Monday, August 20, 2007

Rapper riles Malays again with new song

19 Aug 2007, ST

MUAR - PROVOCATIVE Malaysian rapper Wee Meng Chee has riled his countrymen again with a new song which hits out at Malays for being lazy and backward, the Harian Metro newspaper reported yesterday.

Titled Kawanku/My Friends, its lyrics are a blend of Mandarin, Malay and English, with the Malay portion of the rap translated as: 'Talk some more lah/Chinese go back to China/If all go back ah/This would not be Malaysia/I fear where you will find work/But it's usual lah Malays also don't like to work/All go into the jungle/Live like Sakai.'

'Sakai' is what Malaysians call primitive people.



The rap ends with: 'But this is my true feeling/It's already been 50 years/Sleeping every day/Look forward lah/2020.' 2020 is an apparent reference to Malaysia's vision of becoming a developed nation by 2020.

The four-minute rap and Mr Wee's earlier parody of Malaysia's national anthem are on a possibly pirated CD titled Pasar Malam Chart Hits which costs RM7 (S$3). Checks by local media on Friday showed at least one shopping complex here was selling it.

The Taiwan-based Wee, 24, had apologised last week for hurting Malaysians' feelings with his 5-1/2-minute rap parody Negarakuku, which has been airing on YouTube since last month and pokes fun at corrupt cops and lazy civil servants, among others.

Amid angry letters in the forum pages of Malay papers on his raps, yesterday's New Straits Times quoted Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying that Mr Wee will not be stripped of his citizenship because to do so would be 'to act emotionally, not rationally'.


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