#MalaysiaKita | Ali, Muthu and Ah Hock: The Malaysia in My Heart

From left : Senior Cardiologists Datuk Dr Zainal Hamid, Dr Samuel Ong and me August always brings back nostalgic memories. This year I will be celebrating my 69th Merdeka day. I was almost 5 years old when our Nation won its Independence. As I recorded in my book “Joy, Challenges and Hope”, the 31st of August causes me to flash back 69 years, to the day, when my late father hoisted me onto his shoulders to look over the heads of the adults, to look at the beautiful brightly lit up floats driving past the main road in my hometown. I was born in Muar and my formative years, primary and secondary education was in that town, before I enrolled in University Malaya, in Kuala Lumpur in the early 70s. Malaysia was born in 1963. This year I will be celebrating my 64th Malaysia Day. Especially after having travelled the world in my adult life, I consider myself very blessed and lucky to have been born in Malaysia and then work and bring up my children in this country. There is much about the politics and politicians especially in recent years, that I and my peers detest, but Malaysia remains a wonderful country and I just cannot imagine living anywhere else. Many of my adult patients concur with my thoughts. I cannot stand the cold and dehydration of winter – my skin and lips crack and I itch all over. There are days when the weather is very hot but none of us will trade it for the cloudy, rainy and miserable days experienced in countries like the UK. The bright Malaysian Sun especially in the mornings and evenings drives all the blues away. The calm of daily life in Malaysia is occasionally disturbed by self seeking, subintelligent politicians spewing antiracial tirades but sensible voices always quickly drown them out. Except for moments like this we live in a very peaceful country. I am saddened by the incessant wars and bombings especially in the Middle East. The common man in those countries suffer for hostilities which he bears no responsibilities for starting. Generations in those places have never experienced peace. By comparison we in Malaysia, should offer prayers of thanks for the continued peace that we have taken for granted. Where do we begin—and where do we end—when talking about Malaysia's internationally renowned reputation as a food paradise, with its superb variety of cuisine available at virtually any hour of the day? It is a culinary heritage inherited from several cultures, including two of the oldest civilizations in the world. A friend remarked once : “..tell me of any other place in the world where you can placate a sudden hunger pang at 3 in the morning by pulling on a pair of shorts, donning a T shirt and walk out your house without fearing that you would freeze to death or will not be able to find a place selling food..” After paying RM 30 for thosai in Brisbane, the RM 3 thosai in Raju Restaurant behind my house tastes even better – leave alone the cost, no one will dispute the fact that food in Malaysia tastes better than any other place in the world. Besides sports, food is the other great unifier. My Malaysian Chinese gentleman patient in his mid 80s who can just speak a smattering of Bahasa Malaysia will swear that his favourite breakfast is Nasi Lemak. Coming from a family of durian ”hantus” I am so proud of the fact no other country can produce the King of Fruits that tastes as good as ours. Then let us talk about medical care. I know that the public has many grouses about our medical service – the long waits in clinics, the costs of medical care especially in private institutions, the constantly rising costs of medical insurance. As a doctor, I am not going to defend my profession especially as this is not the forum to do so. I have had the opportunity to work in the United States as well as as in the United Kingdom. I am well aware of medical services in Australia. With no hesitation I will say that we in Malaysia have one of the best medical services in the world. The medical technology and expertise available can match any in the world. Anyone can walk into a hospital in Malaysia and seek help – try doing that in the United States, United Kingdom or Australia – you will not be able to do it – you will first need to make an appointment to see your general practitioner(GP) – and that too may take time, and then you will need to get a referral letter from your GP addressed to the specialist in the hospital before you get to see the latter. Ask anyone who has sought medical help in any of these countries and they will attest to what I have written above. Growing up in Muar, a small town with few pretences, I grew up colour blind. Tamil, English and Bahasa Malaysia was spoken in my home. My late mother who grew up in Singapore, before moving to Malaysia (then Malaya) after marrying my dad could speak Hokkien and Cantonese. Just like me and my kid sister, my parents had many Malay and Chinese friends who often came to our home to partake of the excellent south Indian dishes that my mother whipped up. Many of my parents generation have passed on but many of their children still live – now in their 70s they still recall my mother’s nasi briyani, chicken korma and mutton curry served with puttu mayam (string hoppers) and appom jala. Mum also enjoyed learning cake making recipes from our Malay and Chinese neighbours and friends – so on Deepavalli day, Indian savouries like murukku and oomapadi shared space on our dining table with pineapple jam tarts (mum’s still the best after 70 years), kueh wajeh, kueh bahulu, kueh dahlia and jelly made from dried sea weeds and rock sugar. I celebrated 4 great festivals every year – Hari Raya at my friend Shariff Aziz’z house, Chinese New Year in my late buddy Charles Lee’s house, Deepavalli at home and Christmas, house hopping from one Christian friend’s home to another. Food was in abundance everywhere we went and as we grew older, especially after becoming University students, alcohol – especially beer became a must during these occaisons. For Chinese New Year every year in my youth, we would be gifted 4 tins of crispy “love letters” by 2 of my mother’s Nonya lady friends. As children, for the annual lantern festival, my mother bought me and my sister, a lantern each so that we could join the neighbourhood Chinese kids during their lantern procession. I enrolled at the University of Malaya in the early 1970s. This was an opportunity to enlarge my circle of multicultural friends. For the first time, I made friends with Malaysians from East Malaysia. They were gentle, polite, kind and generous, and often wore a ready smile. There was a unique slang to their spoken Bahasa Malaysia and English, which I loved and which distinguished them from West Malaysians. Later in my career, as a medical lecturer, I had the opportunity to visit Sarawak and Sabah several times. This created opportunities to meet people from the many unique and interesting tribes who live in East Malaysia. From them, one learns the joy to be derived from the simple pleasures of life. The strength of multiracial harmony in East Malaysia puts the rest of the world to shame. Now in our mid seventies, celebrations are more muted and joy is derived in quiet dinners with close friends, where the conversation invariably drifts to memories of the old days when we were younger and had more energy. These days we also lament the weakening of the bonds between the various communities – but I must be quick to add that in the small towns and villages of Malaysia, the multiracial bonds are still very strong and the fabric of Malaysian life remains unfrayed. Last week I had tea with two good old friends. When we took the photograph its significance was not apparent until I got home to process it. Indeed the 3 of us being together, had captured the Malaysian spirit inherent in Ali, Muthu and Ah Hock. This photograph inspired me to write this article. Selamat Hari Merdeka and Hari Malaysia, everyone ! Share your Anak Malaysia stories and stand a chance to win prizes worth up to RM2,880! Find out how to join here . T&Cs apply. Dr. Kannan Pasam (kannan.pasam@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now! The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use ) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com .