squeak. speak. roar!

This really cracked me up. Some selected, delectable excerpts from The Star’s interview with Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo Burne:

Lingam video guy

What do you think makes a Malaysian?
Honestly, as a Malaysian you need to eat durian. Sometimes, when I am out of the country for more than six months, I am like, I need to have my Malaysian identity so give me some durians to eat. You need to know how to eat durians.

To be a real Malaysian, you need to spend time here to understand the people. The culture. If you listen to the language, you find a lot of mixture. In Chinese, there are lot of Malay words. I can speak a bit of Hokkien, so when I went over to China and spoke, they didn’t know what Hokkien words I was using.

Malaysians also have this tidak apa (don’t care) attitude, which has changed over the years. Especially towards society. It’s like you go to a restaurant and find a cockroach in your food. You talk to the boss and he says, “why are you making so much noise? Shut up lah. It’s only a cockroach.” And the people next to you will say, “Aiya diamlah. What are you saying? All of us have cockroaches. Everywhere also got cockroaches. There is nothing wrong.”

So, they just sit there and do nothing. Can you imagine what I have been feeling in the past? You see this happening and wonder what you can do. There is a lot you can do. And this election showed them. The people are not going to keep quiet anymore. This gave me hope. It’s one of the reasons I came back here.

Were you politically inclined before this?
In the living room, ya. I would read some thing someone said and say, “Wah lau wei, I would scold him!”

Do you think you are too idealistic?
Yeah, I am. I mean with the political culture that is going on … I said we are expected to do this. I am not interested in doing that.

I don’t think it’s right. I think everyone should be mindful of why they are here. But not everybody has the same goals as I. I won’t be corrupt lah. I won’t be because if you want to make money, you make it in an artistic manner. There is an art to making money.

What about your eating habits?
I really love Malaysian food. Beef rendang. I eat almost everything. Every time Hari Raya comes, I will be like eating beef rendang.

Then there is satay and of course, durian. These are the things that you really need to eat as a Malaysian.

* * *

Most of the ‘My MP’ series is one page long, tops. For Gwo Burne it is two pages, yo. Amazing. I guess no matter how many questions you ask, you are pretty much guaranteed a quirky reply. This is the first time I’ve read a politician talk about durians and rendang and ….. cockroaches?! lol. It’s a hilarious piece because of the hilarious answers.

Somehow after all the interviews I’ve read (and *coughs* conducted) about him, he remains a question mark to me. Do we take him seriously judging by his answers? Is his disposition in fact refreshing to our political scene? Behind that aloof expression, I’m expecting something more but what??? People with characters that I can’t read intimidates me to a certain extent. Makes them soooooo hard to predict.

I guess what he actually does next in the coming days, months and years will the best way to judge his performance as a politicians and a wakil rakyat. Good luck all you Kelana Jaya folks, hope you are all happy with your choice. If not, don’t forget to voice your complaints to PKR. No excuses.

*Rendang image copyright of Robert J Steiner.