Those bloody unwashed Ayrabs ..

Here's another instance why Malays should not respect the Arabs. The other day I read in the Star of a Malay guy working in Jeddah telling about his experience of humiliation and insults perpetrated by ordinary Arabs. The Malay guy was not your run-of -the-mill immigrant worker seeking a living in Saudi Arabia but an executive working for a big company in Jeddah. He complained of being treated unfairly in a bank in which his company had deposited several million dollars. Further, he was shooed out from a perfumery shop when he went there looking for scents to buy. The Arab salesman told him to get out as the latter thought that he would be driving away customers for just being in the shop. Wherever he entered any shop he sensed that he was invariably given dagger looks by the salesmen.

I just cannot give details such as the man's name or the exact date of the letter to the Star but it was a few days ago.  Further, the man also mentioned about the unpleasant experiences of some other Malaysian visitor to Saudi Arabia.

The Malaysian Malay thinks highly of the Arabs because the Arabs come from a country from which Islam originated. In his misguided outlook, he thinks every Arab is a devout Muslim and every Arab word uttered is holy as though it is straight from the Qur'an. The Malaysian Malay thinks that to die in Arabia especially if during his pilgrimage to Mekkah is the ultimate life achievement as he thinks that's a ticket to heaven. The Malaysian Malay will address another Malaysian Malay of "arabic" descent with the word "syed" or "said" or "sheikh" before his main name as Tuan Syed So and So as tuan means Lord or Sir. And another misguided thinking is that a "syed" family prefer their son or daughter to marry a "sharifah" or a "syed". To them, the others are "commoners. Such are the ways of those Malays with Arab blood, even if the amount is a tinge.

A long time ago I asked my Syed friend what syed meant, and he replied haughtily that people with the names of Syed were the direct  descendants of Prophet Muhammad. For all I know, he's an illegitimate great grandson son of an Ayrab trader in Singapore.

Polling day ...

The polling day for the Malaysian general election is on Saturday the 8th of March 2008. The opinion I got from several people in the last few days was that they were not keen to vote for Barisan Nasional, the incumbent ruling party. They were those who would rather vote for a monkey if the monkey was a candidate for the opposition. Such was the sentiment that seemed to be prevailing among my friends and acquaintances.

Without the opposition really influencing the public, it seems to me, this time around, the Malaysian people have a different view on the coming election from that in the 2004 election. There seems to be a strong undercurrent of adverse sentiments against the ruling party. Why this is so is because the people seem to be fed up with the present leaders who do not fulfil their promises they made in 2004. Instead of getting better, Malaysia, seems to be getting worse with so much crime, inflation, corruption and many others.