Segar

*gambar Pegasus sekadar hiasan

Permulaan sememangnya satu perkara yang menyegarkan.

Agak malang jika difikirkan, berapa ramai di kalangan kita yang takut untuk bermula semula dari kosong? Aku tidaklah terlalu berani, tetapi aku sentiasa jadi ghairah bila aku mulakan sesuatu hal, terutamanya bila bermula dari kosong.

Bagai menjadi kanak-kanak semula. Semuanya jadi permainan tanpa peraturan, peraturan boleh digubah mengikut hati dan logika sendiri, paling tidak pada peringkat awal - sebelum realiti dan limitasi datang menggigit. Tidak selalu berjaya, lebih kerap tergolek dari maju ke depan, tapi itulah kehidupan, ya?

Semakin lama aku perhatikan, rasanya seperti semakin jelas, peraturan nombor satu (order of the day) untuk zaman sekarang ini adalah untuk sentiasa jadi orang baru - sentiasa bermula. Tidak cukup  sekadar menjadi pakar cerita-cerita lama, tapi harus menguasai perkara-perkara baru dan segar.

Nanti kita sembang lagi.

Nilai Kelakian

Sebelum aku buka mulut (atau mula menekan keyboard) biar aku nyatakan dulu yang aku ini bukan manusia yang tradisional mahupun konservatif.

Baik. Apa yang aku nak katakan adalah nilai-nilai 'gentlemanly' sememangnya menjadi satu keperluan. Pada pendapat aku, seorang lelaki (normal, bukan gila atau bahalul) baik tua atau muda, apabila mempunyai nilai-nilai seorang 'gentleman' maka secara automatik akan menjadi lebih -elok.

Siapa pun.
Kalau dia seorang peniaga, dia akan jadi peniaga yang dipercayai.
Kalau dia seorang buruh, dia akan jadi buruh yang dipandang tinggi.
Kalau dia seorang samseng, dia akan jadi samseng yang lebih berwibawa.
Kalau dia seorang mat rempit......aku dah kehabisan ayat, fikir sendiri.

Dan maksud nilai-nilai ini bukanlah perkara-perkara remeh seperti tarik kerusi bila orang perempuan nak duduk, buka pintu kereta bila orang perempuan nak keluar, ataupun letak napkin di tengkuk sebelum makan. Tapi kalau kamu nak jadikan ini semua amalan harian pun boleh juga, terpulang kepada kamu (cuma jangan salahkan aku pula kalau orang perempuan tak pandang kamu sebagai 'gentleman' tapi hanya jadi geli-'geleman').

Tahu? Dapat tangkap apa yang aku cuba sampaikan?

The Godfather by Mario Puzo: Book I

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Don Corleone greeted the baker with an embrace. They had played together as children in Italy and had grown up in friendship. Every Easter freshly baked clotted-cheese and wheat-germ pies, their crusts yolk-gold, big round as truck wheels, arrived at Don Corleone's home. On Christmas, on family birthdays, rich creamy pastries proclaimed the Nazorines' respect.

And all through the years, lean and fat, Nazorine cheerfully paid his dues to the bakery union organized by the Don in his salad days. Never asking for a favor in return except for the chance to buy black-market OPA sugar coupons during the war.

Now the time had come for the baker to claim his rights as a loyal friend, and Don Corleone look forward with great pleasure to granting his request.

He gave the baker a Di Nobili cigar and a glass of yellow Strega and put his hand on the man's shoulder to urge him on.

That was the mark of the Don's humanity.

He knew from bitter experience what courage it took to ask a favor from a fellow man.

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His name was Anthony Coppola and he was the son of a man Don Corleone had worked with in the railroad yards in his youth. Coppola needed five hundred dollars to open a pizzeria; For a deposit on fixtures and the special oven. For reasons not gone into, credits was not available. The Don reached into his pocket and took out a roll of bills.

It was not quite enough. He grimaced and said to Tom Hagen, "Loan me a hundred dollars, I'll pay you back Monday when I go to the bank".

The supplicant protested that four hundred dollar would be ample, but Don Corleone patted his shoulder, saying, apologetically, "This fancy wedding left me a little short of cash".

He took the money Hagen extended to him and gave it to Anthony Coppola with his own roll of bills.

Hagen watched with quiet admiration.

The Don always taught that when a man was generous, he must show the generosity as personal. How flattering to Anthony Coppola that a man like the Don would borrow to loan him money. Not that Coppola did not know the Don was a millionaire but how many millionaires let themselves be put to even a small inconvenience by a poor friend?

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Polite Mat Sallehs & Rude Malaysians II

Quoting from a comment,
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"I'm not one of those ppl our society so love to call 'kebaratan'. I really believe we have an abundace of good manners inherent to our cultures, just like any other culture"
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Exactly! I have no clue how 'barat' I am (in the eyes of our society) because I don't even know what scale/measurement form they use to determine 'barat'ness. But abiding by the smart principle of "Know Thyself", I know who I am...and a white man wannabe I am not!

I care about things like these precisely because I love our Malaysian/Malay/Asian culture. In terms of cultural achievements, I dare say that we have more than what the Mat Sallehs have, go back a few hundred years back into the past, and you'll find a period when the Mat Sallehs were barbaric, backward, and seemingly merciless and us Asians at that time were full of -kehalusan budi bahasa.

The Mat Sallehs developed and took their culture to new heights sometime during and after the Renaissance period, yes their achievement was not only intellectual, it was also cultural. After that they continued to grow exponentially (allbeit with sporadic wars here and there) and finally they got to where they are today.

Our forefathers had very big hearts, our culture was rich and our manners were exquisite...I wonder what happened to all that? Maybe we ought to have our very own Renaissance in the near future...

Polite Mat Sallehs & Rude Malaysians

When I was growing up, I remember a very famous idea that was used by fellow classmates and me whenever we're composing essays about degradation of moral values among Malaysians. Our teachers would tirelessly remind us of this idea again and again:

Kemasukan budaya kuning / influence of western values

This is how everything bad that was going on at that time was justified and maybe, just maybe, the same idea is still propagating in schools nowadays. The kids are taught to blame nearly everything on western values. Name whatever form of moral issues we're facing nowadays, and it is highly likely that most of Malaysians -who have been brought up with the idea of 'kemasukan budaya kuning' will point to the west and say "hey, that's where this is coming from".

But friends...I've gone to the west. Some of you who are reading this are still there -in the west, and you who have experienced or are still experiencing life in the west would surely, I think, corroborate the statement that I'm about to make.

-The Mat Sallehs are generally more polite than Malaysians-

I have found from my previous experience that it is easier to find a polite Mat Salleh (yang kononnya berbudaya kuning jahat ini) than a polite Malaysian.

To find rude Malaysians...ah, this one is easy. Try going to virtually any counters (to pay bills etc) or try entering an area that is patrolled by Malaysian guards, I can give you more examples I think, but I'll refrain and will stop here.

Adieu~