Good Old Days

This is contrary to the good old days in the kampongs where everybody knows everybody to such an extent that what you cook at home is known to the immediate neighbors. Hence it is the kampong custom of sending over a dish or cake of the day to your immediate neighbors to sample. As expected you will receive in return something from them either on the same day or later on. This is quite a fascination to the westerners, when at one time we happened to have an American visitor who became our friend when we came back from the States after the 9/11 incident. Martin, that was his name, was having tea at our front patio when our neighbor's maid happened to call over with a tray of home made cake, to which of course Martin had the opportunity to taste and sample. When I told him of our traditional custom of receive and return, his remarks was " Then when will it end -this receiving and giving ?" Aptly said, I thought.

Talking about being neighborly, Ainul never fails to send over a specially prepared rendang or nasi lemak to our immediate Chinese neighbor and other Chinese friends of ours, come eve of Chinese New Year. Similarly, come Hari Raya Puasa, we are sure to receive something in return from these friends of ours. In the cities, what I just related involves efforts whilst in the kampongs it is a daily affair.

However, not everything can be assumed to be this way though. Over in the East coast states of Kelantan and Trengganu where politics rule the day and people of the same household hold allegiance to different political parties, things may not be that neighborly anymore. It is common to note that even the mosque attendees bear similar political loyalties and refusal to go to the mosques of the opposing political party. Husbands and wives of opposing parties are known to quarrel amongst themselves over politics of the day.

It’s indeed a very strange world over in these two east coast states. However, the same cannot be said of Kuala Lumpur residents though. If at all, nobody cares ! They only talk among themselves in their homes. May be life is too busy trying to make a living in the cities to be bothered by petty politics.

That reminds me of the good MCKK days when we have characters whom we called "cengkurik" or busy bodies. We have a lot of them during my time there and these lot cause a riot amongst themselves with their daily gossips. But of course, we all enjoy listening to their funny news, most of which we took with a grain of salt of course. The same can be said of characters in the Clubs too these days, more so, just before any annual general meeting. At one time, when I stood as a candidate for the Club’s presidency in the early 80’s, it was gossiped by some that if I become President, hard drinks would be withdrawn from the Club or that the Club would no longer enjoy tax relief on these drinks. With all those educated people around, it is amazing just how that gossip went down very well with them, just because everyone knew that I practiced Islam arduously, although I still drank then.

It is not at all strange then that the grassroots of political parties in this country , more especially the rural folks, would readily succumb to negative rumors about their rival parties. As they say, it is always the bad news that is appealing to the ears.

written by Tunku Farid
edited by Aida Halim