But I was contrasting the way you spelt to the ridiculously mispelt names referring to anything ‘China’ or ‘Chinese’ as widely practised by certain overzealous groups in Malaysia.

these are the reasons for my name.
Chin is my surname and NA is the abbrevation.

thus you get ChinNA

(note it is easy to mistakenly see it as ChiNA. it is not. It is Chin + NA).

and ChinNA’s comments:-
“You are right in saying that Babas are not Malays. We will never be.”

While sebol is right in pointing out that saying “Maaf encik, saya bukan Islam” can easily extricate oneself from those awkward situations there is certainly no basis for him to claim “something similar happened to Baba community who speak like Malay, look like Malay but not muslim”. Some Babas, though very very few, may look like Malay but it is gross generalisation to say that Baba community look like Malay. In fact, 99% if not more of people of Baba descent look Chinese and they definitely do not look like Malay and for heaven’s sake they are non-Muslims. Many Babas speak Malay, but so do many many more non-Baba Chinese.

Many writers and historians have traced the roots of the Babas and concluded that the hint of their possible Malay ancestry can only be attributed to the sparing instances of such inter-marriages. In his book ‘A Baba Wedding’ by Cheo Kim Ban the author highlighted the very Chinese nature of the Babas as such

“The Babas therefore are Chinese of mainly Hokkien origin descended from the inter-marriage of early Malacca Chinese with local non-Muslim women of various races e.g Balinese, Bataks of Sumatra and Malacca Chitty, with their Chinese blood further reinforced by marriage with Chinese immigrants who came in the
latter half of the 19th century. …… They no longer spoke the dialect of their ancestors but a language of their own known as Baba Malay.” This Baba Malay would not even be properly understood by the Malays because it is different.

So this is a reinforcement of what ChinNA said ‘You are right in saying that Babas are not Malays. We will never be.’ Right it is, We will never be.

By the way ChinNA, I like the way you spell your handle and not ‘CinNA’ like many of the erroneously spelt words relating to Chinese are spelt in Malaysia. A name is a name, so let the word ‘China’ be it and NOT ‘Cina’. If such a spelling standard is to be maintained then they should rename what used to be Weld Rd in KL to Jln Raja Culan.

There different groups of Baba. I have seen the ones from the north and the south. There are differences.

Baba does not dress in all-Malay dresses, Baba does not eat only Malay food. Not all Baba speaks only Malay.

The Baba way of life is a combination of elements from the Malay and southern Chinese cultures.

In fact, a lot of Baba speaks Chinese with some Malay words.

You are right in saying that Babas are not Malays. We will never be.

However, the way I see it, the issue is about ‘freedom of choice’. Given the conditions and today’s environment, a simple directive had triggered a specific response.

Perhaps in another time, in different circumstances, the response could have been different.

Taking that them of different time and different circumstance, the western way of ‘business attire’ dressing had now become an accepted international standard. Whether we like it or not. The world had adopted it.

What then is left for us to do? We still have the right to choose.

Our choice is that to decide if we want to follow that standard or not to follow that standard. Is it right? Is it wrong? From a cultural identify, it is not right.

But then, cultural expectations is an evolution. Remember what happened to the pigtails hair for Chinese?

Similarly we see today the Malay standard is evolving too. There are more Middle East dressing being adopted. Is it right? That is is not important. The segment of the Malay society had made a choice.

The freedom to choose must be presented and honoured as long as it does not voilate the liberties of another person.

russian built their own technology!
japs built their own technology!
israel built theirs too, so as italians, frenchs, germans, koreans, china, taiwanese and few other countries. most are recognised thru the whole world! and did not use english.
are we malaysian at heart! bahasa is our national language and we should treasure and support it. even thought it’s only use in malaysia. if others can do it, why not us! looking down at bahasa, means looking down at your own country!

Do you even understand what the term “mutual respect” means ? Do you regard yourself as a staunch DAP or Opposition supporter ?

He will tell his son, if you dislike your dad, go commit suicide. This is his mindset, don’t wasting your time to argue with a bigot.

When la you morons going to study?

Hi Kanasaikia, “a prefect in EC currently” according to you, you are not that one non-muslim prefect still wearing the songkok (after ruling has been changed) for the sake of principles? :)