The Downfall of Bahasa Melayu

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                Bahasa Melayu or the Malay language has a tune of classical poetry to it. Used properly, every sentence constructed will be music to the ear and it amazes me how people from yonder use them without being in awe. As wonderful as it may be, it wouldn’t be my first choice if I were to explain something technical as the structure and the vocabulary of the language restrict me from doing so.
                Many times the people native to this language, the Malays, have fought relentlessly to defend its pride and identity, the most recent being the use of Bahasa Melayu in the teaching of science and mathematics. Though I wonder how many of those advocating furiously actually do use proper Bahasa Melayu.
                With the advance of wireless communication and the rise of social networking in recent times, I am able to observe how the national language of Malaysia degrades from a classy language to trash language though the blame should not be put on the two. I am utterly convinced that the majority of the current generation of Malays, encompassing those from the 80’s up till now has no idea how to construct a proper, grammatically-correct Bahasa Melayu sentence, which is a pity.
                I have to admit that I cringe to the sound and sight of an English sentence filled with grammatical errors, and I do the same with Bahasa Melayu but one thing about English is that there will be a group of people (especially in the internet) who find themselves inescapable from correcting incorrect usage of the English language, these people are known as “Grammar Nazis”. Too bad there aren’t any equivalents of them for the Malay language.
Simple grammar rules:
1.       The words used to describe the intensity of an adjective like “paling” cannot be ended with the word “sekali” after the said adjective. E.g.,
a.       “Paling baik sekali” is wrong and it can only be “Paling baik”. As using “sekali” is redundant
2.       There’s also the “Kata sendi” rule such as “ter-…-kan”, “meng-….-kan”, “me-…-kan”
a.       A common mistake that people do and blindly ignore is the addition of a non-existent “kata sendi” which is “mer-…”. Little do they know the word “merbahaya” do not exist.
b.      There’s also the common mistake in the usage of “ter-…-kan” and “paling”. “Paling terbaik” is redundant and in a worse case would be “Paling terbaik sekali” which is redundant times two.
                Sadly, 11 years of taking the core subject Bahasa Melayu does nothing to teach the average Malays on how to construct a proper sentence. Even more regrettable is that every single Malay show on national television blatantly uses error-ridden Bahasa Melayu up to the point that it seems that it is NOT wrong to do so. The line between proper and improper usage of Bahasa Melayu is blurred and convoluted, a blaspheme to the language in my opinion. It destroys the language.
                A particular trait commonly attributed to the average Malays unfortunately is that they are lazy and this laziness has spread to their usage of their own mother tongue. The stupendous amount of “abbreviations” to simplify the use of the language is pretty amazing and very annoying at the same time. I would say this culture of using simplified version of words started when the Malays gained access to public education, while taking notes during lessons and such.
                I’ve personally witnessed how these “abbreviations” evolved in the hands of my uncanny and witty schoolmates who seek to make note-taking a whole lot easier. I do not blame them or myself (as I too use such short-forms) for doing so as it is a necessity for survival in high school and even in college (assuming that Bahasa Melayu is the medium).
                There are also individuals who try so hard to be cute that they in turn try to incorporate their “cuteness” in their writing which I find stupid and irritating. Let’s look at a few examples of these abbreviations and “cutesy” words.
1.       Abbreviations
a.       Yg, Xkn, Blh, m’derma, thn, tlg, t’baik etc.
2.       “Cute” words
a.       Jew, kew, cubew, tipow, etc.
                A common pattern in creating abbreviations is that you purge the vowels from existence and any “kata sendi” can be replaced with the first letter and an apostrophe. I believe that such practice should be confined within note-taking and SMSes, and not when expressing ideas on the internet or even when updating Facebook statuses.
                It’s an eyesore. The beauty of the language is destroyed and in the end, there would nothing to be proud of about the language. As much as I don’t prefer to use Bahasa Melayu as my medium of communicating, seeing a language being violated due to ignorance is disheartening. And because of ignorance too a person using proper spelling and grammar in their Bahasa Melayu will be subjected to teasing and labeling, such is the foolishness of the average Malays who claim they take pride in their mother tongue.
                I hate to ponder on the fate of this language in 30 years time.
I’ll translate this post into Bahasa Melayu later

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Vanity

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       As much as I like to think that I'm the most humble person in the world, I am not. I like to flaunt my achievements and greatness, I like to proudly announce whatever I've succeeded to the whole world and thus this post is solely dedicated to that. 

       I got a 100 in my finals for Organic Chemistry which was something proud and a very, very tiring process. I had to study 5 days and an additional 3 days, amounting to 12 hours each day just to understand the whole syllabus. Of course there was the help of past years but had I not studied like a robot plus the study groups I did, I would have not gotten the 100 and would've gotten an 80 instead.

     I had to buckle up because I did badly for the first two tests, well only the second actually. Class average on the first test was 50 and I got 64, even though it's not the best, it's better than the average. 

     So yeah, here you go, proof of my achievement.

 
Plus, I got into dean's list for the second time. I've never thought I'll achieve all this in an American university. Haha!

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Malaysia and Crime

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                In the recent light of the rape of a 15-year-old girl by 15 men, I decided to write about the crimes in Malaysia
                I find it funny in Malaysia that the larger the number of people who receive education the bigger the number of crimes and even more depressing is that the crimes get worse every time. One would expect the opposite to happen since logically, the more educated a nation is the more civilized that nation would be and thus, the lesser the number of crimes committed.
                I do not have the specific numbers for the number of Malaysians who are receiving at least a secondary education but if we try extrapolating from this data ( (Auty, 2002) surely the number of citizens who had secondary education have at least tripled or at least hovering around in the number of hundred thousand. But I guess using only that as a data is insufficient as we would have to take into account the number of dropouts to have an idea on how the education system is working but that is on a whole different discussion.
                Based on a paper as cited by this blog, it seems that Malaysia is turning out to be a haven for crimes because according to that blog, the number of crime rate has increased by 300% since 1991 and according to this website, the numbers are steadily rising.
                This paper whom the author is known as ACP Amar Singh Sindhu is dedicated to dissecting and analyzing the trend in the rising number of crimes in Malaysia. It can be found here
                Perhaps the main cause for the rise in the number of crimes is unemployment because as we all know (yes, this is generalization), a lot of Malaysian graduates are unable to find a job due to their incompetence and the lack of motivation to improve themselves “weaknesses” and this might have driven these idiots them to resort to uncouth manners of obtaining a bit of wealth.
                But these criminals aren’t only Malaysians, they comprise of illegal immigrants too, and the growing influx of foreign workers might contribute to the rising amount of crimes. Having to leave their country in pursuit of a better life and ending up living in squatters and battered shacks might prove to be frustrating and thus crushing any dream of leading a better life. This frustration might have been a motivator to seek out money in ways that I despise.
                Stamping out crime has often been one of the problems in Malaysia, we just can’t seem to find the right concoction to deter or at least reduce crime in anyway. The negative view of the public towards the police force certainly doesn’t help with the cause but such views were not made out of thin air. The law enforcers of Malaysia are generally known to be very kind towards bribery, they are lazy, have no etiquettes, and are comprised of a bunch of lazy bums with those who are truly dedicated being a rare species. The police force in Malaysia has lost its honor but they are certainly not doing anything to regain that back. But I’m not going to elaborate on weaknesses that even I have no evidence for.
                Let’s talk about solutions. Almost a year ago, I stumbled upon an article which to me is very interesting; the article talks about “The Broken Window Theory” envisioned by James Q. Wilson, a political scientist and George L. Kelling a criminologist back in 1982. The theory suggests that disorderly conditions promote bad behaviors and if one were to fix these conditions, there would be a decrease in unruly behaviors. In the article it showed positive results when the local authorities took the extra length to clean off graffiti, pick up trash, and be more strict with parking and all. It’s these little things they made it a habit to clean up while still doing their rounds around the neighborhood.
                Now Malaysia, well, let’s narrow it down to Klang Valley, something I can relate to. Anybody who lives in the vicinity of Klang Valley knows how people love to do double-sided parking, motorcyclists breaking the red light before it can turn green, the chaotic parking in front of apartments or condominiums, restaurants taking up parking space to put tables and chairs, etc. Most would know how low cost flats are like, dirty, dingy and all. The Klang Valley area (especially in residential areas) is a living chaos.
                If we could apply this theory (though we might need to fix administration and their allocation of money first) by making sure none of the above is present, it would be interesting to see how this would work in local communities of Malaysia. The presence of police in hot spots or anywhere for that matter might deter potential criminals from ever committing one though the lack of personnel might hinder this from being executed.
                A clean and organized looking city or area like Putrajaya (of which I think has less crime rates, maybe due to the fact there’s not many living there) would not only make the Klang Valley area look pleasant, it would make it safer.
                The mentality of the people is that breaking a small rule is nothing as long as it doesn’t have an immediate effect. This mentality is somewhat universal in Malaysia, be it those from lower income or those are filthy rich. This is what we should change, because with this third world mentality, any law-breaking is legal. The Americans for example, will stop fully if there is a stop sign on the road no matter who they are but Malaysians, as long as there aren’t any car visible, we won’t stop. If only enforcement wasn’t an issue in Malaysia, a lot of problems we have would be fixed.
                I do hope there would be a politician who would try to make Malaysia a safer place. An average citizen won't be able to do much except abide by the laws and reporting crimes.

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Party Anyone?

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                The thing about studying in RIT is that the area is devoid of real parties, only in a rare occasion would you find a good party. This might be due to the fact that RIT is known for its nerds Computer Science or Information Technology program and the biggest club is the Anime Club. I’m not against geeks well-educated people in any way, it’s just that, I am robbed of the opportunity to observe human behavior in an occasion the Americans are known for, well, from a Malaysian perspective that is.
                I’m not talking about a formal or dance party, I’m talking about the parties American college students usually have.
                Having said that, I will have to admit that I do not enjoy partying nor do I enjoy loud repetitive melodies being played in a crowded area though it is suffice to make me happy seeing other people enjoying themselves. Plus, I am not fond of the smell of beer. I’ve been to quite a few parties since my arrival here in RIT, though the rate of joining a party has pretty much decreased.
                From my observation I find that most who are in a party who are seemingly enjoying themselves project superficial happiness. Maybe it’s just me but I notice that in their eyes, I couldn’t find real happiness, more of emptiness so to speak. I just don’t see the same flicker in their eyes as those who are merrily doing what they enjoy, dancing, playing football, kayaking, researching, or even having a good laugh. That’s how I feel every time I’m in a party. It’s a bit sad if you ask me.
                Well, that might be explained by their state of mind during the party, being under the influence of alcohol and all but ultimately, I guess, being in a party for them is where they have the means to pretend to be something else, in this case, being drunk. Some of them admit that they would not dance unless they’re drunk, which in my opinion, is unfortunate but I guess my definition of dancing is different from theirs.
                I also find that partying is a form of conformity, one would be considered uncool, geeky or nerdy if they were not partying which, might explain the emptiness I see in the crowd’s eyes. A person who would be really interesting would just lose all appeal amidst the drunkenness and guys in a party will be thought of only trying to get into the pants of any girls they could get a hold on. If a person has a good character, a party would not be a very good medium to express such characters.
                Some say that partying is a way to release the stress and the worries from daily life, to me partying would just add on to the stress. This might sound biased due to my nature as an introvert, though I would like to say I am in between an introvert and extrovert. To me this method of escapism isn’t effective as it doesn’t give you space to think or reflect back on life, nor will it be a source for inspirations. It’s just an escapade, and that’s all there is to it.

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