Wince-inducing blog post

Thanks to this blog, I chanced upon another blog which is maintained by an undergraduate (I think, although I could be wrong) who is currently studying in a university in Kedah. From her writing, I can tell that she is a driven, ambitious and feisty girl. All of which, I believe, are great qualities for a girl to have.

But problems can arise from being, how should I say, too opinionated, especially about a cultural symbol belonging to another.

In a recent posting, she openly disagreed on the new dress code rules imposed by her university.

I think it is fair and well within her rights to blog and inform the media about it. But here’s the part that made me wince. *I have bolded the statements she made which I have a problem with*.

She wrote: As a Risk Management student, let me do some evaluation on the RISKS of obliging the dress code by wearing baju kurung:

• Baju kurung is a physical hazard to the wearer!
  The distance of the stairs of the bus from the ground is more than the diameter of the skirt, no matter how much you stretch the cloth. I saw a lot of people falling down at the entrance of buses while boarding the buses. Besides, while alighting the bus, people behind you might step onto your skirt causing you to fall down as well.
• Baju kurung limits your movement!
  That is the reason why you-know-who are so blardy slow when getting from location A to location B which would take only a few minutes if we are wearing long pants or decently short skirt. And I have a lot of classes to rush to, so I don’t have the time to enjoy the scenery along the way, thank you!
• Baju kurung is a health hazard!
  Baju kurung is made from a cloth material that does not absorb sweat (Now I know why there are unbearable BO every time I go near you-know-who) and we are living in a country that is experiencing summer all year long, which means that we are sweating most of the time! It is easy to fall sick (too heaty) when you are standing under the sun for too long wearing clothes that cover you from head to toe. I don’t know how you-know-who survived wearing a tudung under similar condition! (And some of them go to sports activities with THAT! Rimas aku!)
• Baju kurung is a financial risk!
  Baju kurung is not cheap, you know? With a set of baju kurung, I can have 3 long-sleeved formal shirts! Beside having to spend hundreds on books alone, we’ll have to spend more money on clothes. The PTPTN (Pity Pity Notes) loan that we are getting is not enough for books AND food, never mind clothes! You are not being considerate towards poor and needy students! We pay for education and knowledge, NOT clothings!
• Baju kurung is a catalyst for criminal offences!
  Baju kurung increases the possibility of mental stress. You see, beside worrying about our sucky academic performance, we have to worry about dress code. A lot of students are depressed enough because of poor academic performance due to biased and racist lecturers and you have to add pour salt to the wound. People who are desperate for money would do anything, even if it is to buy proper clothes according to YOUR rules! Being a part of the statistics for criminal offence is something to be proud of, no?

Baju kurung causing BO? Among you-know-who?

I think I know whom she is referring to and it ain’t the same you-know-who from the Harry Potter books :P

It is such speaking-without-thinking comments that I find disturbing. It is disappointing too, coming from an intelligent young woman.

That is why I am glad someone left this comment on her blog:

I agree that universities should not enforce these kind of restrictions/rulings particularly those that pertains to dresscode and attire, as in my view, university is the time where one is treated like an adult, who’s able to make his or her own decisions, and this include deciding on what to wear to classes. I also agree that UUM’s management and staff have a rather outdated view when it comes to education and an even more outdated view on life. I remember a few years back, visiting UUM for a research project, and I was stopped and called by one of the academic staff there and was lectured for not covering my head, albeit the lecturer was aware that I was not a student and was a visitor. On that moment, I make the conclusion that the reason for the construction of the university at such remote place is so that people like him could be send and myopically think that they are god’s warriors.

Having said that, I also think that it is not right for you to just lambast ‘baju kurung’ and making all that ridiculing statements associating it such negativity. Please, baju kurung leads to BO? Not unless you don’t practise proper hygiene, which maybe the case for certain segments of UUM’s students population. Baju kurung is a physical hazard to the wearer? One could just lift the skirt slightly and voila, you can stretch as wide as you want. Again, its the case of the wearers, not the attire itself, but to make all that slandering remarks, it’s just totally uncalled for. – Maverick

I respect this young undergrad for having an opinion and the guts to stand up for what she believes in. But she, and all of us, must remember that we have to be responsible when speaking our minds, especially when it touches matters as sensitive as culture.

Stick to the facts and don’t let our emotions and personal biases cloud our thinking and judgement.

Update!

http://clareng.com/2007/07/30/i-not-stupid-you-are/

Comment left by zewt:
that is very extensive research you’ve done there… even to the satin part about pyjamas. but i have to say… to blame BO on baju kurung is a bit far fetched. i think there’s no need to list out a reason why baju kurung is not of preference. so long as you’re genuinely being forced to wear it… i think that’s bad enough.

Reply by blogger:
You see, I never blame it on baju kurung…I picked the attire because we were forced to wear them. For the BO thingy, any attire is prone to BO or rather enhance it for certain people…same goes to cheongsam, no? And I have to explain myself long-winded for many people out there who do not understand what I was talking about and called me a racist…Too bad, some people don’t seem to have the intelligence to distinguish between racist remark and non-racist remark…sigh~

No monkey business

   I just got back from visiting my cousin-in-law’s newly opened cafe in banting. She is 27 and an mba holder who has always been business-minded. So her decision to open up her own eatery (with her long-term boyfriend) does not come as a surprise to me.

However, I have to admit that when I heard that she was setting up food business in banting, I was a bit sceptical. The question running through my mind was: “can a cafe selling mostly-western food work in little banting?”

But having seen her and her friends manning the restaurant in their second day of operation, I think she made the right choice.

What her business does is filling a need. Apparently, there isn’t a western-food restaurant within the vicinity. Nearby eateries are all selling goreng-goreng and tom yam, so she is not competing with any of them specifically. Also, no one in town cooks good western food, so that is also an advantage for her.

Since she doesn’t have overhead issues to think of – the land where her cafe stands belongs to her family – all she has to worry about is making good food and giving good service to her customers.

Right now, the customers are mostly family and family friends. But they’re quite impressed with the food as well as the fact that the business is run by youngsters – my cousin-on-law is the oldest among her staff.

My husband has also resolved to come to banting every weekend to help out in the kitchen. For those who don’t know, he studied culinary arts in college and has quite an extensive experience of working in the kitchen of hotels and coffee houses. Unlike moi, he looooves getting his hands dirty in the kitchen. Being all busy in the kitchen, rushing orders from the customers is almost therapeutic for him. He says that being in the kitchen keeps his mind sharp.

I don’t think I can work in a busy kitchen because I panic too easily. Leave the dirty dishes to me but don’t ask me to take the orders and, god forbid, prepare the food!

Anyway, we are going there again tomorrow morning. I have to remind my husband to buy some bananas before that. He wants to feed the pet monkey (kera) they have over there. The kera got so friendly with him that it refused to let go of him. It even decided to climb on his back and sit on his neck while eating rambutan taken from the tree behind the cafe. I have it on video – I took using my mobile – and I promise to upload it on Yahoo! videos soon. Watch this space!