It is the season of swearing with the American song ‘I swear’ turning the atmosphere into a happy swearing mood! While Anwar Ibrahim is the only one who says ‘I won’t swear’, the rest of the cohorts are swearing over the Muslim holy book or unofficially and even to clear their hands of scandals.

I have now gone into the swearing mood too. Why not! I swear that it is now 17 years since I am living in Malaysia. I also swear that I am not a Petai – Pendatang Asing Tanpa Izin – though I am an alien because I come from Mauritius.

I swear, not by the moon or the sky, but in Malaysia they say on the mother’s forehead that I was robbed of my rights for 17 years. I also swear that for a foreigner, the culture shock that I received in Malaysia was not to see a multitude of cultures living together (in tiny Mauritius they do the same, they live together happily ever after) but it was the culture of the local Muslims that really shocked me.

 I visited South Africa and yet I saw many people who were angry and unhappy with the apartheid system to the point that they overturned the regime that ran over the system to free the country from apartheid. I swear that I was told by many non-Muslims and even by ‘Mamak’ Muslims that Malaysia was run as a mini-apartheid.

Since this is the season of statutory declaration, I will follow Anwar Ibrahim by stating that I am not making a statutory declaration because this will offend others. I am simply swearing as an alien that I come in peace, and I know how to make the V sign with my fingers. Yet I also swear by the middle finger – oops salah type – that I will not let anyone rob my son of his rights too.

He is not ‘mamak’ and he is not bumiputera even though his mom is of Malay-Singapore origin and is recognized as a bumi, I swear that I know in advance that my son will not be allowed to go to the UiTM and to get Mara loans. He may not even get any loans due to a system that hates foreign parents and deprives their Malaysian children of the facilities that the local children get.

I also swear that as a Muslim alien, I am treated even worse than the local non-Muslims this is because the system does not recognize aliens as Islamic, they are treated as third class people though this country is a third world mentally sick nation with world class facilities – dixit Sammy Velloo.

I know the ‘Malays’ will query me and ask me what rights I am talking about, since this is their bumi and they are bumiputera and they have all the rights while others who are non-bumis are supposed to live without rights.

Yet I swear that Anwar Ibrahim will restore the rights because he is half bumi like my son and that will surely make him understand why I am swearing while he is not swearing at all. And being a Muslim of Alien origin with alien parts and an alien memory chip in my head, I swear to all the bumi’s in this country that Anwar is right that he should not be swearing and taking the Quraan for granted!

I swear again that this is not a political ploy by me an alien to tell the people to support the Party Keadilaan Rakyat (PKR) leader but then why would I do so since I swear that that I know the Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN) is safe keeping the Special Branch (SB) report that says Kazi adalah orang DSAI! Hence this is the red line that was crossed in 1998 and decided upon by some frugal elements that an alien was a man of the PKR leader and thus he would not be granted any Permanent Residence (PR). I do swear solemnly that I never met Anwar Ibrahim in my life yet I am said to be his man! And do not be surprised who I met before I came to Malaysia.

I again swear for real this time in the name of Allah that I am not writing this article in bad intent but with the aim at exposing the crude reality of foreign parents, fathers in particular, who are of white, blue, black and brown color like me but who are mistreated daily in this country by an authority that has gone blind and ugly.

I swear for the sake of Rasulullah Hazrat Muhammad that I am African born in Mauritius but of Iraqi descent and that in Islam there is no such thing as Malay superiority or Arab hegemony and not even black smartness but as Islam and Muslims we are to be united and to be together.  The Quraan speaks well when it says that race is not a factor in Islam but it is my race – that of being an alien – that hampers my progress in Malaysia.

I also swear that I met with Tun Mahathir Mohamad during his visit to Mauritius and as a Muslim I took the responsibility to defend him against the hordes of local press that was attacking him. They said, and this I swear, that he was a friend of Robert Mugabe and that his country was run like an apartheid system where others, non-Muslims indeed, were mistreated. They also said he was an ugly bad monster who should be shipped out of Mauritius. I stood and defended him first of all as a Muslim and I also stood and defended him because it was not the Mauritian hospitality to criticize someone the way the local press did.

Tun Mahathir was blurring at what was happening since he could not read French – the newspapers are in French in Mauritius – but he invited me to visit Malaysia and to meet bereaved Tan Sri Bashir Ismail in order to coordinate things in the event I was to visit Malaysia. He even said I will be taken care of in Malaysia. It is not this that makes me swear that I was robbed or rights but it is the reality of Malaysia, a country where if you are a foreigner with loads of cash, they kiss you in your ass but if you are broke they kick your ass out of the country!

I swear that it is in Malaysia that a Malay businessman robbed me of my money and went to hajj only to tell me that he is blurred and has forgotten my name but he has a faint memory of my face. This he swore, well the swearing business started way back in 1995 that he went to hajj and then he was hit by a stroke.

It is in Malaysia that a well known union leader refused to pay me back and threatened to call the immigration to ship me out of the country but to his dismay, I called the police to get to see his face all red of shame. I was holding his cheque that bounced 3 times! It would be CBT if he was caught!

Well I do not want to bore you people but the fantastic thing is I can swear that if the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) was to come to power, I will not be unhappy at all since I know they will restore my rights. The Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may talk and promise things but it is the delivery that counts and this is where, I swear for the last time, they will never get it right! I want my rights respected and I believe by Allah that it is not the Barisan National (BN) that will make it happen!

Comments (6)

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written by Bin Daud, August 24, 2008

Hmm interesting article, looks like the author is caught in between two worlds, Malaysia and Mauritius.

I feel your pain, friend, many of us do
written by Mr Smith, August 24, 2008

We know how foreign spouse are being treated. And you know how we non-Malays are being treated. You are an angry man, so are we.
Yes, I believe as you do, that PKR will restore your rights as a decent human being.

Thanks Mr Smith
written by Kazi Mahmood, August 24, 2008

Things must change. Otherwise it will be such a waste to have lived here for that long. My son of 11 years of age keeps telling me that he too feels the pain in this country. His respect for Malaysia is lower and he looks forward to live abroad if things does not change. He is a Malaysian Muslim born in the country and this is a paradox that non-Muslims must learn here in Malaysia. Not all Muslims are treated equal in this country.

To Mr Bin Daud, I am not trapped anywhere. I am living here on my own will yet it is sad that in a country like Mauritius, a Hindu majority country, Muslims and Hindus and Christians and Chinese or White Jews and French White and Black Africans as well as Arabs are living together in peace and harmony and it is a place where everyone - even the foreigner - has rights, equal rights!

It is the Malaysians, especially the Malays, that are trapped in their own country and in their own system. I had hopes that after M08 (8th March), the PM would really wake up and wear the hat of change but alas, he only woke up to fall back into the same murky waters.

Alas!

Rights in Malaysia
written by Hassan Abdullah, August 27, 2008

Hi Mr Obscure bin Riddle

What rights are you f****** talking about (or rather writing about)?

sicko
written by Kazi Mahmood, August 27, 2008

i think you are sick, Hassan Abdullah. You do not get the right to answers to your stupid question with the bullying attitude that you show. No one, absolutely NO ONE is impressed and certainly not me by our f word. Bring it on if you dare!

good writing
written by menj, September 04, 2008

Good writing, brother. I did not expect you to have such intimate knowledge of our place

- MENJ

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