Rohani -introduction, conclusion and how sports can combine malaysians
Syarmin - The food
Nevettha - The Language
Ahpiramii - The Culture
Saranya - The Place
What
is it to be truly Malaysian?
Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!
Merdeka! Merdeka! On August 31, 1957, I bet every one of us still remember this
day and the voice of Tunku Abdul Rahman chanting the word “Merdeka” for seven
times with all the crowds joining in. It has been 59 years since we got our
independent and we are still living in harmony and also still able to respect
each other. But first, how does one define as a Malaysian? Does it have to do
with the colour, the race, the creed or the religion? Well, I personally
believe that regardless of all the factors I mentioned, one can be considered
as a truly Malaysian if one calls Malaysia as a “home”.
HOW SPORTS CAN COMBINE MALAYSIANS?
Yes, a home. But how
does one behave as a home? Truly Malaysian will definitely be very comfortable
doing this that can only be accepted in Malaysia. I bet not many countries have
the mixture of people from different race, cultural and languages. For an
instant, when it comes to anything related with sports, we, Malaysian will be
gathering together no matter what race we are. I mean, where would we find
people with different race sitting at the “mamak” shop and yelling “goal!”
while watching any football matches until 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning?
I also still remember the Olympic game which was held on the 2012 where by the
final badminton match between Dato Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan. The whole nation
gathered just to watch the match and gave fully support to our national
badminton player. There was a moment which is still fresh on my mind where by
every one of us started to boo down on Lin Dan during the final round of the
match. Even though Dato Lee Chong Wei did not win the match, but he surely wins
the Malaysian heart.
THE FOOD
I know everyone is possessed with the local
food including me. For the foreigner, the local food is well known as “paradise
of food or heaven of food”. No doubt that Malaysian local food is one of the
best ways to attract the tourist and to make Malaysia fully recognize
throughout globally. What I really love about the local food is that, it
combines the Malaysian no matter where you are. Nasi lemak is a favorite food
for the people of Malaysia, especially as breakfast. Nowadays it is usually
eaten at any time. Arguably, every dining in Malaysia has a
menu nasi lemak. Other than that, satey also one of the famous food in
Malaysia. Satey easy to eat side-street as pierced with a skewer. Peanut satay
sauce prepared from a finely crushed and mixed and cooked with various herbs
and served with red onion and cucumber. Nasi Kandar is a
popular dish of Malaysia and from Penang. It's a steamed rice dish that can be
fresh or slightly flavored and served with a variety of curries and side
dishes. Nasi
Kandar cuisine complemented by meats such as fried chicken, curried liver,
beef, eggs, fish, shrimp or fried squid. It is usually a vegetable dish such as
eggplant, okra and bitter melon. The mixture is poured curry sauce on rice. This
is called ‘banjir’ and conveys a sense of the variety of rice.
One of the menu is often the choice of
tourists is pasembur. It is a Malaysian Indian salad consisting of sliced
cucumbers, turnips, potatoes, tofu, bean sprouts, and dried shrimp, crab fried
spicy, fried squid and many others who served with spicy peanut sauce and
sweet.Concept resembles a hodgepodge, a term used specifically sprayed in the
northern part of Malaysia. If in other parts of Malaysia , Rojak Mamak term
more commonly used.In Penang, pasembur more popular as a food that must be
enjoyed every traveler and it is available around Padang Kota Lama, temporary
hawkers' sites in Persiaran Gurney and Gelutong. Ais Kacang and Cendol are the
kind of sweet drinks. Cendol very popular with the public because
the climate and the weather is very hot in Malaysia. There are lots of
restaurants and eateries provide Cendol and Ais Kacang around Malaysia. Roti
Canai, Laksa and TehTarik are the famous local cuisine and able to get those
food by the local hawker stores.
Besides that, the
Malaysian are not suppose the worry about getting the food at middle of the
night because most of the “Nasi Kandar” shop and local hawker stores are
available till 4am or 5am in the morning. Some people are willing to travel for
at least 3 to 4 hours just to hunt their favorite food across the country. Make
it simple, we, Malaysian willing to do anything just to get our favorite and
yummy local food because we are truly food lovers. Do not call yourself a truly
Malaysian if you do not eat Durian which also known as the local “fruit king”. Trust
me; a durian lover can never live without eating durian when the season has
come. As a durian fruit lover, I cannot deny the tastiness of the fruit as well
as the smell which can be spotted few meters away. It is never enough for me
neither the other durian lovers to have only one.
Example of Foods:
THE LANGUAGE
Another
remarkable fact about being truly Malaysian is the variety of languages. The
Malay language is an Austronesia language spoken not only by Malaysians but all
Malay people who reside in the Malaya Peninsula, southern Thailand, the
Philippines, Singapore, and central eastern Sumatera. It is also very similar
to Indonesia, known locally as Bahasa Indonesia. In Malaysia the language is
officially known as Bahasa Malaysia which is translate as “Malaysian Language”
and also include of 2 more languages which consist of Chinese language and
Indian language. Bahasa Malaysia also known as Malay language is the national
language. The term, in which was introduced by the National Language Act
1967,was predominant until the 1990s, when most academics and government
officials reverted to “ Bahasa Melayu,”which used in the Malay version of the Federal
Constitution and also all local schools in Malaysia require the students to
learn and to pass the national language. But English language is also widely
spoken in Malaysia and it is actively known as the second language. It is easy
to live in urban areas of Malaysia by only speaking the English language.
Spoken English in local is heavily influenced with American English because of
television. Besides that, with no hesitate, I would say that Manglish is
English with influences from the Malay, Chinese and Indian language. It is
unique dialect of English in Malaysia. For instant, the use of “lah”, “meh” are
commonly used filler words and exclamation such as “fuuyoh” are considered
Manglish. But the Malaysian Government strongly disapproves of the use of
Manglish. Another uniqueness about Malaysia language is Bahasa Rojak which can
be translate into mixed “language” referring to the Malaysian way of mixing
language when speaking. I mean, where on earth you can find people using 3 main
languages into one sentence and make it into slang. For an example, “hey macha,
let’s go makan” or “you want to having here or tapao leh” or “anything also can
lah”. If you can speak this slang, with no doubt, you are definitely truly
Malaysian.
THE CULTURE
In culture, Malaysia is
a multiracial country with the variety if uniqueness of its diversity of races,
religions and cultures. Diversity of different races, religions and verities of
cultures that make Malaysia a truly Asian and significant characteristics to
our nation. There are main three races in
Malaysia such as:
INDIAN
The Indian community in
Malaysia is the smallest group among the other three races. They have arrived
in Malaysia more than 200 year ago and the population of Indian religion in
Malaysia is about 10 percent. Moreover, by them arriving to Malaysia they
brought up the Hindu and Sikh culture. In Indian society there are many
languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Punjabi and many more. They have
build temples, Gurdwara’s and Indian church. In Malaysia, they celebrate
Thaipusam and Deepavali mainly and there a lot of festivals such as Holi,
Ponggal, New Years, Navarathiri and many more festival that are not celebrated
mainly. Their traditional costumes are the Saree, Punjabi suits, Lengha suit
are for the females and for males are the Jhippa and Dhothi. Bharanatyam is the
traditional dance for the Hindu religion and for Sikh people is the Bhangra. There
are a lots of traditional instrument by Hindu religions such as veenai,
nadaswaram, tavil, tambura, violin and many more.
Tradisional Wears
Festivals
Intruments
Dance
CHINESE
The Chinese community has been immigrants to Malaysia
during the 19 century, they are the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia. The
first Chinese who has settle in the Straits Settlements is Princess Hang
Li Po who married to Sultan Malacca, she bring along her nobles and servants from
China (Fujian). The Chinese boys who married to the local Malay girls and it
born a new culture called (Baba Nyonya. Most of the Chinese in Malaysia are Tao
Buddhist and this is their origin religion by forming about 35% of the
population. In Chinese religion they are various people such as Min people who
consists of Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese, Heng Hua and Min Dong, Yue Chinese
consists of Cantonese, Sei Yap, and Gwong Sai, and other are Hakka, Wu people
and Nothern Chinese. The celebrations of Chinese in Malaysia are Chinese New
Year, Chap Goh Meh, Moon Cake Festivals and many more. The traditional outfits
are Ceong Sam, Sam Foo and others.
Traditional Wear
Festivals
Traditional Instruments
Tradisional Dance
MALAY
The Malays are
the largest ethic in Malaysia and they play a main role and with the earliest
peoples, we called them as bumiputera which is translate as "sons" or
"princes of the soils". Their native language is Bahasa Malaysia, the
national language of Malaysia. By
the meaning of the Malaysian constitution, all Malays are Muslims.
Traditional Malaysia culture centers at the kampong or village. Their tradisional
dance will be the joget, asyik, zapin, mak inang and many more. The tradisional
clothes are the baju kurung, baju melayu and baju kebaya. Their tradisional
music intruments are Angklung, Kompang, Rebab, Seruling and many more.
Tradinal Wear
Traditional Instruments
SABAH and SARAWAK
The oldest inhabitants of Malaysia are tribal peoples who
stand around 5% of the total population in Sabah and Sarawak. In Sarawak, Iban,
Dayak and Bidayuh are the dominant tribal groups. In Sabah, Kadazan is the most
number of the tribal. All of the "Orang Asli" shares a strong
spiritual tie in rain forest.
One of the uniqueness
about being a truly Malaysian is the ‘Open House’ concept where during the
various religious and cultural festival like Hari Raya, Deepavali, Chinese New
Year and so on. Friends, family and even strangers will join the homes of those
celebrating the festivals. It is one of the ways to get to know each other and make
some new friends from different race and religion background. Even though the
visitors might be from different races, we still able to tolerate with each
other and live under same roof where we can celebrate the festivals together. No
matter how busy we are, we will always make ourselves free just to eat free
food! Other than that, we were told to respect people from different race and
believe. For examples, Indian does not consume any beef meat, therefor; other
race must respect their culture by providing different food at any festivals.
Same goes to Muslim believe that they are prohibited from taking any pork.
THE PLACES
Malaysia is one of the most beautiful and
interesting tourism destinations of South East Asia. Malaysia is a
multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual society. Its cultural diversity
and the amazing contrast of colour makes the tourism destinations to visit
Malaysia. The hi-tech life and welcoming people truly makes Malaysia the
perfect holidaying destinations. In the country have an amazingly rich and beautiful landscape. For example the attractive capital city of Malaysia is the Kuala
Lumpur one of the most visited tourists and travel destination of the country.
With the stylish consolidation of the colonial building, mosque, temples,
churches, sky-scrappers and the well-organized gardens makes the country more
stylish and attractions. In Kuala Lumpur, there is one building that is
classified as one of the tallest twin tower in the world and it was Petronas Twin
Tower is a popular attraction of Malaysian and tourists. There
are many beautiful places around Malaysia such as Genting Highland, Cameron
Highland, A Famosa, Pahang National Park and water theme park such as Sunway
lagoon, Lost World of Tambun and Legoland in Johor. Besides that, the Malaysian
does not have to go to the overseas just to have amazing and breathe taking
view island because in Malaysia, everything is complete. Examples of incredible
and beautiful island in Malaysia are Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Perhentian, Pulau
Redang, Pulau Pangkor, Pulau Tioman and there are also some other stunning
islands in Sabah and Sarawak. To make it short, the Malaysian can explore
everything in Malaysia without spending much money and enjoy their trip.
As I live in Penang, I would say Penang is the
nicest place to visit together with the local glorious food. As we all know,
Penang has announce as UNESCO World Heritage Site and as a Penang born citizen,
I am naturally very proud. The reason why the island is known as Penang
Heritage City is because it has the most number of pre-war buildings in all of
South East Asia which are still undamaged and to show the world about the
heritage buildings, art and culture. Moreover, Penang has the Asia’s longest
bridge which connecting from island to the mainland and newly built second
Penang bridge. If the people do not want to use the bridges, they can use Ferry
which connects from Jetty Island to Mainland. Beside than having historical
places and beautiful beach, Penang also has some interesting museums to be
visited such as Penang Peranakan Mansion, Penang 3D Trick Art Museum, Penang
War Museum, Kek Lok Si Temple and Penang Time Tunnel. The people can enjoy
while learn new exciting things about Penang.
Conclusion
As for the conclusion, my answer about what
is it to be truly Malaysian will still be the same. It is the heart and the
people that make me a truly Malaysian. No matter where life takes me, you can
take a Malaysian out of Malaysia, but you can never take Malaysia out from a
Malaysian.
REFERENCES:
1) Reporters, F. and Reporters, F. (2015). What it means to be 'Truly Malaysian'. [online] Free Malaysia Today. Available at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/03/27/what-it-means-to-be-truly-malaysian/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2016].
2) Facebook.com. (2016). SPM 2013 Continuous Writing (a). [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/notes/ooi-mo-han/spm-2013-continuous-writing-a/579898852057641/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2016].
3) Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/the-people-and-culture-of-malaysia-history-essay.php [Accessed 22 Mar. 2016].
4) Srimahligai.com. (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.srimahligai.com/articles/instruments.htm [Accessed 22 Mar. 2016].
