Yes, apparently it looks like a Chinese restaurant. But wait a minute, it is so unlike a typical Chinese restaurant in KL. For, quite interestingly, you can see a Malay Pakcik wearing kopiah casually selling cucur udang inside the restaurant while listening to his MP3 player. You can notice the questionable objects and signs behind him, can’t you? There were also some Indians happily selling Indian cuisines, while a Chinese vendor was cooking some hard-to-name Chinese foods. Don’t be too surprised because you can also easily spot a seasoned Indian customer skillfully using chopsticks while enjoying his noodles, another religious Malay Pakcik biting a chicken tandoori religiously, and a Nyonya eating nasi lemak nonchalantly. What a perplexing setting, wasn’t it? Well, at least for an unfortunate KL resident like me, it was a new inspiring picture of society that I could hardly find in the capital city of Malaysia itself, despite being so physically multiracial.

Oh, I was more patriotically aroused when I discovered another interesting restaurant called Fang Hiang. No, it is not in Ipoh, but unexpectedly located in Tanah Merah, Kelantan – the very place near to my very own hometown!

A malay spouse was very busy selling Nasi Berlauk – my ever favourite dish – in front of the restaurant. Malay folks were flocking around the stall waiting patiently for their order. I was having my nasi-berlauk-ayam breakfast when I realized all the Chinese characters and symbols casually hung all over the place inside the restaurant. A Malay-girl waitress took the order, while a Chinese makcik were busily ushering her hungry-looking customers into her restaurant, talking in Kelantanse dialect! A Malay family was enjoying their meals, sharing the table with another Chinese couple. One old Chinese man was reading Sinar Harian – recently-published Malay newspapers for Kelantan and Terengganu. What an unorthodox way for a Chinese veteran to enjoy his lazy morning!

These two restaurants located at two different places strike the most obvious resemblance – they both show the true colors of Malaysia, I mean, some parts of Malaysia. While I was feeling excruciatingly uncomfortable with the unusual labyrinth in these restaurants, all these people were comfortably seated in the restaurants, probably not having the slightest worry of their cultural and religious differences. Oh come on, don’t talk about halal-or-haram issue here. Please people, don’t give me that suspicious look, okay. I would rather view this scenario from an out-of-the-box perspective. For me, these are true Malaysians whose spirits are rarely found in Kuala Lumpur, the city where the government always claims as a multiracial melting pot. Nonetheless, the prevalent reality in KL was quite far from being Malaysian in nature.


Well KL elites, before you claim that you are Malaysian-spirited, or as patriotic as what is being tirelessly commercialized through TV advertisements during Deepa-Raya or GongXi-Raya seasons, take a good look at those typical Malay and Chinese restaurants in KL. Trust me, you would be disappointed as you would find it difficult to look for the suppossedly cultural blend in those restaurants (okay, except for the mushrooming 24-hour mamak restaurants).

When a friend of mine from Sabah came to KL recently, he was a little upset.
“I was surprised when the owner of that restaurant asked me to leave his restaurant,” he complained.
“What happened?” I said.
“He said that I was in a Chinese restaurant.”
“Okay.”
“Yes Cekmi. I don’t understand. Why is it there are no Malays in that restaurant?” He paused for a while, thinking for the answer for his own question. He then continued, “You know what Cekmi. In Sabah, you will see all kinds of people eating in Chinese restaurants. No harm. All people there are the same. You don’t mark that fella as a Chinese, or a Malay, or an Indian. We are all considered Malaysians. No difference.”
I smiled.

Attention tourists, if you would like to see the true colors of Malaysia, do visit the outer circles of Malaysia – Perak, Kelantan and Sabah - and do enjoy the beautiful kaleidoscopic atmosphere and the warmth of unprejudiced Malaysians. That’s the spirit of our 50-year old Malaysia.

Go Go Go, Visit Malaysia 2007!

Labels: cekmi's candid observation