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Opinion and draft collections

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The Unseen Walls: Malaysia’s Silent Class Divide We Dare Not Name

The Unseen Walls: Malaysia’s Silent Class Divide We Dare Not Name

Forget the glossy brochures and the relentless slogans about unity. Scratch beneath the surface of mamak banter and festive open houses, and you’ll find a different Malaysia, fractured by an insidious, rarely spoken truth: a deep, pervasive, and utterly corrosive class divide. It’s not just about the Ringgit in your wallet; it’s about the invisible walls built from attitude, expectation, and a chillingly ingrained sense of “place.”

Walk into a gleaming KLCC mall, awash in designer labels and the murmur of international accents. Then, take a short drive – or even a longer walk the security guard wouldn’t dream of taking – to the crowded flats or the aging shoplots where the air hangs thick with different anxieties. The physical distance is trivial. The chasm in lived experience is galactic. We exist in parallel...

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Friendship or Competition: What Defines Our Relationships?

Friendship or Competition: What Defines Our Relationships? (Hint: It’s Not Teh Tarik)

Let’s cut the wayang kulit, Malaysia. That warm mamak table laughter? Half of it’s fake. Those “geng-geng forever” WhatsApp groups? Digital battlegrounds. That effusive “Wah! Congrats!” when your friend lands a promotion? Tastes suspiciously like sour grapes wrapped in roti canai. Wake up, folks! We haven’t got friends; we’ve got frenemies on steroids, and our relationships are less about muhibbah and more about a never-ending, soul-sucking silent competition disguised as camaraderie. We’re not building bonds; we’re running a bloody rat race in matching baju kurung.

It starts young. Little Emma’s A+ in Maths isn’t celebrated; it’s a dagger in Auntie Zahra’s heart because her Adam only got an A-. Cousin Wan’s scholarship to the UK isn’t inspiration; it’s ammunition for his uncle to berate his son...

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The Fear of Missing Out in Malaysian Youth Culture: Racing on a Hamster Wheel to Nowhere

The Fear of Missing Out in Malaysian Youth Culture: Racing on a Hamster Wheel to Nowhere

Step into any Malaysian university canteen, trendy co-working space, or Instagram Explore page. Feel it? That low-frequency hum vibrating beneath the surface – it’s not the air-con. It’s the collective, frantic heartbeat of a generation drowning in FOMO – the Fear of Missing Out. This isn’t casual envy; it’s a full-blown cultural epidemic, a relentless, soul-crushing anxiety that’s hijacked Malaysian youth and turned their lives into an exhausting, high-stakes race on a hamster wheel leading precisely nowhere. We’ve weaponized comparison and called it aspiration.

Witness the carnage. The Academic Arms Race isn’t just about grades anymore. It’s about cramming every nanosecond with something that looks impressive on LinkedIn. Straight A’s? Minimum requirement. Must also be President of 3 clubs...

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Why Are Conversations About Mental Health Still Taboo? (Spoiler: Our Toxic Positivity)

Why Are Conversations About Mental Health Still Taboo? (Spoiler: Our Toxic Positivity)

The silence is deafening. In a nation that thrives on the roar of mamak chatter, the blare of political rallies, and the relentless buzz of social media, one crucial conversation remains stubbornly, dangerously hushed: Mental Health. We’ll dissect the price of ikan kembong, debate teh tarik sweetness levels for hours, and loudly lament physical ailments. But mention anxiety, depression, burnout, or grief that lingers? Watch the air turn icy. Witness the awkward shuffle, the averted gaze, the swift change of subject. Malaysia, we are masters of the Great Mental Health Shutdown, and this collective denial isn’t just ignorant; it’s killing us softly.

Why? Why, in 2024, is acknowledging psychological struggle still met with the same discomfort as finding hair in your nasi lemak? The arsenal of dismissal...

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The Great Malaysian Binge: Food Culture Gone Wild

The Great Malaysian Binge: Food Culture Gone Wild

Enough. Enough of the performative groans about being “kenyang giler” while simultaneously eyeing the next table’s ikan bakar. Enough of the Instagram flat-lays featuring mountains of nasi lemak, rendang, satay, and kuih that could feed a small village – consumed, photographed, and half-abandoned. Enough of treating every meal, every mamak session, every kenduri like it’s our personal Last Supper, a frantic, competitive gorge-fest disguised as appreciation. Malaysia, our relationship with food isn’t love; it’s a full-blown, dysfunctional binge culture, a national pathology where quantity has utterly dethroned quality, sense, and basic human dignity. We’ve turned one of our greatest cultural treasures into a gluttonous spectator sport.

Step into any mamak post-midnight. Witness the carnage. Tables groan under the weight of orders...

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The Problem with Conditional Friends: Do They Exist? (Spoiler: Yes, and They’re Exhausting)

The Problem with Conditional Friends: Do They Exist? (Spoiler: Yes, and They’re Exhausting)

Let’s ditch the wayang kulit and speak the uncomfortable truth swirling in every lukewarm teh tarik at a gathering you don’t want to be at: Conditional friends aren’t just a Malaysian problem; they’re practically a national pastime. We excel at crafting relationships built on shifting sands of utility, convenience, and carefully calculated social credit. These aren’t friendships; they’re transactional alliances, fragile constructs where loyalty evaporates the moment the perceived benefit dries up or the slightest inconvenience arises. And pretending otherwise? That’s the real bodoh culture.

You know them. The “friend” who materialises only when they need a favour – a job referral, a connection, help moving house, borrowing that fancy baju for a wedding. Poof! Suddenly, you’re their priority...

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Myth or Reality: The Malaysian Need for Perfection

Myth or Reality: The Malaysian Need for Perfection

Let’s cut through the ais kacang sweetness and confront the bitter kernel: Malaysia is obsessed with the theatre of perfection while wallowing in the swamp of cincai mediocrity. We demand flawless surfaces while cheerfully ignoring the crumbling foundations. This isn’t a genuine pursuit of excellence; it’s a cult of appearances, a national performance art where the impression of perfection matters infinitely more than the messy, often inconvenient, reality of getting things truly right. We polish the hood ornament while the engine sputters and dies.

Witness the grand illusion. The Instagram Life: Meticulously curated feeds showcasing spotless homes, gourmet nasi lemak art, and blessed family portraits – a shimmering mirage obscuring the unfolded laundry, the takeaway containers, and the simmering arguments just off-camera. The...

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Confessions of a Chronic Complainer: Society’s Curse

Confessions of a Chronic Complainer: Society’s Curse

Alright, fine. Guilty as charged. My name’s irrelevant, but my condition is epidemic: I am a Chronic Malaysian Complainer. And if you’re brutally honest with yourself, you probably are too. We’ve elevated grumbling to an art form, a national pastime more pervasive than teh tarik breaks and almost as essential as complaining about the teh tarik being too sweet. We don’t just point out problems; we marinate in them, stew in the juices of our own dissatisfaction, and serve it up piping hot to anyone within earshot – the mamak uncle, the long-suffering spouse, the captive colleague in the lift, the void of social media. This isn’t discourse; it’s a national pathology, a soul-sucking vortex of negativity that’s become our default setting, and frankly, it’s exhausting even me.

Think about it. The moment we wake up? The air-con’s not cold...

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The Unspoken Pressure to Conform: A Malaysian Perspective

The Unspoken Pressure to Conform: A Malaysian Perspective

It hangs thick in the air at family gatherings, whispers through school corridors, and dictates life choices with the subtlety of a gavel: The Unspoken Pressure to Conform. In Malaysia, individuality isn’t just discouraged; it’s often treated as a mild social disorder, a deviation from the meticulously curated script of “how things should be.” We preach unity, muhibbah, but beneath the surface simmers a potent, often suffocating, demand to fit in, blend in, and shut up. Step off the well-trodden path at your peril, for the collective Malaysian gaze is quick to judge and quicker still to correct.

The script starts young. Education? Forget passion or aptitude. The holy trinity reigns supreme: Medicine, Law, Engineering. Express an interest in art, music, social sciences, or – heaven forbid – the trades? Brace yourself for the...

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When Will Malaysians Start to Embrace Diversity? (Beyond the Rojak Metaphor)

When Will Malaysians Start to Embrace Diversity? (Beyond the Rojak Metaphor)

Enough. Enough of the glossy brochures, the saccharine Merdeka montages, the performative “Malaysia Truly Asia” slogans trotted out for tourists and national day speeches. We’ve mastered the aesthetic of diversity – the colourful baju, the spread of festive goodies, the token multicultural group photo op. But scratch beneath the surface of this carefully curated rojak, and you find not a harmonious blend, but stubborn, segregated chunks refusing to truly mingle. When, Malaysia, will we move beyond merely tolerating difference to genuinely embracing it? When will diversity stop being a photo opportunity and start being the lived, valued, messy reality of who we are?

The evidence of our collective failure is etched into the daily fabric of life. It’s the self-imposed segregation that persists like a bad habit...

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