Club Malaysia SA

It is now 12.07am Sunday Morning. A few days back I received a note from Susan in Adelaide telling me that she was asked by someone in Sydney to buy me coffee. Long story short…she told me about Club Malaysia South Australia and we hope to have that coffee soon…and that brings me to this thought: We are Malaysian where ever we are.

But I am also a Malay…a Bugis Malay. A Malay who chooses not to live in Malaysia but a Malay nevertheless. What language I talk, where I live, whom I marry and how I live my life will not change that. I was born Malay and I will die a Malay. And there it ends for I am also someone who considers the world my abode. I have lived in London, Bombay, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Kuala Lumpur, Penang….but for now I call Australia home.

My daughter lives in Canada with her Family. Her husband is a Malay – well half Irish half Melayu – and they choose to live in Toronto. I really do not know why. My daughter had a decent job as a journalist and her husband Emmet was almost there in his studies as an Actuary and he was also with Butterfingers – a decent band in KL. But that was their decision and I know better then to ask why!

My son lives with us in Adelaide. He is still studying. My better half is Greek. And despite or in spite of our entire lineage we are not one mix up bunch of people. Our love for each other keeps us on an even keel. We know where we come from, who our ancestors are and we are comfortable at where we find ourselves at now…and I think we know where we are heading. But then I speak for my family and myself.

For many life is lived in one village, one town, one city, one state and in all probability in one country. There is nothing good or nothing bad about that. That is just how things are. Do I consider myself any different from one who has lived all his or her life in a Kampong? Yes and no. No because we are all human with emotions, thoughts and love for those who mean much to us. Yes because we are all the same because each and every one of us are different from the other. We need to accept this difference and live our life respecting these differences. But that is not always the case in life.

I learned very early in life that what yesterday was and what today will be and what tomorrow will bring depends on how you look at it. That I can actually will myself to make good of a bad day and bad of a good day. It is all in the mind. It is what you want it to be. And that is how I write too.

Sometimes a thought would will trigger me off. This evening it was  that phrase from Hamlet “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark” That thought just crossed my mind and I though of what is happening in Selangor now –all the dramatics and we have the two main guys denying that anything is happening. Do they take us for idiots? And so I reached out for the pen and paper that I always have by my side and begin to write. Finished it in about ten minutes and then comes the difficult part.  Typing in onto my PC and the grammar and spelling checks! I hate doing it but it has to be done. Then the search for appropriate visuals/pictures to embellish the piece – and then publish and be damm!

But I was still not finished for the day…actually night would be more appropriate because it is all dark outside. Dark and cold. I have my sweater, socks and heater on – both the gas and electric heater. Any discomfort will mean my thought process will be interrupted…so at the least I need not to be hungry and warm to write.

As I said I still was not finished. My thoughts turned to those of us Malaysian that now live in places other then Malaysia. There is always that ‘pull’ to be with others who are also from Malaysia however long they have been away. No such ‘pull’ for me. I have no wish to meet other Malaysians. No wish to talk to other Malaysians. And so back to the start of this article. Susan wanting to buy me coffee and talking to me about Club Malaysia in South Australia.

Despite my reservations I thought I would meet other Malaysian this time around. In all the 30 years that I have been In Australia I have never made that effort – but this time I will make an effort. Why I do not know yet. Maybe it is the coffee that Susan is buying me. Maybe it is just me. We will see.