Melayu-melayu Melbourne

The accent was spot-on. The right inflections in the right places. A drawl certainly belonging to an Australian tongue. Except it was not.
The only give away, was perhaps the brown skin and beady eyes; 40 years abroad has transformed the Malay youth to an Aussie elder. Too long away from Malaysia, to know what it means to be Malaysian today.

That man was only one of many individuals I met, Malays separated from Malay-land. 10,20,30 years, trying their best to make this foreign land home.

A frequent lament is heard, "The young know not their roots". Their children, having spent all their lives here grow up different from their parents. Excepting the staunchest Malayphile, these children of working-families converse, think and live Australian, though being Muslim (coupled with the Malays' strong sense of tradition) differs them to a certain degree from the larger population.

The elders pine for their kampungs and picturesque paddy fields, and thirsty for a conversation in Malay, insist on instilling the young with what they remembered to be Malay culture. But in this age of mp3s and torrents, few respond . Its difficult enough to fit in when you already look different, what more if you behaved differently.

Now and then they gather, offering the outsider an impression of their community. They leave their houses to throw a riot, Makciks in tudungs yelling at the top of their lungs, pretty young things preening in one corner, everyone trying their best to have a good time before the restaurant kicks them out the door. When the music ends,they return to their houses in the suburbs, far apart from each other, already awaiting the next meeting.

Some will inevitably ask me, why the interest in Australian Malays? Why not? They are a living breathing community here in Australia, and most certainly the most similar to the Malay student community. It would not hurt to learn more about them, in fact IMHO, it would be of benefit to us students.
They themselves would be delighted, because masih ada yang sayang. Not everyone can afford that plane ticket back to KL.
But perhaps also because, like the gentleman mentioned at the start of the article said to me, "You can never say you will never return to Malaysia, and you can never say you will never stay in Australia"