Really, if we think carefully, the closer China-Malaysia ties were not all that bad.
The Chinese are really not some kind of monster, okay.
Yes, they are mostly a bit coarse, loud and less refined, but if we get to know them better, we may find that they are not far different from us.
Even more so if we have been to their country.
I have been to China and I found the country and the attitude of its people towards us are not all too bad.
The following is a posting I did more than a year ago about my experience during my most memorable trip to China.
I'm putting it here in full because I know some of you are too lazy to click on the link and I really want you all, especially those who haven't, to read it,
It was early winter and there was a bit of snow falling at some parts of the city every other nights.
I didn't really like the place.
It was cold and I was bored and missing home. It was the last leg of my trip to China at that time.
The only really pleasant memory I have of that hotel was when I was smoking with my Indonesian and Filipino colleagues at a corner near the main entrance of the building.
It was our routine to hang out there several times a day for smoking sessions.
The no smoking regulation was strictly enforced at the hotel.
The corner where we smoked was also a bit sheltered from the strong cold winter wind.
The three of us enjoyed our little chit chats, especially when it involved bad mouthing our communist Chinese hosts.
They were our little bitching sessions.
Sometimes, another colleague from Vietnam who didn't smoke joined us just to express his displeasure.
He claimed that the Vietnamese communists were nicer than the Chinese communists, which for me was a very hilarious thing to say.
The guy was the oldest and funniest in our gang.
Our complaints were nothing really serious though.
Difficult Internet access, overzealous government officials, not very friendly hotel staff etc.
Actually, I didn't mind the whole thing so much.
And our Chinese hosts actually tried their best to make us comfortable.
It's just that our standard of comfort was a little bit higher than theirs, I guess.
And maybe it was partly because things were starting to get a little bit tense at South China Sea at that time where the Chinese navy was flexing its muscle over the disputed territorial claims there.
Then there was this very tall and handsome young Chinese official who tried to be friendly with me.
Whenever he saw me alone at the hotel lobby or restaurant, he would sit with me and asked me questions about Malaysia.
He was particularly interested about the Chinese community in Malaysia.
I told him the truth, of course.
Despite several policies which seemed to favour the Malays and bumiputera ethnic groups, the Chinese community is the most prosperous and advance in almost everything.
And I told him that Malaysia is the only country other than China which have a proper Chinese school system.
In his context, China includes the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
He was impressed.
These are his exact words which I remember very well,
"That's very tolerant of your government. Do the Chinese in your country appreciate it?"
I hesitated for a few seconds before saying "Yes".
I hesitated because it was just several months after the Chinese tsunami of 2013 general election.
Despite my inclination at that moment to say "No", I didn't, because it's not right to give the impression to a foreigner that we, Malaysians were so racially divided.
For better or worse, we are all Malaysians and we need to settle the problems among ourselves without letting outsiders' interference.
We simply have to do it that way or otherwise we would likely perish and Malaysia as we knew it may cease to exist.
This is another post on the same China trip in 2013 which I wrote not long after I return from it that year,
And yes, I'm not kidding you when I wrote that I went on that trip as a guest of the Chinese government.
So, I know they are really trying hard to be friendly.
They are not very good at it, but I think they genuinely tried their best.
So, I don't think we should just dismiss their gestures without consideration.
After all, it's not true that we have nothing to offer in return to the Chinese other than selling our country for all the help that they were offering.
We can actually offer them our friendship in return which I believe is quite valuable.
I'm quite sure the Chinese will appreciate it.
Malaysia is after all known to be a good friend at the international stage.
I know, the Americans are more attractive as friends.
They are more fashionable.
Almost everyone are more fashionable than the Chinese.
In fact, I prefer Japan myself.
Japan is generally more classy and cultured compared to China.
But, I still don't think we should push away an offer of friendship by any country.
We should not be sombong (arrogant) in our selection of friends.
We should take the good and reject the bad in any friendship.
The same applies to Malaysia's relations with China.
At least that's how I see it.
Okay, that's it. I need to go help cook for dinner now.
The news and commentaries about the whole thing are all over the place.
No need for me to put the links here. Well, I'm in the lazy mode these days anyway.
I actually prefer going Japanese, but Chinese is also okay with me.
At least now I'm quite sure Umno will not chase away the Chinese party MCA and Chinese-dominated party Gerakan out of BN.
I'm sure the Chinese who are going to pump in billions of ringgit into Malaysia are not going to be too happy if the ruling coalition kick out its Chinese component parties.
Need to take care of their feelings, okay.
Chinese are now the good guys. Accept it.
All those hate mongers who repeatedly called for Umno to kick out MCA and Gerakan and then combine with Pas to form a hardline Malay Muslim coalition must be quite frustrated by this development.
They need to also now adjust their sales pitch from Umno must throw the Chinese into the sea, to just Umno must throw the DAP evangelical Chinese into the sea.
Otherwise, can miss a meal or two.
Whatever it is, BN will continue to be a multi-racial coalition, which is good.
What I fear all these while is that we have the Malays on one side and a mostly non-Malays gang on the other.
That's what the hate mongers have been trying to promote all these while under the guise of slogans such as perpaduan ummah and the need for Malays to defend themselves from the nefarious Chinese.
Basically, they want the Malays to turn racist by inflaming their sentiments to hate the Chinese.
The effect of such extreme racial polarisation can be quite devastating for the country.
We can end up like Bosnia or Sri Lanka, where they have to go to war with each other to solve their racial polarisation problem.
I think all reasonable people can understand this.
That's why, for me it's not such a bad development that Malaysia is now turning to China. At least the hate mongers could be checked.
Okay, back to the actual topic of Malaysia being pally with China.
Honestly, as I said, I wish it could be the Japanese instead.
I just like Japan.
But the Japanese don't have the money anymore to do what the Chinese will be doing here soon.
They used to help us quite a lot back then when we initiated the Look East policy under the administration of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but ever since their economic bubble burst sometime in the 90s, Japan can't afford to offer much to us anymore.
They got their own problems.
As for the US, they never really care for us until the Obama administration. They prefer Singapore, or the Philippines, or Thailand, or whatever.
Maybe it's because of our anti-Israel policy.
And US will not offer us what China is offering now even if they want to.
Not unlike Japan, the US simply don't have the money for it. In fact, they even owe China quite a lot.
So, it's not really a bad thing for us to be friendly with the Chinese.
We have to be friendly with someone, okay.
The way I see it, Malaysia is like a small kid at the schoolyard.
If a bigger kid offers to protect and even share the food from his lunch box with him, then why not take the offer.
After all, there are many bullies at school.
Okay, the bigger kid may not be so nice to look at, because he is fat, a bit smelly and has an overbearing personality, but being his friend is better than being clobbered by the other bullies.
Of course, the best is if we can stand up on our own like we used to be, but that's not how things are these days.
We have to admit that we are currently not in such a good shape with things such as world oil prices being in the dump now, causing our main bread winner Petronas to suffer.
Yes, I know, China will demand the South China Sea in return for all these help, but I think they will be reasonable about it.
Who knows, maybe they may even consider letting us have our little portion of the sea if we are really their good friend.
It may even be better that way than having to fight China and get really all bruised up for it.
China is known to take care of their good friends.
For instance, they really helped the Sri Lankans with money and weapons to beat the Tamil Tigers within just a year after the country was ravaged by the rebellion for decades.
Then they also help to rebuild the country.
In return, of course they got all the projects and the right to once a while park their warships there to irritate India.
But still, Sri Lanka seems to be getting better now.
I was there on a trip after the war and the country looked reasonably good.
Whatever it is, China really have better record in helping friends than the US.
Just look at the US' friends in South America.
They never really improve their economy all these years. US never really help them.
And when Argentina went to war with Britain over the Falklands, the US despite claiming neutrality, actually sided with their Anglo Saxon brothers from across the Atlantic despite Argentina at that time being its ally too.
Okay, try to look closer.
Look at the Philippines.
The Philippines has been a US' friend for donkey's of decades yet it is still like that.
It's still not doing really well.
US never really help it.
Maybe that's why that a bit crazy Philippines president Rodrigo Durtate is giving big brother Uncle Sam the middle finger and turning to China for help.
I'm quite sure China will go all out if given the chance to help the Philippines.
That would really shut down US in this region.
Well, that's about it.
Let's go Chinese everyone.
I'm okay with it...except the eating pork part.
That one I'm leaving it to those who enjoy eating it....hahaha.
Sigh....it's raining again. No bicycle ride again this morning.
Noticed that my mother sent me a text message at about 2.30am.
It's not such a bad news. Alhamdulillah.
It's still dark outside.
And it's raining.
Can't go on my routine bicycle ride exercise yet.
That's why I'm writing this.
Nothing much to write actually.
The supposedly big political issues these days are mostly made up, I think.
It's getting dry and repeating itself.
I think our politicians lack imagination.
They don't know how to make Malaysian politics raise above the current level.
You whack me, I whack you. That's all.
I think most of you all could agree that the maturity level is rather low.
Honestly, it turned me off these days.
Those who write about it are mostly the same.
They can't even differentiate between showing support and winning support for their cause.
Most of the time they deliberately show their support without caring to win the needed support.
They are too lazy to think and be creative.
Showing support is easy. Just whack the other side and kiss the ass of leaders on your side.
It may win you some applause from like minded crowd from your side....and maybe some nice amount of money too, but it's not really going to help the cause.
In fact, not only those who were supposed to be convinced to join your side found it unappealing, they most likely got disgusted by it too and ended up joining the enemies.
Really, that's not how you win support.
Well, the supposedly brilliant big bosses of the mainstream media can't even figure that out. That's why their newspapers and television channels are suffering.
To be fair, maybe they are not so stupid. They just don't really care. They just want to keep their well paying job and get datukship.
So, can't really blame the smaller players, can't we?
Well, never mind that.
Let those people figure out themselves on how actually they can win the needed support for their bosses.
That's their job, after all.
Me?
I'm waiting for the bloody rain to stop, so that I can ride my bicycle.
Maybe, I should fix myself some breakfast first.
Okay, I better get off my bum now.
This is the song for the day. Just to cheer up things a bit.
Mother and almost everyone in the family are down there in Singapore.
I can't be there yet as I got things to do here.
Mother said it's okay as my grandmother's condition was not serious.
Still I worry.
Feeling so helpless because I can't really do anything about it.
All I can offer now are my prayers for my grandmother to recover.
Hopefully Allah will grant my wish and she will be well again.
I'm sure Allah will consider my prayers even though my grandmother is not a Muslim.
My grandmother is the most kind hearted person.
It has never really matter to me that she is a non-Muslim.
I personally know quite a number of evil, malicious and depraved Muslims.
I'm quite sure Allah loves my grandmother more than them.
Seriously, at a time like this, all the other things such as politics and what ever do not really matter to me.
They seem even silly to me at the moment.
After all, not as if all the aggravations changed anything.
You all may think that I'm the one being silly, but really, as far as all those political nonsense are concerned, it's now better to just pray for the good to win in the end.
I think it's better to pray for Allah to save this country rather than praying for one side or the other to win.
You can't really be 100 per cent sure your side is the good side, aren't you?
That's why we should still pray for the best and accept the outcome later.
I'm not a religious person but I think you all should not underestimate the power of prayers.
After trying your best, prayers are all you have. Really.
One of the most uncomfortable things that I learnt from writing this blog is that most Malaysian readers only want to read what they want to believe.
Basically, most of us want to feel good about what we read, preferring those written which confirm what we believe.
To put it simply, most of us actually read because we want to be entertained. That's all.
Pro-opposition people want to read pro-opposition stories while pro-government ones prefer to read pro-government stories.
They want the writings to comfort them into believing that what they believe is the truth.
Of course the pro-opposition stories are more juicy because they were laced by many elements of alleged scandals and improprieties, thus attracting quite a number of readers from among the pro-establishment too.
We like gossips, after all.
Truth and facts are actually secondary.
Those who really want to be properly informed are in fact the minority.
So, as it is, when I write about something that favour the opposition, those who are pro-establishment would jump at me and vice versa.
At first, it was quite difficult for me, but I got used to it after a while.
Nowadays, I just don't feel anything anymore, being called names ranging from Umno bitch to DAP hired cybertrooper.
Yup, I had been called both, among many others. It all depends on what kind of story I wrote on any particular day.
Well, I guess that's the way things are and I simply have to accept it.
Anyway, these days I can't be bothered too much by all these.
Nothing much to motivate me, anyway.
These days I write whenever I feel like doing so instead of making it a discipline like before.
That's why you would notice that I don't write everyday anymore.
Yup, I'm getting lazy.
This posting, for instance, I just opened up my laptop, went to this blog and just write whatever that crosses my mind.
No research, no nothing
Why should I go through the trouble of doing that. No reason, okay.
You all may not believe it, but I really am writing this blog just out of boredom these days.
As I wrote previously, this blog is just sort of a journal of my thoughts and nothing more.
It's not really to influence you all and it's absolutely not for fame or money.
Who wants to pay me writing about myself riding my mamachari in the morning or missing my beloved in the middle of the night, anyway?
I did quite a lot of those in this blog.
You all can believe or dismiss this blog all you want. It doesn't really matter to me.
Okay, I know I'm rambling again.
Well, at least I don't think my rambling is hurting anyone.
It's not like I'm promoting hate and violence or anything like that, right?
Seriously, aren't you all tired of Malaysian politics?
It's the same shit over and over again.
Mostly, it's really not worth my time to write, okay.
Just wait for election, can or not? Use the time for work instead of quarrelling with each others.
Eh, better listen to a nice song lah.
Sorry that I am wasting your time making you read this stupid rambling of mine today.
