Tuesday, September 8, 2009

University Days: The Day I Discovered Malaysia Has No Hope


It was initially just another Wednesday evening in 6th College, University Malaya.

I went for a swim with my friends and came back for another college dinner – fried hypothyroid chicken with sour, half-cooked vegetables.

We had a chat after our meal and made our way back to our rooms.

Along the corridor were anti-semitic posters put up by some Muslim students.

On them were the usual messages of how the Zionists were murdering innocent Palestine children and how the umat could help by boycotting Jewish products ranging from Kit Kat to Coca Cola, if these were even Jewish to begin with.

The posters did not carry any stamp to indicate approval from the university authorities.

A friend of mine wasn’t having his best days of life.

He took one brief look at the poster and tore it off the wall.

It was to be a mistake he would never forget.

Neither would I.

Later that night about 10 pm after the evening prayers, I had a visitation.

There were loud bangs on the door with shouts of 'buka pintu'.

The visitors were not Marfanoid aliens and greenish Martians or horrifying beasts with tentacles but no less terrifying anyhow.

At the doorway were a group of about seven Muslim students clad in long, flowing robes and white skull caps with six-inch beards for completion.

Apparently someone had thought that I was the one behind the removal of the anti-semitic poster.

I was led behind the hostel, where it was dark and secluded.

Thus began an orgy of racial supremacy and religious dominance.

The seven of them surrounded me and started hurling verbal abuses without prior clarification whether I was indeed the culprit.

They said I was ungrateful and unpatriotic and anti-Islam.

I was shoved back and forth and held by my collar.

One of them puffed a mouthful of kretek into my face.

Another challenged me to go back to China and India.

Somewhere between ‘pukimak’ and ‘babi Cina’, the hostel warden intervened and I was finally allowed to talk.

In the presence of the warden, the Islamists were as timid as a mouse and as gentle as a lamb.

I clarified to the warden that I was not the one they were looking for and had nothing to do with the act of removing any anti-Jewish posters.

They then turned their efforts into hunting for my friend and repeated the whole cycle of verbal harassment and threats of violence.

My friend and I were allowed to retreat to our rooms only at about 3 am.

That was the day I knew Malaysia had no hope.

21 comments:

Patrick said...

I am...speechless to say the least.

I've never experienced this sort incident personally during my university days, but I did heard once of a group of Malay Muslims barging into a Christian Fellowship meeting to "discuss" an issue regarding a Catholic Church being built nearby.

The thing is my uni's CF has totally nothing to do with the placement or construction of the church other than donating a small sum. So to cut a long story short, the meeting concluded that CF has nothing to do with it, and somehow a few weeks later, the church was SOMEHOW moved to a far away and obscure place.

Yup, I agree with ya' POTS. Aint no hope for Malaysia no more...

Anonymous said...

Their idea of a fair fight. Blame everything on the Jews. You should apologise like the great Barack Hussein Obama. Its all your fault for not understanding their feelings.

Anonymous said...

If Malaysia is so hopeless for you... then why are u still around? Why are u still loyally serving in the govt hospital? U might as well move to Singapore or Australia where there are more hopes!

Sometimes I just don't understand, if you really hated Msia that much. U should have gone under ASEAN scholarship to Singapore, and secure a medical degree from them (just like many of my frens did).

No point just grumbling here in the blog. U r not gonna change anything!!

We all know that this is already a fact (surpressing us Chinese and Indians) here in BolehLand... so why not just shut up and move on to Singapore?!

antiPAS/antiUMNO said...

they are just extremist..most of them were PAS supporter...
during my uni days my father had reminded me again and again not to join them...
just wonder if PAS manage to rule the country.

Edwyn said...

May God bless your life there...

psychohuman said...

gosh i'm surprised u mentioned bout 6th college, dunno u're here!!! wat year r these students?

Product of the System said...

Anti-PAS/anti-UMNO,

I totally disagree with you.

The students who harrassed my friend and I were not PAS supporters.

They were strong UMNO apologists.

My then fellow students who were PAS members were the really reasonable ones.

Believe me in that.

I have good friends in PAS.

May PAS rule Malaysia at least for a term.

SN said...

Do not be so quick to judge PAS. Sure, they may be extremely islamic as is the policy of their party. At least they stay true to their intents. They do what they say, and they say what they do, unlike UMNO. Everybody always try to use Kelantan as an example of an extremist state. But recall to yourself, in which state was the couple fined for holding hands in the park? Where do you always hear news of raids by the holier-than-thou JAKIM people? If I have to vote PAS to rule the country in order to see the ruin of UMNOPutras, so be it.

## If Malaysia is so hopeless for you... then why are u still around? Why are u still loyally serving in the govt hospital?

Not everyone can have their way all the time. Indeed, Malaysia is hopeless. But not everyone is so lucky to find better life overseas. Like it or not, we were born here. Many of us have families and commitments here. We need people like POTS, who dare voice out his opinions, cynical and sarcastic though they may be, but refreshing and very logical.

(To POTS: Sorry if I sent this comment twice. Something happened to my browser while the site was loading, so I wasn't sure if the first comment went through successfully)

pilocarpine said...

some people just want to paint PAS the wrong way...

Product of the System said...

SN and Pilocarpine,

I fully agree with you both.

PAS may appear extreme but this is mostly because the mainstream media deliberately paints PAS in a bad picture.

Even as a Christian, I fully support PAS in many aspects, on alcohol for example.

Kong said...

What is happening in Palestine should rightly be condemned and so should the atrocities committed by the Arabs in Sudan. May be you should have put up the Sudanese poster as well that day.

Anonymous said...

In Pakatan, PAS & PKR & DAP are on more equal footing so none could impose their will over the others. So the end result is compromise to ensure none really lose out.

But in BN, the will of one party carries the day so where got compromise?

politic is dirty said...

i don't agree..
most of them were PAS members ....
when i was in UPM, they were PAS members/supporters in the campus spreading their ideology.
one of it is to raise issue about israel/palestin and they asked us to join them to do the demonstration.
they are really extremist..
if u join PAS...you are not allowed to celebrate xmas, chinese new year, deepavali with your frens..
even wishing to them is a sin..
God knows if PAS able to run the country..

Kong said...

May be we should go ask the non-Malay living in Kelantan to give us the true picture of PAS running the show. Are they really as bad as the newspaper said or are those news merely hogwash.

Patrick said...

I studied in USM Kubang Kerian in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

U'd be surpised to know that those so-called extremist make up just a small percentage of PAS. Sure, they're religious, pious, but most arent extremist.

U'd be even more suprised to know that Kelantan's actualy a nice place with nice people, although certain area's are best avoided by non-malays, or those not of the faith.

Even more surpising, the friendly-neighbourhood extremist always seem to come from other states like KL, Johor, Perak, but not Kelantan.

Some of my good buddies there are Malay Kelantanese.

Product of the System said...

Agree with you, Patrick.

Though i was not in USM, i had many coursemates who were from kelantan.

They speak highly of the PAS government and are proud to be from Kelantan.

They were also the Malays most willing to mix around with the other races.

Unknown said...

The hypocrites are always the ones who try to cover up their hypocrisies by exhibiting their holier-than-thou attitude, as if covering their "aurat" is not enough. If they had balls, they wouldn't have come in a herd to corner you. It clearly manifests their "Jahiliyah" mentality in control of them. I'm surprised that idiots like these are even granted permission to set foot in the so-called most prestigious university in Malaysia. What a shame!

There was a similar incident which is still vivid in my memory. It was a couple of days before Valentine's Day, that these religious bigots went around UPM campus ground putting up notices asking the students to boycott celebrating V-Day. Reason was that V-Day was established by St Valentine, who apparently was a Catholic priest, thus making V-Day a Christian celebration. Of course, no sane person would heed such a stupid advice made by stupid people.

Honestly, who cares what these bigots say or think? They've got nothing better in life to do other than having sex and going around imposing their views on others. Thanks to the government for feeding these idiots. So what if one is anti-Islam? These bigots are anti-Semitic/anti-Hinduism/anti-non-Islam!!!

Even if people are coerced to say that they are not anti-Islam, when in actuality they are, would these idiots even know what is running through the minds of the people? They just want to hear things pleasing to their ears. So, let them hear what they want to hear, but we who are wiser know that it will ultimately lead to their destruction.

"Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall" - 1 Cor. 10:12

Anonymous said...

If you have no hope POTS, I assume you are non-native in Malaysia, then seek hope from somewhere else. Just like how your great great grandparents came and try to find hope in a land called Malaya. Since you have now discovered that malaysia has no hope, find somewhere else, like the origin of your great great grandparents country. Maybe hope is bigger over there than in Malaysia. Seriously. Probably, if your great great grandparents haven't travelled through the high tides, YOU'd probably have an easier life there than what you have here. Their offsprings and generations would definitely have a better life right.

What I see here is, it was not the day that you discovered Malaysia Has No Hope. It was the day that you discovered that you were ungrateful.

Anonymous said...

Oh please.. back then during school days, i live where.. when the umno organizes something, the non-bumis are always involve. When PAS organizes something, they'll stick to their clique doing their thing. Even the malays that does not fit to their requirements will be isolated. I think the only think that PAS has in common with the rest of the opposition is the hatred towards umno. How mature.

drrita sandakan said...

ohh it's really a flashback..
gosh...it happened in UM too
i thought its only occured in UPM..
ya ..it agree.. PAS is and forever an extremist.
they create hate..
when i was in UPM the religious riots were created by those MPP (student body) PAS supporter.

Anonymous said...

From one anonymous person to another:

"What I see here is, it was not the day that you discovered Malaysia Has No Hope. It was the day that you discovered that you were ungrateful."

At least we have people who make their voices known about the inequality and injustice of the nation. Awareness is key to change. The thing is tonnes of people know about this but they don't do anything about it, typical 'Malaysian attitude'. How can a person be ungrateful for wanting a better nation.