Updated:
Original article:
Very patriotic blogger says "Good riddance" to Msians who wannabe Singaporeans. Zakhir Mohamad is a MalaysianMalay and a CEO in a MalaysianChinese-owned public-listed company. It would be unheard of in Singapore, the country a "growing number" of Malaysians are dying to belong to, or so according to Dina Zaman's piece Bidding farewell to Malaysia in the Malaysian Insider.
Read her article in Zakhir's latest posting Good Riddance. [I was told that this is Big Dog's longest posting ever].
I was a PR of Singapore for 18 years who left for Malaysia because my dad felt that this Malaysia would be greener pasture for a Malay. Well, I'm sure I'd do fairly well if I'd stayed back in Singapore but maybe minus the suburb landed properties that I have now and the big cars that I drive around, not to mention the dozens of bikes that I've owned (including the ones I keep overnight for test-rides). My sister is a Singaporean and she's doing fairly well. More importantly, she's happy.
And that's my point, actually. Happiness. If you are so very unhappy, you gotta leave. If you are really not happy in a marriage, and you happen to be in love with someone else, get a divorce. If you are really not happy with your boss, and you think that your friend's boss is kinder and kinda sexy, quit and apply for a job at your friend's. Same thing with citizenship.
But in the case of Daphne Lim and Saranee Joseph, the two women cited by Dina, I don't see them having much of a choice, really. If I read the story correctly, both have been married to Singaporeans. Saranee is still marreid and has given birth to a daughter in Kandang Kerbau (heh, everybody who was born in Singapore during the 60s were born or registered in Kandang Kerbau Hospital) so she's got to do the only right thing by her girl. Daphne, a single mom now, has always wanted a divorce. She said it herself: “It was never an issue for me. I knew that one day, I would no longer be Malaysian.”
The article says some 1 million Malaysians "are said to be residing abroad as expats, PRs and citizens of their chosen countries". I say, that's good. In my travels abroad, I encounter Malaysians or ex Malaysians and we always get on well. Most of them, having left Malaysia for good or for years, usually have only good things to say about their country of birth. Over time, they discover that home is where the heart is. Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri ... baik lagi negeri sendiri.
If your heart says Malaysia won't do it for you, by all means ...
Original article:
Well, however patriotic you think you are, someone is RM1.3 million* more patriotic than all of us. This Malaysian from southern Semenanjung is willing to pay that much money for PATRIOT 1, making it the most expensive vehicle registration number in Malaysia. But you can still outbid him/her; bidding closes on 22 July; for more info go to patriot.org.my
*I can't say if price includes GST or not.
p.s Elsewhere, the price of cigarettes is 30 sen more from July 1. A typical pack of 10 will be RM13.80, plus GST.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fucking idiot.
ReplyDeleteSurely it had to be someone from UMNO.....
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletePatriotic or not ,does not show on your car number plate .
Asked not what the country did for you ,but what did you do for the country.
Well...I bet 90% of the best "patriot" in this country will be non malays.....its so easy to masquerade the blood they shed for this country "independence" with their struggle under PKM!...and the clueless melayu minister just go about budiness as usual...pathetic
ReplyDeleteBig difference between patriotism and not helping others with one's money. Plain stupid, selfish and vain
ReplyDeleteJust amazing how they can make money out from no where using Gov machinery. WHo pocket these money and for patriotism? You mean money can but patriotism?
ReplyDeleteAt least in Singapore there is no attempt to impose dress codes on anyone.
ReplyDeleteAs a frequent visitor to Singapore, I have seen both locals and foreigners of the female gender dressed to the nines in designer clothes, covered up from head to toe, miniskirts, tank tops, tight jeans and spaghetti tops that would arouse the wrath of conservatives back in Malaysia.
And no one in Singapore feels "disrespected" because of someone else's clothes.
Which is why Singaporeans are laughing at the goings on in Malaysia.
Hello my friend.
DeleteIf you are muslim you must eat drink nonhalal stuff in order to get employed.Oops...and also must be able to speak chinese too.Wow! isn't that has been impose here.Here...in the land of the malays.Wow!
Zakhir Mohamad is the "Big Dog" blogger?
ReplyDeleteSeriously?
Looks like he's got a major hang up about Singapore, seeing as how he disses it every chance he gets.
Somebody should quietly take him aside and educate him on the realities of life.
i think the substance of this piece is "siapa nak belah, bole belah". No need to feel sad or happy for people migrating. kalau dina zaman nak belah pun boleh belah. apa nak cerita panjang panjang.
ReplyDeleteSinkapoh.. no dress code? Yes.. but there is Bubble Gum and Keretek code.
ReplyDeleteGo through the archives.. the Sinkaporeahs are leaving Sinkapoh in droves.
P/S... itu Dina Zaman sudah kawin,ka?
Mar Bonk
So rocky is najib doing a good job??
ReplyDeleteEvery commodity is increasing in price. People are struggling and you are still defending kangkung and hippo??
They are living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, except that they didn't earn it thru hardwork.
They are the self-appointed celebrities paid for by the poor Malaysian people.
yg busukhati boleh blah
ReplyDeleteSalam Dato Rocky,
ReplyDeleteTo me, Dina Zaman's original article is just to show that there are people who want to be Singapore citizens. Some of the reasons for doing so are quoted in two examples from about the 30 to 50 applications received each day. Telling sign, she says. If I'm allowed to echo you Dato, I'd say, so what?
I had my primary school education in Singapore before moving on to Malaysia. I have relatives and friends on both sides of the Second Link. I have Malaysian friends who work in Singapore because the opportunity is there. They do not yearn for citizenship. Some of my Singaporean relatives have grouses about the politics over there. At the same time many other relatives are perfectly happy with their lives in the Little Red Dot. Which make me echo you once again, happiness.
People give up one citizenship to obtain another for many reasons. No big deal actually. And no need to exclaim Good Riddance either.
Thank you Oldstock for the double echo.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few of my secondary school mates in Jurong have left for the relatively greener pastures of Australia, United States of America, the UK, Middle East (and not as maids), Brunei and, and, and ... Malaysia.
It'd be nice if Dina Zaman can write a piece on foreigners who have become Malaysians and why. Not the 1.5 million Bangladeshis on the way here who'd love to marry our women and become our fellow Malaysians lah...
Salams
Its happiness that drove this peoples out not some petty issue like dress code or something. Its nothing to be ashamed off for peoples that chose to stay. Its not something that is unique to malaysian, because peoples from other countries also doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteIts just some whom chose to stay are badmounthing the situation, planting the venomous seed of hates, envy and wicked. You could choose to be good and start doing something that will benefits the people or ruining this country with the hate-speech/articles and propagandist ulterior motive. For the latter, its naive to think that someone or somebody will just sit down and do nothing because its defy the law of motion in physics, every action resulting equal reaction with same magnitude but opposite in direction.
I left Malaysia. I have a great life now.I live in a multi-million dollar house. I drive great cars. I got a free post graduate education. I have a great business.I have a great wife and great kids, all of whom are in world class universities.Discrimination is illegal in my country. I also miss being called a 'pendatang' by someone whose grandfather slipped into Malaysia by a small sampan under cover of darkness and now thinks he/she is a son of the soil. But I will live happily with what I got as I do not have share 30% of it with someone in UMNO.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous 1103 am who wrote ...
ReplyDeleteI left Malaysia. I have a great life now.I live in a multi-million dollar house. I drive great cars. I got a free post graduate education. I have a great business.I have a great wife and great kids, all of whom are in world class universities.Discrimination is illegal in my country. I also miss being called a 'pendatang' by someone whose grandfather slipped into Malaysia by a small sampan under cover of darkness and now thinks he/she is a son of the soil. But I will live happily with what I got as I do not have share 30% of it with someone in UMNO.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It must be damn boring wherever you are, to still be reading my blog and leaving comments some more! LOL!
Dear Anon 11.03.Ultra superduper kiasu.Not able to share whatever belong to you and at the same time trying very hard to grasp other people belonging.Like wise we have been sharing almost everything with your kind of people in this country.They might say that it is all because of their sheer hardworking.If all the policy of the so call "pendatang" is oppressing them,I belief everything will turn out to be againts them and thats what had happen to their great grandfather who decide to come over to this archipelago.
ReplyDeletedear anonymous 11:03Am
ReplyDeletewhat a ignorant dumbass you are. just because there the chauvinistic and racist opposition tells you UMNO is bad you believe like a real dumbs. Why don't you look into malaysian history. UMNO sure like any political ruling party not perfect. dumbass, there is no such thing as perfection. but malaysia also not perfect, dumbass but still the best to many Malaysians..
why you think DAP wants to run the country? to make it better? Malaysia is already good for them to run lah.
dumbass, you must be a very unhappy person with a very unhappy childhood.
please stay put wherever you are.