H. Fauconnier (1879–1973)

Let me think...the last time I held a history book was before my O-Level history exam. After that, sadly, I pay no interest to history book anymore. Perhaps, it was the trauma that hinders me from getting near any history book.

But no history book can be any more interesting than this one. I’ve only read the first chapter now. It is funny how I have to put my perceptions of Malaya in the eyes of a foreigner. Somehow, there are a few phrases that strike me like lightning.

“Were you asleep, or smoking your filthy opium...Those blasted Chinese wallow in vice – they have no sense of decency...”

"Coconuts were broken in front...modest stone that represents the god of the pariahs."

"...you're only interested in the Malays...sort of people - lazy, deceitful, and vain"

Contrast those phrases with this one:

“...the word of a white man is worth its weight in gold.”

Was this how our grandparents had to endure those whites? There is many more ‘disturbance’ like that in the book. I feel that it makes me appreciate our national independence more. Who are they to trespass our country and speak so highly of themselves. Without the Chinese they won't have gold or silver. Without the Indians they won't have rubber. Without the Malays, they won't have any servant to serve them two meals a day, which they don't deserve at all. The food that they consumed are presented to them by us and without us they are nothing.

I hate this book so much but I'm reading it for the sake of a lesson to be learnt. After all, it's only fiction. The real situation during the British settlement was far worse than what has been portrayed in this book. I think I can summarize the whole story in a few sentences.

A misfit foreigner came to Malaya for plantation job. Besides having no respect to the locals, he has a superior ego. After mingled with the locals, he slowly accept the soul of Malaya. The end.

http://reading-now.blogspot.com/2007/02/soul-of-malaya-henri-fauconnier.html#lin...… (més)