Moving on to current times, and with the Interlok/pariah issue. You get every Tom, Dick and Harry opening their piehole with their own comment. So here I am, jumping on the bandwagon (which actually doesn’t seem to move at all).

Let’s put it on the table here. You have this demigod Indian party and a whole bunch of Indian NGOs (which I’ve never heard of before until this issue arose) calling for the removal of the book from the syllabus. All crying out one common reason – **pause for dramatic effect** – Indians are sensitive to the word ‘pariah’. – **longer pause** – It is not in line with the 1Malaysia slogan.

My sensitivity to this matter is THIS big

Yes folks, the word sensitivity gets thrown around more times than Ibrahim Ali stuttered in Al Jazeera. And 1Malaysia pops up more times than STDs in a brothel.

The end does not justify the means. I agree to rescinding the book from the syllabus. But the question of WHY is important as well. You will surely not hear me saying that it’s not in line with 1Malaysia and that Indians are sensitive to the word ‘pariah’. The Indians who are actually sensitive to the word ‘pariah’ are probably very deeply rooted in the caste system themselves. The fact is and will always remain that the caste system was alive and well in the days prescribed within the context of the novel, and the immigrants felt free of them once they set foot in this land.

Now, why do I say that the rescinding is necessary, but not for the reasons stated? Simple. Our teachers are ill-equipped.

Not THAT kind of equipped

Pariah is a word that is much maligned like the word ‘keling’. If you wanna read more about ‘keling’, please do so here. Anyways, those words have their real meanings, but they’ve been used mainly for insults. The words themselves do not contain any malice, but the intent of the person who utters them usually does. These words hold a descriptive meaning to particular sections of ethnic groups, as proven by their etymology, and are not intended for causing harm.

Schoolchildren though, cannot see the difference there, and they will automatically look at ‘pariah’ in a negative light, as the majority of utterances are indeed intended for insults and causing hurt.

In Malaysia, with even school principals uttering racist remarks, can we say that our teachers are fully prepared 2 guide the children as necessary? The government clearly has no spine to enforce strict disciplinary codes in fear of losing support (or out of mere ignorance). Who’s to say that the teachers themselves fully understand the usage of the word ‘pariah’ in context?

Teachers must b able to explain to children on why the word has been used. They should be well versed with literary concepts and have a strong grasp of Malaysian history before even attempting to educate the children. But with even our history syllabus distorted for political means, will this materialise? I am not saying that all teachers are such, but it doesn’t matter if only a small percentage of teachers are ill-equipped. Planting wrong and inaccurate information into young minds, whether with or without intent, IS WRONG. Can the Education Ministry give a guarantee that all KOMSAS teachers are fully aware of all these issues and give a neutral perspective on ‘pariah’?

When so many things regarding Malaysian races and religions being perverted by the system, the minds of children don’t stand a chance here. Just like how Peanut Butter & Jelly Man does not stand a chance against Superman in an arm-wrestling contest.

No chance at all.

It is for that reason that I want the book rescinded. Not because of me being sensitive to the word ‘pariah’. The only thing I’m sensitive to are tickles. And my girth.

We’ve been assimilated as Malaysians for the past 50 odd years. Desensitization should have occurred naturally long time ago. Sensitivity is bullshit. As a progressive society we shud be able to voice our views independently, without fear.

Early reactions to Interlok suggested burning the book or putting up a straight ban on it. Sheesh. What do these guys have for breakfast every day? A pile of steaming horse crap? Burning the book makes us like Hitler. Banning it likens us to Stalin. We’re neither.

Possible book that was burnt - How To Win A War

Streamline our education system, train teachers to their fullest capabilities, ensure proper guidelines are followed, remove politics from the education system. When that happens, trust me, we could even study the Quran, Bible, BhagavadGita or any other scriptures together and have a rational discussion and dialogues about it without over-zealous assholes demonstrating and giving speeches with terrible grammar.

I stress again, removing Interlok coz it’s not in line with 1Malaysia is about the lamest excuse I can think of. Seriously, I think it’s more lame than a superhero character called Squirrel Girl. Protesting Interlok using that reason means that you are sending the message that taboo will always be an issue in Msia, and we can never discuss any issues openly for fear of rattling sensitivities. You are telling the children to not to learn and understand and accept history, but to avoid it and lock skeletons in the closet. One day those skeleton WILL come out, and it is gonna scare the bejeezus outta you and make you piss all over your pants and your expensive Persian rug.

It's either this, or your Persian rug. Your choice.

Let’s call a spade, a spade. The 1Malaysia reason is ass-kissing in a glaringly obvious fashion. Have the fucking guts to stand up and speak. And maybe, just maybe, people will start respecting your views and won’t look at you like you’re the incompetent nincompoop you are.

I dare say that these parties aren’t campaigning to remove Interlok from syllabus for the reasons I’VE mentioned, because it will only EXPOSE the weakness of our public education system. And to publicly declare that the education system is very much flawed is clearly not in line with 1AssKissing.

So instead of addressing THAT issue, we have quarters claiming ‘pariah’ is sensitive. Not in line with 1Malaysia. Easy peasy, case closed.

PS: Also, editing books is a big no-no. If you change the original content, what use is there for it in schools? Since the book was already edited before dropping into the syllabus, I’d say it shouldn’t have been put into the syllabus in the 1st place.

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So Sabrina and I headed to PJ and reached the place at around 10.30am. By the time we got there, the place was madness! It was crawling with cheapskate people like us wanting to buy RM 36 novels at RM 8. Sheesh! Our economy is quite bad, I suppose. Sabrina’s biggest question was, what the fuck were all these people doing at a book sale at 10 in the fucking morning on a weekday. The grim reality is that there are many Malaysians out there with nothing better to do. The government should start looking into this shit.

You can imagine what would happen if someone farted here

So it took me 90 minutes to gather all the books that I wanted. By that I mean 90 mins to scour through aisle by aisle, pushing those indiscriminate buffaloes outta the way, mumbling “stupid fucker/asshole/dumbass” under my breath just loud enough for them to hear, giving a seedy stare at donkeys who don’t move aside to lets us wide-girthed people to pass and at the same time picking out books that I want.

I was lucky enough to find my favourite author, Jeffrey Archer being tucked away on one corner. I was lucky. Whatever books of his that I didn’t have, they had. And it was orgasmic. I gathered 9 of his books and then I was off to plunder the Stephen King section. Came out unscathed with 5 books of Mr. King. I also found 2 humour books: Our Dumb World and 50 Ways to Fuck the Planet. I admit, the titles are catchy and they are the reason that I grabbed them. Our Dumb World gives a humourous insight on the countries of the world (eg: Nigeria is a country well known for it’s multi-millionnaire princes with great aptitude for email spamming). And the other book just allows me to show the finger to those tree-huggers who sometimes get in my way of throwing away a greasy burger wrap on the roadside. Come on, it’s Malaysia! Anywhere is your rubbish bin (except your house).

The dick standing behind Sabrina in our long queue to the payment counter was complaining on and on and on about how he finds this long queue problematic and such wussy statements. I see all those books have begun to give an impact on his wuss-meter. The siren was blaring inside this man. He couldn’t possibly understand why were there so many people and why the queues were a nightmare. Dude, you’re getting cheap books here. Of course there’s gonna be a stampede of cheapskate Malaysians barging in early in the morning to get these books. You expect to have an air-conditioned villa where you move in your Segway to buy books? We should’ve slapped him silly and told him to grow a pair. You’re there, it’s crowded, you’re queuing up. So what? You’re getting what you came for, right? Pussy.

Anyways, after 90 minutes, we were thankful to get out. We got what we came for. A total of 22 books for me with a total damage of RM 190. Worth every fucking sen. I hope the guys at Big Bad Wolf Books would do this often. And perhaps, next time, you’d might wanna try to get a larger area for the sale. You could fit more people in it and make a faster profit.

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