Language Chauvinism

Getting “tradies” to attend to small faults or repairs is expensive in both Melbourne and Shah Alam. I am my own handyman at home. Bunnings Warehouses in Australia are very well-stocked; you can get virtually everything on building and garden needs under the sun. In Malaysia, traditional hardware shops are everywhere, but they are usually messy in terms of product display. The nearest equivalents to the Bunnings are Ace Hardware and Mr DIY. However, in terms of comprehensiveness, they are a far cry from the Bunnings.

This lack of comprehensiveness is not a big issue to me, since my things I usually look for are not uncommon most of the time. It is the lack of product knowledge and language skills that the workers in places like Ace Hardware and Mr DIY have that annoy me each time I visit them. A couple of days ago, I was looking to buy a file at Citta Mall’s Ace Hardware. None could understand me! When I found the stock, the woman shop assistant sheepishly said she thought I was looking for files in the stationery sense! She could not understand English, and I could not say “file” in Malay! I proceeded to Mr DIY in the same complex to procure the cheaper stuff. I asked for grout. It was Greek to the shop assistant. I had to point to the joints between the tiles on the floor to show him what grout was. 

English proficiency among the workers in Malaysia is now close to zero. And this trend is also true in many countries. If you do not venture out, I suppose there is nothing wrong with it. However, if you must go to another country to earn a living, then you will find yourself totally handicapped. The security guards from Nepal and the domestic helps from Indonesia are obvious examples in Malaysia. We also have compatriots commuting to Singapore everyday to earn a living. Many have to settle for very low-end jobs across the causeway, and lack of English proficiency is usually a cause.

All this is basically a result of misplaced language chauvinism in most countries.

Our schools used to produce students who could at least master two languages – English and Malay – and the student’s mother tongue of either Mandarin or Tamil. In an overzealous effort to make the National Language, namely, Malay, pre-eminent in the country, the country makes them totally inadequate in English and many opportunities are hence shut to them. The general lack of English proficiency makes the country uncompetitive in the fast-changing world. At best it could only benefit from the demand, rather than the supply, side of the economic equation.

Most foreign workers in Malaysia from countries like Myanmar, Nepal and Indonesia can also hardly speak English. Some leaders of these countries are aware of this handicap and I sense some efforts are already underway to make their students learn English in a more serious manner.

Malaysia is uniquely advantaged to promote wider use of English. Maybe as much as half the population has good command of the language. But if the decline is not addressed with a sense of purpose and urgency, we will see English speaking becomes the preserve of the elite class in the country.

I am not a defender of the English language. Whether we like it or not, English is the default international language today. We cannot change history; we all know why this has happened. No country today can hope to replace English with its own language as the lingua franca of the world. More and more people may learn Chinese, but I dare say it cannot replace English internationally. Chinese in China are also aware of this reality; many are learning to speak and write English well.

What more for a country like Malaysia or Indonesia or Thailand or Myanmar or Nepal or for that matter any country that talks up language chauvinism? It will simply not be able to keep up with what is happening in the STEM front, which is the basic building block for progress.

In short, every country should equip its people with at least two languages – its national language and English, supplement by whatever mother tongues or dialects in its regions to maintain cultural heritages. Not all cultural practices are good. Bad ones will ultimately fade as a matter of course in this every well connected world, but these are also useful lessons in improving a race’s competitiveness or survival chances.

Blind language chauvinism is a sure way to strangle your own race.

Proud of Our Heritage, but Concerned over Kinsmen’s Safety

Donald Trump had unleased a China/Chinese-hating trend in many parts of the world, particularly in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and India. His most vicious attack dogs, everybody knows, were Mike Pompeo and Peter Navarro. There were many lesser ones, but no less vicious. Many thought Joe Biden would have the wisdom to unwind what Trump and his attack dogs had inflicted on China/Chinese, unfortunately, he has turned out to be a big disappointment.

As a matter of fact, Biden has proven to be more dangerous. His Cabinet and key officials are even more overzealous in going about trying to contain China.

The so-called threat from China is all hypocrisy – concerns about genocide in Xinjiang and democracy in Hong Kong, etc. They choose not to look at themselves in the mirror! The containment is only about one thing: To stop China’s progress at all costs!

Canada, the UK, Australia, some countries in Europe, Japan, and India are all too happy to join in the crusade. The mainstream political leaders there know all the human rights narratives about Xinjiang and Hong Kong are not largely untrue, but they will beep crying wolves for a simple reason: they know 70% of their constituencies and support bases are a very naïve lot. They are largely incapable of distilling facts from falsehoods. Throw enough mud and it will stick in no time.

I am proud of my Chinese heritage, even though I continue to be critical of some of the behaviours shown by kinsmen from Mainland China. I would not hesitate to write to correct their exultations, if I see that they are based on misplaced beliefs. But I notice that they are changing fast – great improvements are very evident in personal hygiene, in social etiquette and in tastes.

It is a fact that many Japanese and Indians do not like Chinese, but few have openly abuse Chinse in public places. Ditto Canadians and Europeans, who are usually more “cultured” as to resort to violence to express their dislike.

But not this 1% or so in the US and Australia. They are most dangerous. They will attack anyone who looks like Chinese in grocery markets, on sidewalks and in public transports. Many of the victims are helpless old people. And some are pretty fatal. Many of these attackers in the US category are Blacks. The irony is this: they get abused themselves, yet they will throw their anger at Asians. Some of the video clips on these attacks really make my blood boil!

Americans and the British are rearing their ugly heads. Instead of resorting to this under-the-belt measures, they should pull themselves together and compete with China without excuses and pretensions!

Spare a thought when you share things on Social Media

Many of us are hooked on social media. Life is miserable if you do not have your smart phone with you. Ex-President Trump was on Twitter 24/7 until he was blocked. I opened a Twitter account when it was first introduced but did not quite bother to even look at it until someone told me my account had been hacked to promote something. Friends advised WeChat is more useful that WhatsApp, but I found it a little mickey-mousy and would only use it if reached by friends who do not seem to have WhatsApp, like those in China. When WhatsApp revised its privacy policy, there was a flurry of attempts to switch to Signal and Telegram. But the enthusiasm appears to have quickly die down. I see that many hitherto strong advocates for a switch have remained stuck to using WhatsApp. I personally found Signal not that user-friendly; it performs like Messenger in Facebook. I have not opened an account with Telegram and am therefore not in a position to comment.

Neither do I know what Instagram is for, since I have not come across any necessity to try it, I am happy to leave my ignorance of this app alone.

I did find some TikTok clips amusing. However, since I am neither good in producing or acting, I am happy to leave it alone and watch or delete as I see fit when one is streamed in.

I dislike Facebook, especially after learning a little more about Mark Zuckerberg. I particularly dislike the advertisements that are being streamed in. (I had the misfortune of being swindled by a non-delivery of a backpack that was being advertised.) But in the absence of quality news from mainstream media, I am happy to tune in to its Watch feature from time to time. It offers a mixed bag of stuff – history, geography, statistics, general knowledge, health advisories, fake news from anti-China Taiwanese, insightful clarifications and angry rebuttals from Mainland Chinese, animal behaviours, and what-have-you. You can easily tell the which are the fake ones. And I am happy to share those I find to be educational or informative with friends on WhatsApp.

Being by nature skeptical about many claims, I would also not hesitate to alert if I found any posting from my WhatsApp chat groups to be fake, or an item is already too dated. However, I am still holding myself back in one area, i.e., telling friends to be more conscious when they post things.

We use WhatsApp to wish friends and relatives on festive occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations. But things are being stretched out a bit too far now. A case in point is during the Lunar New Year window. Most folks only celebrate the Eve, when everyone is supposed to gather for a reunion dinner, the first day itself, the ninth day which is more specific to the Fujianese, and the 15^th day, which marks the last day of the celebration. Before the advent of WhatsApp, we usually sent a card to reach closer relatives and friends in time to convey our Lunar New Year greetings and wishes. But now we are bombarded with commercially prepared lookalikes for the LNY Eve, LNY day itself and the days that followed which are marked with all sorts of significance until the grand finale: the 15^th Day. I do not know how friends may feel, however, I personally think they are being sent or forwarded without one giving much thought to the whole exercise. And if you do not disable the notification feature, you will be bombarded non-stop with alerts! This can be extremely annoying.

I am sure many of us have friends who would religiously post morning greetings or wishes. I do not know where these people get their “post cards”. Don’t they realise not many people are interested in such stuff at all?

I have a friend who must be suffering from some form of attention deficit syndrome. He does his morning walk or qi-gong exercise around his neighbourhood everyday. He would share pictures of himself and of the things he sees on the way with his “dearest“ – people in our chat group who were his high school classmates – virtually on a daily basis. Of course, he may actually mean it, but to a skeptical chap like me, this expression of “my dearest” rings a little hollow. To me, there is a great deal of superficialities in English language. When writing to a stranger, we normally address him or her as Dear Sir or Dear Madam. But “dear” as we understand is someone who means quite a great deal to us emotionally or sentimentally. If “dearest” is used, we should mean someone who is really special special or very close to us, say, like a sibling, parent, a friend of long standing, since it is a superlative. This old classmate is definitely a friend, but he is certainly not dearest to me in terms of attachment – as I understand the meaning to me.

Being somewhat cheeky by nature, I once responded by asking “Hi So-and-so, sure your pictures are not the recycled lot?” He did not seem to detect my cynicism; instead, he forwarded a couple more – just to reinforce that the pictures were current.

I have yet another friend who would on and off post – to the chat group amongst neighbours of the same condo – the glory of the golf views taken from his unit. I felt like asking if his lenses are so different from those of the neighbours”. I can understand if he was showing off to outsiders, but to neighbours?

Yet another who is so anti-establishment that he would send any stuff as long as they are hostile to the government – truth or untruth. I once advised him that anything from one Petra fellow would be suspect; notwithstanding, the “breaking news” from him keeps coming regardless.

Many friends love to post the “special” dishes they have prepared on Facebook. But many look like run-of-the-mill stuff from neigbourhood hawker centres. To me, unless yours is really something different, you may as well keep your talent or taste to yourself.

There are also a bunch of self-promoters on Facebook. One “expert” was giving advice on Covid-19 but if you listen carefully, her talk was basically something that is public knowledge or commonsensical. On closer scrutiny of her background, she is actually a dentist. And the principal of the health chain she is associated is one with a PhD that any discerning person could tell you is from a degree mill.

One man’s meat is another’s poison. It is just natural for us to want to share breaking news, or our achievements or memorable moments with friends. But do put yourself in the shoes of your friends before you click off.

Trump’s Send-off – A Pathetic Sight, and a New Dawn for America-China relationship?

I was watching the send-off of Donald Trump on CNN yesterday evening. What a pathetic sight.

The size of the crowd that had gathered in the South Lawn of the White House must come as a big slap to Trump. It was so thin! He did pause to speak with some of them; but that was very brief. As he and the first lady walked to Marine One, you could feel the weight of their legs. They felt so reluctant to leave!

At the Andrew Air Force Basse where Air Force One was already waiting for him on the tarmac, the sight was no better. Maybe a hundred or two? Of course, most of his immediate family members was there. That would be their last opportunity to travel on Air Force One.

He looked totally dejected. Notwithstanding, he still must make the last dig at the country he blames most for the loss of his throne. “China virus”, he blurted out, though without much energy or spirit.

Many said his ascendency to the throne was an aberration. The mightiest “democratic” country in the world should not have elected someone like Trump as their president in the first place.

Really?

After reading Barack Obama’s latest book “A PROMISED LAND”, I thought the seed had already been sown earlier.

Bush Jr’s second term in office marked the beginning of the decline of America’s prestige in the world stage. By 2007, he was a lame duck. Obama was the right man at the right time – racial prejudices were a non-issue at that time; Americans just wanted their world back. Obama seemed to be able to deliver that hope.

But Obama is not White. And not a mainstream politician.

Obama had both a good head and a good heart. He had a strong sense of purpose. He could not manage the underlying racial prejudices against Blacks and the Coloured in the Republican Party. the ability of its tea parties to sway the neo-Cons to the fore is deadly. His presidency not only cost many Democrats their seats in the Congress, but also the party’s significant majority in the Senate. With the loss of control in the Senate, he could only plod on lamely. He was sabotaged left, right and centre by Mitch McConnel and several other Republicans. The fear that had awakened the Whites in the Republican Party was most devastating to America. It ushered in a fake. Although Trump lost the election, some 75 million American had voted him. And these people are more emotionally more hard-core than people who voted for Biden.

It would not be easy for Biden to realign the mindsets of Trump’s followers to the real world. Many are firm believers of conspiracy theories, notably that of Qanon’s. Fortunately, Biden is a wise grandfather figure. He may succeed to some degree. However, China, which has been Trump and his team’s punching bag, should not feel too optimistic.

Most American are not well-travelled; few have been to China, including the influential politicians and senior bureaucrats. Because of its Stalinist legacy, Communism has always been thought of as evil, sinister, anti-Christian, anti-Islam, and what-have-you. On the other hand, China is most proud of its ruling party – CCP, the China Communist Party. To the uninstructed and untrained lot all over the world, China is an evil empire. And every Chinese a Fu Manchu!

So, many Whites, Blacks, Latinos, non-Chinese Asians in both the parties are still hostile to China and Chinese. China steals from us and China steal our jobs ring loud in their ears.

But what I am concerned about the legacy of Trump is the fact that many leaders have been through and through hypnotised by Trump, not just amongst the leaders in the Five Eyes, but also those in countries like Brazil, India, Japan, Africa and Europe. You can understand the fear of the Whites and Japanese - of being overtaken economically and militarily by China, but why the Indians and the Blacks?

Much of the latter’s is cultural.

India has always been touted as one of the oldest civilisations f the world. But that is only true in the Indus Valley, not the subcontinent as a whole. Many parts were tribal, even at the time when Buddhism was flowing into China. The Mughals had a great reign, but they were Muslims. It was not until the British that it became an aggregation. The earlier leaders opted for non-aligned policies. Even Narendra Modi was prepared to be identified with BRICS – the fraternity comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, until Trump came into the scene.

Trump triggered the ambition and the psychological complex of Modi and Indians. If China can do it, surely we can do better! This self-confidence is certainly not without basis.

Many of the Fortune 500, especially those in high-tech, are headed by Indians. So are some of the top universities, including ironically the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, which was started as a Chinese community-funded university. Several of the ministers in Singapore are Indian. So is Boris Johnson’s Cabinet. India has more Nobel laureates than China. Some of the wealthiest men in South Africa are also Indian. Whereas Chinese thinkers and scholars are usually quite ill at ease in public speaking, Indians are a class of their own in English fluency and articulations. The citation can go on and on.

But anyone who has visited both India and China can tell you that India as a nation still has a long way to catch up with China. There are simply too many impossibilities to make this happen in the near future – the caste and religious divides, not to mention the antiquity of beliefs and practices in them; the extremes between the rich and the poor; the state of their infrastructure; the apparent lack of adherence to promises and undertakings that is often perceived of them in dealings, the disregard of personal and public hygiene amongst their lesser lot; the unions and their obstinacy, etc.

Emulation is the best way to bridge social-economic gaps. If only the Indians, the Japanese and the Chinese can work together; the region will certainly roll out to be the most affluent part of the world! (Taiwan is not an issue; the moment America lays its hand off, it will just become another prosperous province of China.) The West needs people like Trump to stay ahead!

 

Malaysia, Where Are We Heading?

Malaysia, Where Are We Heading?

Remember Vision 2020? Isn’t this year we are supposed to achieved “developed” status? The year is about to come to an end. However, far from it, we seem to have lapsed instead into a state of semi-paralysis. Or to be flying in an auto-pilot mood?

I have increasing become less confident about where we are heading.

First the Covid-19 situation. When we only hit single or double digits, we thought we were managing the crisis very well. Indeed, we even gloated about ours vis-à-vis our clever neighbour’s. But for the past weeks, we have seen our numbers piked. It was more than 2000 yesterday, and about 70% of the cases were detected in the most urban part of the country – the Klang Valley! And the virus seems to be lurking everywhere.

Our Heath Director-General Dr Nor Hashim continues to update us on a daily basis. But are we confident that he is in full control of the situation now? I for one think the statistics that are being dished out day in and day out do not really reflect the situation in the Covid-19 management of the country. I suspect they contain omissions and reflect non-timely reporting in many instances. To me, the behaviour of the occurrence graph does not quite conform to statistical norms. Besides telling us this and that clusters, we don’t seem to hear much about strategies or longer-terms plans or contemplations. People like me living in the Klang Valley, we also do not know where we should refrain visiting or the places to avoid. Clusters are quite meaningless to men-in-the-street; people are not confined to the clusters that have been named, are they? Be that as it may, let’s don’t pour too much cold water onto this good doctor who is trying his absolute best to contain the virus.  

Second, an order of vaccine has already landed in Changi Airport. What has happened to our orders? Arriving next February? And nothing from China? But before the vaccines arrive, we are already hearing some rent-seeking moves. Hope they are not true. But given the frequency of these occurrences, we can only hope.

Third, the FDI or the foreign direct investment. It is reported that Malaysia only managed to corner 5% of the ASEAN cake. What happened? I thought we ranked high in the eyes of foreign investors? I dread touching on race and religion; but isn’t time for us to do some soul searching about them and about our education system?

Fourth, our recent Budget. It has been passed by the Parliament. Can we spend our way to recovery without talking about the future of the country’s finances? We appear to be stepping into the middle-income trap. I remember most of my contemporaries were able to buy a decent roof over our head three of four years after entering the work force, even though bank interest was something like 12% then. Many graduates in our country today can only do so with the help of their parents!

Fifth, the one-time-too-often interruptions in our water supply in the Klang Valley. Irresponsible dumping? Sabotage? We deserve a better answer!

Yet, we can get so worked out over someone’s marriage to a sports celebrity in India. Just because they are of different faiths.

Sad indeed.

Hi Air Selangor, I am totally unimpressed!

For non-Malaysian friends of mine, Air Selangor is not an airline. It is the water supply monopoly in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. However, it is still a private company.

My son decided to buy a bigger unit at the highest floor of the condominium he is now staying. No sooner had the balance of the purchase price been paid than the vendor’s law firm went ahead to terminate all the utility services. We did not know until we found there was no electricity when we went there to organise some renovation plans. Apparently, the vendor’s lawyer had informed my lawyer, who might have overlooked to advise us. But courtesy would dictate that the purchaser was given a week or two before the services under the vendor’s name were terminated. The termination of the electricity supply also affected the water supply since the latter to the unit was powered by a pump. We had no choice but to rush to these utility offices to try to reconnect the supply.

Tenaga Nasional, or the power monopoly, was superb. Fearing long queues, I went early to the nearest office. I was the first customer and within minutes, everything was done. The technician came in the afternoon and had the supply reconnected. A big bravo to you, Tenaga Nasional!

The same morning, we drove to the nearest office that was stated in Air Selangor’s website. It was closed! There was a notice asking consumers to go to other offices of theirs. We proceeded to the one at Pantai Bahru.

I had in the previous evening visited Air Selangor’s website to try to download all the forms that had to be filled and signed. But the prescribed copy of the agreement was no way to be downloaded in a manner that could be printed by a home computer. It was in a double A4 format! I also typed out an authorization letter signed by my son for me to act for him in the application.

Oh, the queue was long! I was directed to see a “gatekeeper” first.

“Where is agreement?” He asked. I told him there was no way I could download it from Air Selangor’s website. He handed me a set. They must be signed by my son.

 “You are not the owner, right? Where is the authorization letter?”

I showed him what I have prepared, he mumbled something to the effect that it was not the language they would accept. I have been using the same format in many other instances. I just could not understand what he was talking about. He also told me that I had to take a picture of the meter. I was very exasperated with the demand for such a simple service application. In many countries, everything could be done over the Internet.

The visit was a futile exercise since I could not submit the application without my son’s signature on the documents.

In Malaysia, we usually use “runners” to do this stuff for us. While I was trying to enquire for one, one of the condo’s executives volunteered to do the submission for us. I thanked him profusely.

More than a week later, this kind man telephoned me.

“Mr Lim, I visited Air Selangor, they said the owner must personally do the submission.”

What a rubbish. He was just telling a white lie. The checklist clearly said on-behalf application is allowed. Surely all the VIPs property owners - Tan Sris, Datuks, etc - will not want to personally go there to apply for a simple utility connection! I suspect he might have gone there but was deterred from the queue he saw.

Fortunately, the water man has not come to turn off the tap!

We decided not to go there ourselves a second time.

There was a queue. There was a notice saying senior citizens were entitled to priorities. But the attitude of the staff was simply dismissive. It was not being enforced, Period. But before I joined the queue, I had to overcome this same gatekeeper again. Again, he was trying to find fault with the documents. I simply told him off. Why was he trying to be difficult when Air Selangor was essentially a service provider? He said I could try my luck with the counter people if I insisted on proceeding to submit.

I did, and found the application was accepted and duly processed – after queueing for some forty-five minutes.

Climbing out of Lethargy

I have not been blogging for some months. I felt very lethargic, not physically, but mentally – all because of politics! And no that I am involved in politics, but in what I saw about the politics in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Taiwan and at home. 

I just could not understand why so many Americans could support Donald Trump. Oh boy, I hate to see the way he speaks, not to mention the rubbish that he spews. Oh boy, I also cannot bear the sight of Mike Pompeo and Peter Navarro; they are so fake! And day in and day out, you saw them in the news channels. 

And oh boy, I cannot understand Tsai Ing-wen can be so un-nationalistic to think Taiwan is not part of China. 

 And in the meantime, the company I most admire, namely Huawei, is being viciously attacked by America, and dropped by the United Kingdom and Australia in the name of “national security risk”. 

If Trump got re-elected, Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison, and Tsai Ing-wen will remain steadfast in their stances in the respective issues. 

At home, everything seems to be on autopilot. There are so many ministers; how many of us can tell who they are and what portfolio they are holding? I used to hold the Director General of the Ministry of Health in high esteem. But his armour seems to have lost its shine lately. We are now seeing new cases exceeding a thousand daily. Yet the daily charts look so stale! 

Our paramount concerns such as “Is where we are safe?”, or “What’s being done to contain the spread?”, are not addressed. As laymen, what we want to know from the ministry's release every day is a snapshot that tells basically this: How many new cases and how many in our state? The details can then follow, not the other way around. The fatigue syndrome is so very evident. Even the Star is so complacent in its reporting. (Go to their bulleting and you will see the same narrative about the spread to Malaysia is being posted day in and day out since the disease first broke out.) 

And few are diligent in observing the MCO’s SOPs. In eateries and wet markets, you see masks hanging below chins. I do not mean to dope in people, but there is no easy channel for concerned citizens to bring offenders to the notice of authorities. And you see many VVIPs not showing examples. Sad indeed, hence my lethargy for the last couple of months. 

Now with Trump about to go, I sense hope. Many have doubts about Joe Biden. But I believe he CANNOT be worse than Trump - in at least one thing: Decency. And that is the premise of my optimism. And with this, I hope my lethargy will go away.