Lingua Franca

I went to the Selayang Hospital on Wednesday to pick up my father's prescription.

I stayed one night in a hospital before, at Sungai Buloh, under observation for suspected dengue. It was a terrible experience. The hospital was full so they put me in the third-class ward. A crazy inmate from the Sungai Buloh prison was at the far end guarded by two correctional officers. During the night he climbed off his bed to sleep under it, on the bare cement floor, claiming that it was hot. The officers yelled at him at first for acting up, but left him alone when they decided that he was not going to harm anybody. The inmate had one hand cuffed to the bedpost. My bed was right under a fan, which always spun at maximum speed. It warded off the mosquitoes, but left me shivering all night under the hopelessly thin hospital blanket. The food was terrible too. I swore never to sleep in a hospital again.

Anyway, I went to the counter when my number was called up. “Sir…” The pharmacist spoke to me in English! Why did the pharmacist speak to me in English? I knew that she served everybody else before me in Malay – I sat close enough to the counter to hear it. When I thought more about later, I noticed that I’ve been served in English at restaurants, shops, etc not in downtown KL or PJ but in Sungai Buloh!

Now that’s new.

Previously every once in a while a salesperson would come to me and speak Chinese. “@!#$ @#$& )(&#$@# @!#$Y” They’d get the message when I just stared at them with a puzzled look. My father had a better response: “Saya Melayulah!” I don’t think we look Chinese, much. Even my less-fair brother sometimes got spoken Chinese to. And now I get English. Perhaps nowadays English is a safer bet than Chinese, but why not Malay? Isn’t Malay supposed to be the national language; in a government hospital? Don't I look Malay enough?

There was a note stapled on the notice board outside my office today. Copies of the same note were posted outside the offices of the other lecturers as well. It was from a students’ society.

The heading says “Notice of Announcement”. I suppose that it was an advance notice for another, forthcoming announcement; I surely hope the announcement will come pretty soon. They are having a photo shoot tomorrow for a “memorial”. I didn’t know if anybody died, or if there was any big event, recently. They are “anticipating” our attendance, though, which I’m not sure what to make of. I’m wondering too whether this notice is an invitation, or simply a notice to tell us that they’re having that photo shoot for whatever.