Namewee from a Chinese perspective

It strikes me that Namewee expresses himself in a Chinese way you will not encounter from the likes of DAP 2.0’s newly minted currency – called theHasnah Yeop political coin.

By Helen Ang

Namewee is in the news again for his just released movie Nasi Lemak 2.0 and his reported attempt at getting a meeting with the prime minister. A controversy magnet, Namewee has also at the same time attracted the anticipated brickbats and belligerent threats from the usual suspects.

没 有 天 那 有 地

没 有 地 那 有 家

没 有 家 那 有 你

没 有 你 那 有 我

Lyrics from the classic hit 酒干倘卖无 in which a girl sings about her adopted father: “Without heaven how can there be earth, without the land how can there be home, without home how can there be you, without you how can there be me …”

Namewee’s rap in Negarakuku recalls to me some echoing words in almost the same cadences:

我 愛 我 的 國 家

有 國 才 有 家

有 家 才 有 我

站 在 這 邊 跟 你

大 聲 唱 歌

(Translation: I love my country, [only] when there is country there is home, [only] when there is home there is me, now [standing] here singing song loudly to you…)

DAP Christian politician Hannah Yeoh in tudung

It strikes me that Namewee expresses himself in a Chinese way you will not encounter from the likes of DAP 2.0’s newly minted currency – called the Hasnah Yeop political coin.

It may surprise you that in his controversialNegarakuku released in 2007, Namewee begins the rap by professing his love for Malaysia to which he later adds the wry 這 個 國 家 我 佷 喜 歡 “this country I like very much”.

Namewee’s ambivalence is genuine of the generally conflicted Chinese here rather than the one-dimensionality of the Firsters and their “I’m-more-Malaysian-than anyone else” chest thumping .

Embedded in the Chinese language and thus its ethos (remember, ‘bahasa jiwa bangsa’) is the concept of jia 家 (home), around which form the words ‘family’ and ‘country’.

Hannah Yeoh with her God-walks-with-me tweets fawned over by 30,000 faithful followers is on a totally different plane from the Mandarin-and-Hokkien speaking Namewee who pursued his tertiary education in Taiwan.

In fact, the Chinese school student unable to get a seat in local universities is one of Namewee’s grouses aired in Negarakuku.

Caring for the Chinese? Nah

Do note that the DAP does not take up the above type ‘Chinese’ issues.

Therefore it boggles the mind how the party’s detractors (read:Utusan/Umno bloggers) still keep claiming that DAP favours the Chinese. In truth, its leaders favour whatever is advantageous for themselves first and foremost. Whatever it takes for them to retain and expand their clout (power has gotten to their heads) so that they can continue to enjoy the perks of office.

After all, in Penang which DAP controls, Lim Guan Eng takes so much pride in awarding bumiputera contractors 98 percent to 100 percent of the state tenders (quoting the chief minister’s own boast).

Thus, rhetorically speaking, DAP should have no issues either if 98%-100% of local varsity places were to go to bumiputera.

So how can we expect this Anak Malaysia-sloganeering party to membela nasib kami orang Cina when DAP is so plainly contemptuous of our Chinese ethnicity and at the same time so deceitfully eager to elevate the Malay race and religion in order to please a pivotal vote bank?

The struggle of Umno, according to its founding principles, is to resuscitate the Malay (‘Hidup Melayu!’). The struggle of PAS is for Islam whereas MCA and MIC have ‘Chinese’ and ‘Indian’ in their party names respectively. What values do the DAP stand for?

The mean and petty DAP

It is the much maligned MCA instead that recently managed to pull off theUEC coup, the matter of university entrance for holders of the Chinese school unified exam certificate — which Namewee complained about in his rap as [previously] being treated like a worthless piece of paper by our authorities, i.e. the qualification accepted overseas but not recognized by Malaysia.

But is DAP happy with this UEC positive development? Nope!

As you know, DAP and friends aren’t at all happy either with the announced repeal of the ISA — a civil liberties breakthrough which they’ve been at great pains to undermine.

The naysaying on both issues is for the same reason that it is their lame tactic to find fault with everything (see The Star, Sept 10) that might just put Barisan in good stead with the people.

News that the ISA will be abolished is surely a relief. Yet it’s been dismissed by the wet blankets with the same ill grace the opposition treated other Najib-driven reforms that have been trotted out.

The opposition cold water response and negative spin to the ISA rollback is nothing but petty. This mean spiritedness is not in the Chinese nature, merely the DAP 2.0′s character.