They don’t forget they don’t forgive

They don’t forget, they don’t forgive

A reader asked me to write about the Malays, their culture, their climate, their language, and their idiosyncrasies. I’ve attempted to do that today in the hope that others will find the treatise interesting and informative.

Let’s start with the climate. Malaysia has only one (weird) season; I’m yet to figure out what to call this season but the locals call it summer. But even in this rapidly changing world where human meddling has confused the seasons, it’s difficult to define Malaysian weather. Two things, however, stand out; the torrential rains and the burning sun.

Sometimes the rain drizzles, sometimes it buckets. And in between is a tempestuous storm. The first time I experienced it, I thought the world had come to an end. It starts from the downpour changing to a trickle – waiting for the sky to vent its anger. Then, the lightening sparks, inserting its fingers in your chest and waiting for the thunderclap to rip out your heart. The sound threatens to uproot the house and take you away with it. Even if you don’t know enough science to understand that with lightening comes thunderclap, you’ll become classically conditioned because of the repetitive pairings of the light and the sound. So when you see the light, you jump in fear but there’s nowhere to hide because it’s coming from above you. This nightmare can continue for hours. Helpless, you raise hands heavenwards thanking God for His kindness and asking Him to forgive you in case it’s your last day.

The extreme opposite of the thunder is the afternoon sun. It doesn’t burn you directly the way it does in Nigeria, but it burns you. Five minutes in it and you’ve got a headache. At least that’s how my body reacts to it. As I write this, I’m nursing the headache I got from yesterday’s adventure in the sun. Then there’s this irritating humidity. Even Lagos can’t compete. It’s so thick you’ll need a cutlass to cut it.

But the beautiful thing about Malaysians is that they are a sensible people. Before you can tell them this is the right thing to do, they’ve already done it. They’ve installed air cooling systems everywhere – even at bus stops – so that man can cope with the weather. There are also trees planted everywhere you go. These trees function not only as objects of beautification but also as oxygen factories. And no matter how badly looking a car or bus is, it has a working air conditioning system. So you end up spending more time in an air conditioned environment than outside it. That’s why our people don’t come back to Nigeria darker; some times they even get lighter.

There’s a middle ground between the two extremes. It’s a time when it’s neither hot nor cold. This happens between 5 and 7pm. The trees wave in uniform parade and the beauty of the country becomes apparent. The campus gets busy with sporting activities. There’s a sport for everyone; football, rugby, baseball, basketball, volleyball, martial arts, tennis and other competitive sports that you can only find in South Asia and are yet to make it to the Olympics.

As far as Malaysian weather is concerned, your closest friend is the umbrella. Because it’s certain that it will either rain or shine and because of the intensity of both situations, you need an umbrella. This is especially true when you’re going out in the late morning, at noon or in the afternoon.
This may explain the reason why umbrellas are expensive here. In Abuja you can get a decent umbrella for N350 even during the rainy season when prices are high. Here it’s sold throughout the year at the same price and you can’t get it for less than N400. If you need something big you’ve got to cough out more money.

All in all, Malaysian weather is like an orb with cold, hot, storm, and serene all orbiting haphazardly within it. Some you like and some you don’t. Some gladden and some irritate. Which ever one pushes forth, you’ve to live with it whether you like it or not because you’re also in the same orb.

Next, I’m going to tell you why Malaysians never forget a wrong done to them and also tell how their good nature most of the time obliterates this dark side of dendam and amuk.