They Are Just Not That Into You

Unrequited love. A term I first got acquainted with in English Literature class, where our teacher, a fan of all things French and romantic introduced us to abridged works of authors such as Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo. At that time, it was just another new term which I unfortunately could not incorporate into any of my essays for school.

Now, if you have been *following the Malaysian news for the past one month, you'd probably know that we have had an incident with our less than friendly neighbour, the Indonesians (from a certain group that call themselves BENDERA actually). They seem to have taken a very dramatic stance by burning our flag and throwing crap at the Malaysian Embassy. (Ok, the throwing of crap is just plain gross... I think even with utmost hatred, the most dangerous thing I'd throw at someone is a Rubik's cube)

*Actual news link here

Anyway, incidences aside, what amuses me the most is the reaction from the Malaysian (ahem!) leadership. I was browsing through the online papers a few days ago (but was too busy to write this post then) and noticed that they (our esteemed 'leaders') are looking at this incident through baby pink tinted glasses. Take for instance this headline translated (not very accurately, alas) by yours truly from the Malaysian Insider: "(Name of politician): Outside forces pouring hot oil over Malaysia, Indonesia issue" but you get the general idea. He apparently thinks people of both the countries are all full of brotherly and sisterly love, and someone else is seeking to make both countries fight using this issue. And who is that someone else, precisely??

While understandably Malaysia (well, some of them at least, as the papers tell us) seems to have lots of love for our neighbours under the pretext that we are all the same kind of people (they use the word **serumpun here) and that (most) of them are of the same religion (lets just forget awhile the cases where maids are abused - but then again there are cases where the employers have been abused by the maids as well, so it's probably not related to this) the Indonesians do not hold onto the same sentiments. History has proven this, with the Indonesians declaring a Confrontation against us somewhere in the 60's because they didn't approve of the formation of Malaysia, and how it was done. If we were indeed serumpun as the Malaysian politicians believe, the formation of Malaysia should have never been an issue. Today, a huge number of Indonesians work in Malaysia (and have been given permanent resident status) and yet, when clashes like this occur, their hearts and loyalty are totally with Indonesia (I actually noticed this in my workplace - some of them seem to have collectively turned a wee bit rebellious of late)

So Malaysia, wake up, and smell the coffee... Lets face it, they are just not that into you! (Us)

** serumpun (loosely translated: same stock?)