That's Quite Enough

Published March 2011

In the past 3 months, I have been subjected to adverse racism. Now I appreciate that a large number of people have, at some point, been on the receiving end of taunts, jeers, or even sly comments or looks. However, I was one of those who honestly went through my time abroad and on my travels, fairly lucky in that respect. Perhaps I always managed to fly below the radar, perhaps I looked so unimportant that no one wanted to bother with me. Call me naive but whatever the case, I had, up to recently, cruised through life having never received so much as a raised eyebrow. But lately I've been exposed to lashings of racist and bigoted abuse, stemming from volatile hatred and anger.

A bit of a long story but I'll try my best to stick to the facts. I was headed home after dinner sometime in early December 2010. I entered the drive to my apartment complex and was making my way to my block when I noticed that there was a white Perodua MyVi (for the benefit of non-Malaysian residents, a small hatchback car) tailgating me, trying to swerve around either side of me to pass.

I wouldn't have minded letting this moron overtake, except that it was late, most residents were already home and many have a habit of parking their cars on one side of the road, turning it into a single lane passageway for the most part.

The driver of the little white wonder was becoming increasingly aggressive and I remember worrying that they were going to hit the back of my truck. I turned into my parking bay, thinking that the MyVi driver would be pleased he wasn't stuck behind me any longer and zoom off to glory, or into the nearest wall.

But no. The car turned in to the same bay area and stopped. I parked and got out of my truck, wondering what was up but also made no effort to show any curiosity. Instead I stopped at the entrance of my block, fumbling around in my bag for my keys and stalling for time, wanting to note down the license plate number to pass it to the management office in the morning. I looked up to see said driver charging over to me, clearly furious and incensed.

I would have taken this more seriously in any other situation, except for the fact that I knew this individual. A woman whom I've always thought to be bad news in every sense of the word.

This fine specimen of womanhood, let's call her L, started yelling at me for not letting her pass. A whiff of her rancid breath confirmed that she was intoxicated and had no business being behind the wheel of a car. To be honest I was amused at first by her unbalanced, wobbly gait and slurring rubbish but it got irritating very quickly. Soon after, a third party entered the scene - her boyfriend, who apparently lived in the block next to mine.

He tried to get her to calm down and walk away, but that only seemed to spur her on with regards to her volume and the type of abuse she was dishing out to me. From the little bits of conversation I caught between them, they had gotten into some sort of fight and she had driven over in a rage to confront him.

In hindsight I should have gone upstairs to my apartment to leave the ranting woman and her nervous looking boyfriend to sort their mess out. I should have realized it is impossible trying to reason with a drunk, disorderly loon. But I didn't think of that at the time and told the boyfriend off for letting L behave this way in a residential area, where a large portion of my neighbours are families with small children. I scolded him, saying that she was lucky she didn't hit me or anyone else.

It was then that she became clearly unhinged. I can actually still remember how ugly and contorted her face looked. Her previous name calling had exhausted her arsenal of insults to me, so she went low. Very, very low. “Sabah is not your home,” she screeched, shrill enough to do a banshee proud. “Go back to your own home, you (bleeping, bleeping) Indian. Get out of Sabah. This is not your place. You don't belong here.”

Of course I've removed the foul language but I think the gist is crystal clear. I encountered my very first racist, bigoted troglodyte.

I'm a Punjabi Sikh from Labuan – an island that's only a 20 minute flight away from Kota Kinabalu. My family arrived in Labuan in 1868, making us the oldest Sikh family in Malaysia according to our country's historians. While this deserves absolutely no special treatment or status, shouldn't this make me as Sabahan as the next person by now? My family's been here for 143 years. Isn't that long enough? Haven't we paid our dues already? I'm aware that I am a member of a minority race group in this country. But I won't apologize for it. And neither will I accept anyone's attempts to make me feel insecure about it.

As mentioned earlier, I've never been faced with racist and bigoted abuse like this before. I was unprepared with a response so I filmed her rampage using my mobile phone for evidence, until a good friend happened to call for something unrelated, heard the commotion, and advised me to head back to my place and distance myself from the situation.

The next day I had every intention of highlighting the events of the night before. I spoke to quite a few local friends, to gauge their comments and feedback. As Sabahans, they were shocked and disgusted. “We're not like that,” one friend vented, clearly frustrated. “It's ridiculous and she's giving us a bad name. We don't treat anyone that way, especially not one of our own.”

Now I've never wondered about L's own ethnic background as I honestly couldn't be bothered. If pressed I'd have to say that she looks as if she has a combination of Chinese, Filipino and Native ancestry but I am unable to confirm that.

Word had gotten back to L that I was being open about the events that transpired and she was not pleased. I guess that's only fair. I imagine it must be humiliating to be called a racist and a bigot in one fell swoop. So she responded in the only way she knew how: With more abuse.

The day before Chinese New Year I received a private message on Facebook from none other than L. This message was so nasty it could easily be interpreted as an open threat. I had a think about it, and responded stating that I was going to make a police report and that she should probably make one too. Unsurprisingly, I received more abuse.

It doesn't stop there. Remember that boyfriend who tried to calm her down? She instructed him to contact me on Facebook and he did - saying that I was going to get some sort of payback, that he could gain access to me any time and that there was a possible stalking in the future.

I responded asking him for his Visa details and how he was living in my country (I should have stated earlier that he is a Caucasian), to which he then apologized, claiming to wash his hands of it all and backed off very, very quickly.

I have a word to describe men like these. I'm sure you have one too.

From what I understand L is still on the rampage, flinging dirt and abuse in my general direction any chance she gets and is of course playing the racist card. As she digs herself deeper and deeper into a hole of malice, it's looking as though this woman has been able to get away with her behaviour. While this is not right, I guess the only thing I can do now is pity her for her ignorance, lack of education and small mindedness. I'm also left wondering about the state of her mental health.

From a very young age racism and bigotry drove me up the wall and around the bend. It is shameful, crass and cowardly. Even just thinking about it makes me livid. And if none of this bothers you, you should seriously be asking yourself why.