Fostering a Sense of Conjoint Fate One Teh Tarik at a Time
By Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng
December 2019 EDITORIAL
Not many peoples in the world discuss what they want for dinner while eating lunch. Malaysians do, and we like to laugh about that fact – taking it to mean that we are down-to-earth, we are immediate and caring, and we distrust abstract matters. We also greet each other by smilingly asking if we have eaten: “Dah makan tak?” or “Jiak pah aboi?” or “Seik pao mei?” or “Saaptingalaa?”, sometimes rubbing our belly to accentuate the seriousness of the question....
Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng
is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. His latest book is Signals in the Noise: Notes on Penang, Malaysia and the World (Singapore: Faction Press) Homepage: wikibeng.com.
