Being a Chinese,

Wong Choon Heng is a CanonMalaysian currently working for Canon Europe and now living in London.

In his August 11, 2008 posting "The One With The Olympic... and The By Election" on his blog, he started off writing...

Sitting in front of a laptop looking out from the window I saw, maple leafs and left hand drive cars... and at certain time of the year, I’ll see snow and gale.

Yup… being a Chinese, with the above signs means you are not in your beloved “Home”. And yes, home it’s not in London or New York or Dubai or Taiwan. Home is where all your friends are (or used to be), where your parents live, where you keep your first bicycle or Ultraman toys and most importantly the roads you know so well.

He wrote "being a Chinese" . Not so strange among us Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaysia to express in this manner. However I hazard a guess that it would be extremely strange with the rest of the world. Michael Chang will not say it. Nastia Liukin and Maria Sharapova will not say they are Russians, Will Smith will not refer to himself as an African or Arnold Schwarzenegger will not say he is currently an Austrian.

On my first trip to Tokyo, I remembered sitting next to 2 elderly Americans during a lunch and the woman remarked then that I spoke very good English. I replied saying that I am not a Japanese but rather a Chinese and I attended a English medium school. I noticed that the man straightaway whispered to his companion and they stopped talking to me altogether. They must have thought that I came from China. (China was then still very Communistic and I could be a government spy).

After 50 years of Independence, it is my opinion that our governmental administration has failed miserably. We are as divided as ever, if not more so. I used to have Malay and Indian friends while my kids today have none. I just can't buy this bull about other countries sending people here to study how we can so successfully live in harmony with this power sharing shit.

Ho Bak Kee mentioned that he thought I may want to go into politics. Of course not. I do not have the necessary qualities. However, today I am a concerned citizen.

I have never liked Anwar, but I would like him to be our next Prime Minister. If you have somebody else who advocates all that he said about equal opportunities for all, judiciary independence, corruption eradication, getting rid of cronyism and the tremendous wastage of public funds; I shall openly support him or her. Meanwhile, I say give Anwar a chance to deliver. What have we got to lose considering the other alternative.

I thank you for reading.