretty fun activity, tell me what you think all Indians or Malays or Chinese are like
    student: ang moh where?
    student: others la
    student: teacher I know why you doing this, cos of what she say just now right so the columns were filled up. We completed Indians first – black, braids, smelly. then Malays – men wear skirts, lazy. then Chinese.

    student: white!

    student: no la where got white.

    After this there were no responses. They just looked at me blankly with nothing to fill in for the Chinese column

    student: Chinese are nice!

    me: (chuckling) wah for everyone else you said bad stuff and when it’s about you, you are nice?

    me: okay since there are no non-Chinese here maybe you guys have never heard of these things but lemme tell you a few things ppl say about all Chinese. greedy. don’t shower in the mornings.

    student: but teacher I shower in the mornings!

    So here, I go on to explain how if what is in the Chinese column is not true, why would any other stereotype in the other columns be true. We went through each stereotype listed, debunking them. Specifically for the stereotype about Indians being black, I did not say something along the lines of “not all Indians are black”, rather I went on to say that there is nothing wrong with being black. students were mostly nodding their heads in agreement with me as we moved along each stereotype. For the Indians are smelly stereotype, apart from the fact that it isn’t true, I also spoke about how construction workers might be smelly but that’s only because they work so hard to build our houses and they are paid so little so they cannot afford to buy deodorant or perfume. also, everyone naturally has body odour after you hit puberty, it’s about how well you manage it by wearing deodorant etc.

    It was such a ‘ting!’ moment for all the kids and the particular girl who had passed the remarks looked rather defiant but didn’t really say anything because all her classmates agreed with me. It was an amazing teachable moment.

    Thank you so much Hemma and everyone else on this comment thread!

    I will continue to monitor this particular girl and if I realise that she still harbors racist sentiments, i’ll speak to her parents. but things should be all good again a huge huge thank you! so glad I posted this on Facebook. you all played a part in turning my day around and enabling me to nip racism in the bud 

    Authored by: Jayasutha Samuthiran

     

  • BEWARE: Malaysian Officers Scam Using Touch ‘n Go Card

    BEWARE: Malaysian Officers Scam Using Touch ‘n Go Card

    touch and go scam

    All Touch ‘n Go card users, beware!

    To all Touch ‘n Go card users, please beware when you top up your Touch ‘n Go cards at exit counters at highway tolls.

    Yesterday (10 July 2014) at 6:27 pm, I was travelling from Gelang Patah towards Taman Perling/Tampoi area using the Secondlink Highway. As I wasn’t sure how much balance there was in my Touch ‘n Go card, I decided to exit the highway via the ‘Tambah Nilai’ toll counter at Taman Perling toll station.

    Obviously I was in the car at that time, I requested the counter staff to check my card balance before deciding how much to top up. The staff told me that there was RM19.70. So I handed RM50 to him and asked him to top up RM30. When he was almost done, I requested for a receipt. When the receipt was being printer, he suddenly uttered the word ‘Isshh’ which seemed like something had gone wrong. I asked him what had happened but he didn’t say anything. Once receipt was ready, he handed my Touch ‘n Go card and receipt to me. When I reached out my hand to take it, he suddenly pulled his hand back and hesitated for a second. Then, he took out RM20 (2 RM10 notes) from the cashier machine and handed it together with my card and receipt. I didn’t suspect anything as I thought his behavious was due to his being forgetting to give me the RM20 change.

    touch-n-go-logo

    Once I drove off, I looked at the receipt and realised something was amiss and in fact, confusing. The receipt shows balance before top up as RM29.70 (instead of RM19.70 as what I was told). The refill amount is RM20 and not RM30 as I have requested. Immediately, I pulled over and called my husband to ask how much was the balance in the card as he was the one using the card most of the time. He said more than RM20. I asked if he was sure and he was pretty sure. Note that I didn’t tell him what had happened at the toll counter being asking him.

    Clearly, the counter staff had the intention to cheat me and apparently had successfully cheated me of RM10. He told me the balance was RM19.70 and he only topped up RM20 to my card. Telling me RM10 less than the actual amount in the card is to cover up his wrong doing. After topping up of RM20, my actual card balance is RM49.70 (19.70 + 30 = 29.70 + 20) and I naturally I would not have discovered that if I hadn’t asked for a receipt. He is able to do that as people usually just drive off and won’t be able to go back immediately to have things clear up. I wanted to go back but I could only drive off as I had two young kids in the car then.

    I recall my mother told me that she was almost cheated of RM50 at a toll counter too. She handed RM100 for topup but only RM50 was filled into the card. Fortunately, my mother did look at the receipt before driving off. When she told the counter staff, her (the staff) behaviour was as though she had already known it!

    I feel that I should warn others of this incidence so that others will not get cheated like I was. My mother and I were lucky because the amount I was cheated is small. I am sure many people are not as lucky. So, do request for receipt and verify it before driving off!

    Source: Cassia Chuah

  • To ITE students: It Is Not The End

    To ITE students: It Is Not The End

    Fadli Sidek

    An ITE student called me up and was in tears sharing with me how he is anxious for his results and afraid he couldnt go to Poly because of his GPA to further his education. He mentioned that he is worried that his parents will shun him if he doesn’t go to Poly and afraid that he will suffer intense pressure by being compared to his sister that is studying in NTU. He also is afraid being labelled by his peers as a loser hence why he thinks that going to Poly is his only absolute step to further his education and to be accepted by his environment.

    It seems to me that the Singapore education system is systemized in a way that the only step forward from ITE is Poly and if not, ‘Its The End’ for an ITE student who didn’t do well yet has the intention and determination to further their education. I suffered from this situation before. When i got my ITE results, it was not a good GPA to further myself in Poly yet i still hope to join them because of the same reason as this student:

    1) Because getting into Poly means you are one level ahead and higher than ITE.

    2) Because my parents and members of my family sees Poly as a step to a bright future.

    3) I was brainwashed that Poly graduates will earn MORE than private Degree/Diploma education.

    4) I will be compared with my cousins and family members that “he/she makes his/her family proud by going to a local ‘G’ endorsed education institution but You dont!”

    5) Because joining a private education institution cost a lot of money.

    I went to Poly to apply/appeal for the course i wanted to pursue but the administration quickly rejected my interest saying my GPA is low and if i want i can only appeal for the course ‘IBT’ – Intelligent Building Technology. What i wanted was ICT – Infocomm Technology but couldnt. So based on the reasons above, i appealed for IBT although thats not the course i wanted or will enjoy (despite seeing the wonderful and colorful orientation). My thinking was only – to make my family proud to be a Polytechnic student and my interest second. So i appealed……

    But believe it or not, NS (although i did not enjoy it) saved my life. When the letter of acceptance to Polytechnic was received, i was happy BUT i had to serve the country first, so i made arrangements with the Poly to ‘reserve’ my seat in the course. For two years, i was doing my education soul searching and 3 months before ORD, i told myself “NO! This is not what i want. The future is my future not the ones im trying to impress!” So i decided to cancel the Polytechnic reserve seat and decide to think what i want to do with my life…and during that time, i found a passion in Computers and Hacking! (thanks to the classic movie Wargames and Operation Takedown) and although im interested in hacking, i couldnt tell the difference between a motherboard and a hard disk! lol!! seriously! I dont! So i went to part time courses learning the fundamentals of computers, taking Hardware, Network and Security (and its not easy for me to pay earning less than 350 a month during my NS and being a child born not with a silver spoon, stayed in a Children’s Home and also a breadwinner for my family after i ‘discharged’ from the Children’s home, I never once asked a single cent from my mom- life is tough but that’s another story)

    So its time to find a Diploma course, and its not cheap. Its a private instituition majoring mainly in the IT Security Faculty and its $10 000!!!  Believe it or not!! I had to borrow from a Bank and my ex boss when i used to work Part time as a salesman. (plus, i got so many rejection from both banks and some so called organizations to help the needy) But i have no choice. In order for me to study i had to have money and at that time, i was working (after NS) in HP as a Media ‘specialists’ operator earning $1200 at 12 hour shift work. Its tough, sometimes i had to go to class exactly after work and continue to work exactly after class. It was a torment for me but my spirits were high and determined too.

    Once i finished my Diploma after 1 and a half year i was so happy BUT life was not easy. During that time i was working for NCS and for 3 years i couldnt land an IT Security position. It was a dilemma for me, a pressure to do something i want so much but faced many discriminations. Once a Job agent called me up and shared with me how ‘a ‘G’ agency was looking for ONLY Chinese personnel for the IT Team’. It didnt end there, i sent out resumes to more than 50 ‘job vacancies’ and only one or two will call asking for more details and then silent. It wasn’t fair. I was upset, disappointed and seeing how my classmate got great position after graduating doing IT Security and im stuck for 3 years doing first level computer support.

    So i thought to myself and positively told myself that maybe i need to have a Degree since most of the IT Security requirements need a Degree. So once again i had to find another iinstitutionto further pursue my education just to get the career that i want which is IT Security. When i saw that there were two advertisements on The New Paper that two local Polytechnics Nanyang and Temasek poly carried IT Security specialist courses, i was determined to join, and looking at the course modules, i am very confident that i will do well especially with my undying determination. BUT i was solely and sorely disappointed that BOTH Poly REJECTED my application for 4 times in a row stating that one of the requirements is to have a local Diploma or Degree! I was furious! Sad! Disappointed! Upset! Singapore Education System reject Singaporean students who want nothing more than to study! 4 times in 2 years!! I tried appealing but was rejected, i tried to go to the MP and my MP simply said ‘this is not something i can help you with because its up to the school’. Can you imagine how painful i was being rejected countless times just to study??? Being discriminated against?? And the saddest part was when i was informed by someone who managed to take the specialist course that there were foreigners in the class and do not look like local students! I know by then that the system failed me and from there i wonder whether Singapore really care about their citizens ESPECIALLY poor and average citizens like me.

    To cut my life story short, i managed to get a Private Degree institution called SMA Institute of Higher Learning and still studying in it, taking my time to focus on both work and getting good grades (hoping to finish by this year). Not to mention the loan amount i am still paying it…but thats life..nothing is free unless you are a Minister’s son. 😛  And thank God, (although losing my determination in landing an IT Security job position) a friend of mine from my current company recommended me to join. I was delighted and after the first interview, i received a call saying that i got the job in the company as an Associate Security Engineer/Consultant…i was overjoyed, words couldnt express how i felt that after searching for 4 years, i managed to do what i wanted most! And so far, almost two years in this great company, everyone is viewed the same. Unlike the ‘G’ Ministry office structure where even where you seat depends on your education level. In this company, from an Associate to the Director. We all seat at the same type of chairs, desks and in an open office where every heads can be seen when you stick your head up. (well, this is diverting the main topic but i just want to say Kudos to the company)

    (Ok back to the main topic)

    So despite me being rejected by local institutions, getting bad grades during my studies in Secondary and ITE, i was called by my class mates and lecturers a Distinction student in my current Uni and was recommended by my lecturer to have me to promote the school… Everyone has dreams but not everyone want to wake up and work on it…

    hang lima jebat fadli sidek

    My advice to the students who think its the end of the world for not going to Poly….here i am to prove you that its NOT! Dont expect help from our ‘G’, because our ‘G’ helps the rich and God help those who help themselves… Remember that the future is not just a single path…its many and you have to choose and survive by your own in the path you chose because eventually the future is yours and so are your choices….. Be a fighter..Be strong!

    Source: Hang Lima Jebat who received accolades for his work as listed below:

    1) Won Symantec Hacking Competition in 2013

    2) Wrote and Published security articles in International security magazines

    3) Spoken in hackers conferences in India, US and Europe.

    4) First ever Singaporean to speak at a Hackers conference in Vegas, USA.

    letters R1C

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  • Melayu Harus Yakin Berjaya

    Melayu Harus Yakin Berjaya

    Lama saya berfikir apabila ingin menulis tajuk ini. Pelbagai pertimbangan bermain di fikiran. Pertama, khuatir tulisan ini akan disalahtafsir dan kedua, saya sendiri berkali-kali bertanya pada diri sendiri sama ada tulisan ini akan berlawanan dengan apa yang saya percaya iaitu perpaduan kaum dan pembangunan kepada semua tanpa mengira bangsa adalah asas kepada kestabilan negara.

    Walau bagaimanapun, jikalau kita bercakap tentang pembinaan negara, mahu tidak mahu keadaan pembangunan mengikut kaum Melayu, Cina, India dan lain-lain harus diteliti dengan baik. Sama ada semakin selesa hidupnya atau semakin pintar pemikirannya adalah turut menjadi penentu kepada pembangunan dan kemajuan negara.

    Oleh yang demikian, saya berasa terpanggil untuk berkongsi sedikit pengalaman saya sepanjang saya mengadakan latihan industri atau internship yang berbaki hanya 3 minggu lagi di Brisbane, Australia. Saya berpeluang bertemu dengan rakan-rakan profesional Melayu yang bekerja di syarikat-syarikat gergasi multinasional antarabangsa dan berpeluang mengelilingi dunia atas urusan kerja dan berurusan dengan pelbagai warganegara. Dalam erti kata lain, ini contoh anak Melayu yang bergaji besar dan berjaya dalam pekerjaan masing-masing.

    Saya cuba untuk letakkan dalam perspektif tajuk penulisan saya dengan pengalaman saya di Brisbane kerana setakat pemerhatian saya, wujudnya keadaan di mana anak-anak Melayu tidak diberikan dorongan yang cukup dan gambaran sebenar mengenai kelebihan yang ada pada diri masing-masing.

    Contohnya, saya perhatikan di universiti-universiti ada rakan-rakan Melayu saya yang pintar pada pemikirannya tetapi tidak mahu berhujah dan berbincang kerana penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris yang lemah dan dikatakan mungkin kaum Cina dan India lebih mahir dalam bahasa itu. Saya berpendapat kerangka pemikiran ini harus diubah dan anak Melayu perlu senantiasa diingatkan bahawa kelebihan yang ada pada diri mereka perlu dimanfaatkan dan harus sentiasa rajin dan bekerja keras.

    Segala kelebihan dan hak-hak keistimewaan orang Melayu seperti yang terkandung dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan perlu dipertahankan kerana itu adalah asas kepada pembinaan negara ini. Namun begitu, usaha tidak boleh terhenti setakat itu sahaja.

    Kita harus sentiasa yakinkan anak-anak Melayu yang ada di bandar dan di desa bahawa peluang itu sentiasa ada dan anak Melayu boleh mengelilingi dunia dan berjaya kerana sudah ada yang melakukannya.

    Akhir sekali, apa yang saya cuba sampaikan dalam penulisan ini mudah iaitu untuk pastikan perpaduan kaum terus diperkukuh, kita perlu terlebih dahulu membuang segala ketakutan dan perasaan tidak yakin kerana jurang antara kaum dalam pelbagai sudut boleh menjadi penghalang kepada perpaduan kebangsaan. Hanya dengan keyakinan dalam diri untuk berjaya akan menjadikan kita tidak lagi hidup dalam perasaan ketakutan dan syak wasangka antara satu sama lain.

    Ditulis oleh: Affendy Hasni

    Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/affendy-hasni/article/melayu-yang-yakin-dan-bejaya#sthash.ZC806A3n.dpuf

    letters R1C

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