Scandalous Politics

With only a couple more days left in Malaysia, its getting close to time to wrap up this blog. It has been a lot of fun writing this last year and the blog sure proved to be an incredibly useful way of staying connected with family and friends when we really needed to be but all good things must come to an end. We have enjoyed sharing our experiences with you all and have loved every one of your sometimes colorful and rambling comments. Whenever we have access to the internet we hurry to check for any new comments. It makes our day if there are. So thank you to all you loyal readers for brightening our days and encouraging us to keep posting.

Before we sign off, we thought we would share one last long winded story with you all.

SCANDAL!!!
Its in the air here in Malaysia. Take a look at the cover of any Malaysian newspaper from the past couple of weeks and you will get a glimpse of a pretty huge and sadly, ugly scandal involving a leading politician and his personal aide. His aide happens to be a male and is accusing the politician, Anwar Ibrahim, of sodomy (the charges read something like forced carnal relations contrary to nature). Its really an embarrassing display of Malaysian politics and how low those in power will go to hang onto power. Although I am not a fan of Anwar’s politics, I am sad for him and disgusted with the government and media in this country. What makes this whole scandal worse is that it already happened 10 years ago. The same politician, the same accusation. It seems whenever his popularity starts to threaten the status quo, the status quo fights back in the ugliest way it can. 10 years ago he was arrested, thrown in jail, and only freed several years later. He then fled to America, while his wife led a pretty strong opposition movement in Malaysia. He returned only last year and took the reins of one of Malaysia’s opposition parties, helped that party to put a pretty big dent in the controlling party’s stronghold on the government, and then found himself embroiled in another scandal. Thing is few Malaysians believe the charges. They didn’t 10 years ago and they don’t now. They believe the controlling party is threatened by Anwar and wants him to disappear. Its really a messed up situation and a sad reflection on how even in the face of boldfaced, mean-spirited, self-preserving lies, the average person feels helpless to do anything about it, except read the headlines, feel angry at the injustice, and wait to see what happens.

Currently, we find ourselves in the midst of a Malaysian scandal and it sucks. With just a few days left, presents for our friends ready to give away, and sappy goodbye letters already written, we get caught in the middle of some local politicking and fear our adopted family is upset with us.

It started with the head of the kampung (all matters confusing and frustrating seem to begin with him). We went to his house with our adopted family on Saturday night to say hello and find out how the heck we are getting to the airport. Actually, let me back up a bit in the story because how we are getting to the airport is a story worth sharing and hints at some of the tension already brewing between our family and the head of the kampung.

So, Ben and I figured we would just pack our bags, ask Abang Mi to take us to the nearby bus station and catch a bus to the airport. We were hoping that Abang Mi would say he would take us all the way to the airport, as he had suggested before, but we had no expectations and were fully prepared and okay with just taking a bus. Of course, before we could even ask Abang Mi, our friends were mulling over the best way to get us to the airport. Abang Mi thought he could do it but was afraid his car was not big enough. He knew the head of the kampung was interested in sending us off so he thought maybe we could caravan in two cars or rent a small van. All reasonable and easily accomplished ideas. Well, when the head of the kampung was reminded of our impending departure he decided it would be so much better and fun, if they rented a bus and sold tickets to whoever was interested in sending us off. We would stop at Nilai, a town popular for its cheap shopping and close to the airport, and spend the day shopping with our friends before heading out late on Wednesday evening. Now does that sound reasonable or easy? It sounds like a hassle and a long day before a long flight but hey, it’s a very nice gesture and it would get us to the airport without us having to transfer our huge bags too many times so why not, let’s just see what happens.

The head of the kampung’s bus idea was greeted in the same ‘are you crazy, why are you making this so difficult’ way we first received it by most people in the kampung. For a week, we heard whispers of the big bus sendoff, accompanied by rolled eyes and faces that said ‘is that really necessary’. We were feeling a little guilty, fearing that people thought that we were the ones with the hairbrained bus idea – ‘those uppity white people who do they think they are, they can’t just take a bus or car like us normal folk’. Abang Mi, especially, thought it was an absurd idea and kept waiting for it to go away but Saturday it resurfaced, when the head of the kampung stood behind his crazy idea and demanded Abang Mi spend Sunday, his one free day, rounding up Kuala Mai residents interested in taking the bus to Nilai. Mi tried to express some doubt about the idea but it fell on deaf ears and I am pretty sure that Abang Mi left Saturday night thinking ‘you pompous jackass, it’s a dumb idea but if you want to see it happen why don’t you take care of it yourself because I sure as hell am not helping you this time’.

Okay, now the scandal. So on Saturday while we were sitting at the head of the kampung’s house listening, he called a local reporter and arranged to have him come to our house to interview us for an article on our life in the kampung. He invited Abang Mi and Saadiah to be there so we could take a picture with our adopted family and made it sound like a fun idea for all involved. Abang Mi got excited and even volunteered to round up some people to make a special meal for the reporter. As we were leaving, we asked when the reporter would be coming and the head of the kampung said ‘I don’t know, the afternoon, around 3 or 4PM’. We all replied ‘great, see you then’ and went on our merry way.

Well, on Sunday plans changed suddenly and while we were out early in the afternoon, the head of the kampung told us the reporter was coming early, he would be arriving in about 10minutes so head back to our house. Huh? Ok. We rush back to the house, with our friends who were visiting from KL and had not yet seen our house, and do our best to play host, while getting ready for the reporter. I bring out water and my friend says that is okay for us but not for the reporter what else do you have. She drags me into the kitchen and puts me to work making tea and cutting cake for our guests. The reporter arrives and they get straight to talking (I missed most of the interview). Its just the head of the kampung and the reporter, no Mi, no Saadiah. Neither Ben nor I think to call them, which really was our bad. We were being swept along and overwhelmed by the situation as usual and completely missed the boat. When the reporter asked, “who is your family in the kampung?”, Ben responded “I feel like the whole kampung is our family”. Oh yeah, we did soo.. bad but we really had no idea what people were expecting from us or the importance they were placing on this article and to make matters worse, my second family from Kuala Lumpur was there for the interview and it was their picture the reporter took for the article not Abang Mi’s and Saadiah’s.

It was not until later that afternoon, when we stopped to visit Kak Saadiah and Abang Mi that I realized that a huge slight had occurred and that we were involved. Abang Mi was nowhere to be found, Saadiah said he disappeared as soon as he learned that the reporter had come and gone in his absence, and there was a huge spread of food ready for the reporter who never arrived. How did we not realize?!? How did we let this happen? How did we not even stop to think? Man, did I feel bad but Saadiah carried on as usual and it was not until later that evening when I started receiving strange text messages from Abang Mi that I knew things were not good. He felt the head of the kampung had changed the time purposely to exclude Abang Mi, who had to take his son back to school early that afternoon, and was using the article to promote himself as usual. Fair enough, it was a lousy thing for the head of the kampung to do but he continued to tell me that if I have any problems please talk to the head of the kampung, as he is smarter and more sincere. What? Seriously, two days before we leave and we get caught in the middle of a very ugly scandal.

Today, I thought things had passed when I received a message saying that they are not upset with Ben and I at all, they are just angry with the head of the kampung for being so selfish and insincere. However, Ben’s outing with them this evening has us feeling somehow implicated in this whole thing. There is something we are supposed to say or do to apologize to them but we cannot seem to find the secret sequence of words. We have tried ‘we are sorry, if we slighted you, we feel awful, because you are like family to us and we would never want to make you feel bad. We appreciate all you have done for us’ but that did not seem to have the desired effect. They continue to claim that they do not blame us but they will not be attending our little goodbye sendoff tomorrow and want nothing to do with getting us to the airport – it is our and the head of the kampung’s problem now. I am so sad. I wish I had been able to crack the social code here because I really do like Abang Mi and Kak Saadiah. I think they are two of the nicest, most generous, and sincere people I have ever met and yet, somehow I have not found a proper way to express that to them.

So this is what we get for our perpetual confusion. Its not just frustrating situations and stories to laugh at later, sometimes going with the flow can get you into trouble. We should have known, I know, but my goodness we were soo close to escaping without paying too much for our social ignorance. Maybe asking questions no matter where you are it not such a bad idea after all.

UPDATE:
So another day has gone by and the plot has thickened. I think we have sorted out everything with our family but it is now up to the head of the kampung and Abang Mi to settle matters. The newspaper article came out this morning with a picture of us and 'our adopted family' from KL. Not good, Abang Mi is fuming mad and the head of the kampung knows it. Abang Mi won't answer his phone and is still refusing to attend this evening's send off. And tomorrow, god knows how we are getting to the airport tomorrow - walking maybe?

But wait, this just in, Ben just talked to the head of the kampung and encouraged him to arrange having the reporter come back and do another story! This time with Abang Mi and Saadiah, at their house. Will it work, will we all be friends again, will Ben and Casey be hitchhiking to the airport? Stay tuned...