Friday, August 27, 2010

Malaysia-Indonesia and the dude formerly known as Black in Korea

My latest column in The Malay Mail [The bullying must stop] deals with Malaysia-Indonesia ties in the context of the faeces attack on our embassy in Jakarta. Again, must commend Foreign Minister Anifah Aman for his tough stand. I wish more of our politicians will speak out. Anwar Ibrahim, the Opposition leader, for example. He hasn't come out to condemn the latest anti-Malaysia demonstration. Anwar has close ties with various groups in Indonesia, so perhaps he does not wish to jeopardize the good relationship. Understood.
In any case, it's Anifah vs Anwar on Oct 19, a RM100 million suit taken by Anwar after Anifah's revelation of an offer of a Deputy Prime Minister post if he would cross over for Anwar's 16 Sept 2008 dream.

The blogosphere touches on the Malaysia-Indonesia ties extensively, but Amin Iskandar's simple posting ["Sebenarnya, Malaysia dan Indonesia berkongsi banyak persamaan baik dari segi sejarah mahupun budaya. Malahan, bahasanya juga lebih-kurang sama".] sums things up. You may remember Amin as the Black in Korea blogger. Check our his blog, now in Bahasa Malaysia, here.

31 comments:

  1. attila2:45 pm

    The fact that these protestors could use their bare hands to smear shit on the embassy's walls says it all about the mentality and psyche of these Indons, oops, I mean, IndonESIANS!

    From my dealings in the past with them, they have a psychotic chip on the shoulder when it comes to Malaysia. Even professionals, never mind the mindless rent-a-mob goons, after a while will make some snide remark about us. And let's admit, most of us can't even be bothered about to argue because who cares?

    You can rant and rave about what a more superior culture you have, how your food, batik, songs etc are so much better, ad nauseam, but bottom line is... your people flock here by the millions to work as labourers and maids. And that's what rankles the middle-class Indons, those who make up the media etc. They can't stand it.

    So, our leaders ought to stand firm. And stop deluding ourselves about this serumpun crap. There obviously ain't any, only when they want our money and aid, this serumpun nonsense is trotted out. Remember what they did to our aid during the last earthquake?

    As for me, I've long boycotted Indon stuff. Visited Bali once two decade ago, and that's it. Don't have maid and ensure local workers do jobs for renovations. There are local workers, if you pay enough. I'm not a bigot, but totally fed-up with their attitude.

    The authorities should crackdown on these Indon illegals once and for all and send them packing. Enough is enough!

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  2. I like Anifah Aman...we wish more of our ministers are like him..the stand-up kind of guy. Anwar and his goons..well, they would rather bad-mouth Malaysia when they are overseas. His daughter included.

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  3. Anonymous4:20 pm

    Dato,

    Unless they are instigated and/ or led by some agent provocateurs, those demonstrators do not know that the Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos belong to the same large family of Malays, comprising of Proto Malays, Deutero Malays, Malayo-Polynesians and Austronesians.

    The Historical Society of Malaysia, established since the British colonial times, whose membership includes professors in history, Malay studies, sociologists etc, have published a book, "The Malay Civilization", 2007. It explains the scores of researches and studies carried out by linguists, anthropologists, archaeologists and experts in other academic disciplines since the 19th Century, continued into the 20th century and heightened in the second half of the last century. They show the 350 million people making up the "Rumpun Melayu", with over 1,000 Malay languages and dialects, that originated in this Malay Archipelago, spreading as far as Madagascar, South Africa, Christmas Island, Australia and New Zealand, Hawaii, Taiwan and Indo China.

    Someone should arrange for as many of that book as possible to be sent to relevant groups in Indonesia and have the book promoted. After all, the older generation remembers the "Malindo" and "Maphilindo" concept of togetherness, the terms that were bandied about during the formation of Malaysia in the 1960s.

    Sukarno was facing huge internal problems then and tried to distract the attention of his people to a "Confrontation" with Malaysia. But the Indonesian President now is a very responsible and likeable man, we have good relations and he has just visited Malaysia. The irritant we are facing from the wayward fellows now should not be allowed to grow any bigger. Send them the books and push out the clowns.

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  4. The recent Malaysian-Indonesian minor spat is, I think, a cooked-up scenario by certain parties who ABHOR the very idea of regional malays uniting under one ideological umbrella. That's just a theory, but one worth looking into.

    Meanwhile,

    ... I just couldn't resist, to mention another piece
    In Ramadhan your mosques are full of Barokah
    Would it be so wrong if Miss Kok or Miss Wong
    Speak a little after your solat-Isya Haloqah?



    and please read the rest of the poem here.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous4:29 pm

    Rocky,
    After all this while we in Malaysia ALREADY know very MUCH about the "persamaan" between the two cultures aND so forth,,and so on..BUT do they ALL also know it or for that matter ACCEPT it like us.Probably this is the root of the matter why we have at regular intervals been having this "shit'PROBLEM thrown back and forth much to the amusement of the greater world out there as evidenced in the many worldwide tv coverages of the incident.

    ADIK-ABANG

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  6. Isapmudin Gay4:31 pm

    Kalau la semua pemimpin kita ni berani macam Anifah Aman! Aku gerenti malaysia akan lebih aman, ni asyik amaran, amaran dan amaran keras je, auuwwwww

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5:05 pm

    Smells like the PR supremo's handi-craft, to create havoc to divert attention.

    In any case, Malaysia should stand up against all these nonsense and for starters reduce the wages of these foreign thieves. Impose hefty fees for every transfer of the ringgit to Indonesia and make life difficult for these ungrateful neighbours enjoying our subsidies.

    Time to show them that Malaysians are sick and tired of their intidimations.

    A GOOD MAN DOES NOTHING.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous5:47 pm

    Pelajari lebih dahulu mengapa mereka tidak menyukai Msia ...Jika hanya sekali maka mungkin itu hanya kesalah-pahaman saja ... tapi jika kemarahaan mereka berkali-kali maka ada sesuatu yang salah dalam hubungan antara Mesia dan Indonesia ...

    Ingat.. tidak asap jika tidak ada api ..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Seolferwulf7:14 pm

    Talk about karma!

    Didn't Malaysia used to play the abang-adek game with Singapore, especially when Dr Mahathir was PM?

    And now Indonesia is playing the abang-adek game with Malaysia...

    Guess who's the big bad abang now?

    And Dr Mahathir is quiet about the latest contretemps in Malaysia-Indonesia bilaterals. Guess that after being told off by Guntor Sadali, the good Doctor has decided to focus on matters domestic.

    It is indeed passing strange that Indonesia seems to get along better with the "little red dot" than it does with Malaysia. More stuff for the Wisma Putra boys to mull over.

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  10. Anonymous8:53 pm

    "Smear shit on the embassy's walls", must be their normal practice,

    Bila datang as PATI naik tongkang, agak Rocky, dalam tongkang tu ada kemudahan tandas tak?

    hahahahaha

    PERWIRA

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  11. Anonymous9:34 pm

    Rocky ,

    What about you ?

    When the embassy was shitted upon,

    rocks and bricks rained into the compound

    The national flag spitted, torn and burned.......

    What have you done ? What have you said ? What have you blogged on ?

    You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you and your bunch of so called bloggers ! Tak Tahu Malu and tak ada maruah nationalisme !

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am a little confused about the Malaysian objection over these protests. After all in Indonesia they do it to the Malaysians about once every blue moon. However, we protest and burn flags and what not in front of the US embassy quite a bit don't we? And we call them names ...and don't we also burn flags as well at times? Ok la the cow head we only took to the Selangor State Secretariat la...So which is worse eh? A bleeding cow head or shit?

    But seriously, I have always felt that just as we tend to diss Singapore for their kiasuness I have often felt Indonesians feel the same way about us too. Maybe in our attitude towards the Indons we take a bit of the high ground without even having earned it... you know, like everytime we claim to set the standards for Halal certification, I am sure the Indonesians must think, who the hell we think we are. Whatever it is they are citing for the current round of protests is just an excuse la...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous11:25 pm

    Indonesians feel helpless. Indonesian maids were abused,some raped, workers were exploited,illegals were canned or thrown into detention camps, lands in Sumatra and Borneo bought over by Malaysian companies, Indonesian banks bought over by Malaysians, millions of their people have to seek employment in Malaysia,lost an island to Malaysia and the list goes on. No wonder the Indonesians were very unhappy with us. The worst is when Malaysians look down at Indonesians. And they cant do anything about it. Except to burn our flags and demonstrate daily in front of our embassy. Don't kid ourselves that a meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and between our PM with the Indonesian President will resolve it. They will continue demonstrating and burning our flags for many years to come.

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  14. Anonymous2:22 am

    Dear Datuk Rocky,

    It may not only be Anwar Ibrahim who has not spoken out. Where is the voice Perkasa in all of this? Those ultra-sensitive Melayus who will make police reports on a dime against any non-Malay Malaysian who they feel offends their racist sensibilities?

    Surely throwing faeces at our national symbols is an even bigger insult that questioning the 'social contract'. It is quite evident that these idiots consider themselves Malays first and Malaysians second. Nationalism My Ass.

    Why don't you try and spin that?

    Kamali Ibrahim.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous3:59 am

    attila

    You must not jump to conclusions. There are hidden hands behind many demonstrations in Indonesia.

    Sponsors are always available to arrange for a "heated" expression of emotions.

    Even in Malaysia the ISA demonstrators are NOT sure of the reason for them to be there. All they know is that their LEADERS have instructed them to go up the free buses for a ride somewhere.

    Food and drinks are also provided foc. Some years back, youngsters who turned out to be addicts were PAID to burn vehicles as part of these POLITICAL demos.

    What Malaysians need to be AWARE of, is that there is a CONCERTED effort/agenda to create havoc and chaos so much so that Malaysia will be HALTED in her SMOOTH progress towards vision 2020.

    The Malays are PROVING themselves highly CAPABLE of success in a modern lifestyle.

    This is the REASON why many are UNHAPPY. Some subversives are working with external parties to create chaos in Malaysia.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous4:08 am

    Just be careful, some "invisible" forces want to see a major CLASH between Malaysia and Indonesia.

    Remember the "divide and rule" strategy so that the minority races can be the KING.

    Even in Malaysia these same forces are trying to get the races to CLASH over the kalimah issue and the attacks on places of worship.

    More to come (akan datang) so stay TUNED.

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  17. Anonymous4:34 am

    When two big neighbours quarrel, the little one can quietly amass more wealth

    keep them occupied with unproductive bickerings and all the ministers will be distracted from making Malaysia and Indonesia more successful

    all so that someone can sneakily consolidate much faster disallowing any overtakers

    ReplyDelete
  18. Orang Melayu sendiri are fools, for claiming that Malaysia and Indonesia are just like "Bangsa Serumpun". Let just say that the centre of power in Indonesia is in Java and Javanese have no claim of any close relationship whatsoever with the Orang Melayu. In fact if they have a chance, they will invade Malaysia and make orang Melayu as slaves.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I remember my late father used to dream of a Ma-phil-indo, or the re-unification of the Old Nusantara ... just like the resurgence of PanArabism in the Middle East, there are interested parties who will stop that from happening at all cost.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Mancai9:21 am

    hahaha... kelakar la Dato. Cerita pasal Malaysia-Indonesia pun nak kaitkan dgn DSAI. Takan la segala cerita dan berita Dato nak kaitkan dgn DSAI. Buang masa je.... ato memang keje Dato....

    kalau macam tu, satu sokaba Dato boleh masukan ni.... ruang sport.. "Anuar menonton EPL...". Classified.. "Anuar menawarkan jawatan kosong.." Ruangan Page 3 Dato... OOhh.. dah takde ya... dulu ada gamba2 awek...

    Dato.. Dato.... I am not a PKR member. Never likes him dari zaman dlm UMNO pun...

    Tapi.... nak belit2 macam ni, tak best la Dato.... Slmt Berpuasa...

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  21. Anonymous9:42 am

    So the shit has everything to do with BN and PR, Malay and non-Malay, majority and minority…..hmmm…interesting.

    Rhan

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  22. Seolferwulf9:47 am

    Anon 4:08 PM

    A fan of conspiracy theories, are we?

    Why don't u lay it out for us lesser mortals, bro? Like maybe the CIA & Mossad are involved?

    Oh, btw, Rocky - I am sure u know who Guntor Sadali is. I didn't notice u dissing his take on Dr Mahathir's not-so-recent comments on Malays in Singapore. Silence implies assent?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous10:26 am

    Jojo

    Bodohnya kamu mengeluarkan pendapat yang tidak beralasan.

    Kalau ada alasan, bolehlah dihormati sedikit, tinggal menentukan benar tidaknya. Tapi bila tak ada fakta dan tidak ada alasan langsung, bukankah bodoh sepenuhnya?

    Gunakanlah akal, wahai ma'anusia yang ingin bersuara. Gunakanlah hujah-hujah yang beralaskan fakta dan kebenaran dan yang boleh diterima. Kalau tidak, diam sahajalah.

    Tidak baik melalak dan menyalak menyemaikan perasaan curiga dan syak wasangka. Perbuatan segerombolan maanusia tidak membayangkan pendirian negara atau pemerintahnya.

    Bacalah buku "The Malay Civilization" penerbitan Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia itu. RM75 sanaskah, boleh didapati dari bangunan persatuan itu diJalan Tun Razak, hampir berhadapan dengan Institiut Jantung Negara.

    Lepas baca, barulah boleh bersuara, sebutkan mana yang anda tak setuju dengan pendapat berpuluh pakar yang membuat penyilidekan dan kajian sejak abad 19 itu. Comprende?

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  24. Anonymous10:58 am

    Old Fart,

    Just to make it clear, "Halal Standards" have nothing to do with Indons.

    "Standards" are clearly laid down in our Quran. We use the Quran to guide us, not what the Indons feel!

    You married to your own MOTHER? Boleh ker? Tak boleh kan unless you are an animal yang tak faham BAHASA...

    PERWIRA

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  25. Anonymous6:36 pm

    Dato,
    Your MM article "The Bullying Must Stop" is so apt amd self educational.
    In fact it is so wide ranging in the whole Malaysian context and surely does help everyone see all problems we face here in a better perpective. Surely the many comments you received there can educate everyone else on exactly what it all means broadly and going futher globally it also applies to all the bullies out there including the ones we always shout and protest at regular intervals.But for now the "Bendera guys" are also calling us "bullies" from their perspective.
    Life is just one big circle it seems.

    Bapak

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  26. Rocky my friendd,

    It is much ado about nothing this so called spat between us and Indonesia!
    The Indonesia media, print and electronic that have been highlighting this kerfuffle are known to be pro Reform Movement in Malaysia! Need I say more!
    I was there last week for four days and ask any average Indonesian on the street about the so called spat they say "ada dalang di sebalik tabir pak" or in English, roughly translated "There is definitely a puppetmaster behind the curtain sir doing all of these".

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous11:37 pm

    Warga Indonesia yang berdemonstrasi tu...biar apa pun provokasi, tapi berduyun juga yang berkunjung ke Malaysia ...cari kerja/cari pacar/berwisata....dasar tak malu!

    farha

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  28. Seolferwulf9:04 pm

    Anon 11:37 PM

    Ahem...you mean like Malaysians cari kerja in Singapore? Tu tak malu, beb?

    Back to the abang-adek issue. It's interesting that no one batted an eyelid when Dr M and assorted Umno rightwingers tried to pull an abang-adek stunt on Singapore. And we all know what happened to that particular exercise in futility, don't we?

    And now Indonesia is the big abang in the neighbourhood. With even bigger abangs hovering in the background...

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous2:46 am

    Mount Sinabung di Sumatra meletup selepas 400 tahun lena sat tadi. Ah...tu dia kau, main dengan taik lagi!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous9:46 pm

    seolferwulf,

    yalah, tak apalah kalau diaorang nak membaling najis, bakar bendera dan menuduh yang bukan2 (macam kononnya malaysia tidak melayan rakyat indonesia yg ditangkap di perairan kita tu dengan baik), yang aku heran tu , WNI sampai sejuta lebih sini...kenapa datang sini kalau benci sangat, kan?

    farha

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  31. Anonymous1:32 am

    Respected Bloggers,

    It is obvious that this whole spat is engineered by certain forces who want to create havoc. And they are using plain old sentiments to fuel the fire. The big question now is..who? I'm sure the highest level in both the governments know who. But not to reveal is a better strategy for now. Believe me, covert steps are being taken by the Indonesian government, who is a friend.

    Got a feeling it is linked with the bigger world picture. And the big picture is...sadly to say, is WAR, LIES and HAVOC. Going to get more confusing, I can promise you this.

    The end picture will be...no one will know who is friend, or who is foe, we'll just keep shooting at everything that moves.

    ReplyDelete