The hybrid-Malay Malaysian dilemma
No single Malaysian should think, "I should not even aspire to become prime minister because I am not the right gender, or I'm not the right race, or I'm not the right religion." Malaysia to me is open, with infinitely wide frontiers.
By Shanon Shah, The Nut Graph
DR Farish Noor is a prolific academic. The founder of The Other Malaysia project writes on the politics of Malaysia, Indonesia, Islamism, and old Malay hikayats with gusto and insight. He has been published everywhere. Well, nearly. It makes one wonder what he does to de-stress.
"I repair old batik, I knit and I stitch," he tells The Nut Graph. What? No American Idol for our historian-activist?
"I haven't watched television since I was 19, although lately I'm drawn to Indonesian pop culture," he says.
But this exclusive interview with Farish in Kuala Lumpur on 9 May 2009 is not about Peterpan or Rossa, it's about Farish's experience of Malaysia, past and present. He talks about being an ethnic hybrid in a country obsessed with racial boundaries.
Three-year-old Farish (left), and 4-year-old Farish with
his mother (pics courtesy of Farish Noor)
Where were you born?
I was born in the maternity hospital in Georgetown, Penang, on 15 May 1967.
Where did you grow up?
Up till the age of 10, I grew up in West Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. Then I spent four years in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, after which I came back to Peninsula Malaysia and then went to England at the age of 19. And I ended up staying in Europe for 23 years.
Can you trace your ancestry? Where were your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents from? What generation Malaysian are you?
Farish's grandfather, Che Teh, in Penang
(pic courtesy of Dr Farish Noor)
I'm second-generation Malaysian. My mother was born in Penang and I was born in Penang as well. From anecdotal accounts, I know that my family were Jawi Peranakan. They were probably Javanese Eurasians, perhaps with some Arab blood as well, who had migrated to British Malaya at the end of the 19th century. On my father's side I also have Indian blood which I believe is Punjabi. So I can say with some degree of certainty that I am Javanese, European, Arab, Indian.
Wow. And yet in the Malaysian scheme of things, you are just a bumiputera.
Well, the state would put me down as bumiputera. But during my childhood, my mixed ancestry was constantly brought up by the boys at school because I studied at St John's, both primary and secondary. And my brother and I were at times ridiculed for being celup. And for being mamak.
It was ironic that in West Malaysia, my brother and I were not accepted as Malays. We were constantly being reminded to balik India or balik Jawa.
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