Politically he described Malaysia as a democracy constrained by lack of freedom of the press, lack of freedom of assembly and issues of civil liberty and independence of the judiciary. He used the analogy of the boa-constrictor where democracy would slowly be strangled by lack of these rights.

Economically, he felt that whereas Malaysia used to have a low cost base it had now lost its competitive edge and would lose out in world markets to China. He thought that because the government controlled labour and capital according to race this restricted development. He felt that the only way to expand the knowledge base was for Malaysians to all learn each others languages to broaden and deepen multiculturalism.

Socially, he informed us that the Malay education system limits its students and does not equip them to cross the racial divide. In fact 40,000 Malay students are in the

Chinese education system, and most Chinese parents take their children out of the Malay public education system. He felt that privileging the Malay community isolated it and made it less competitive. He suggested that positive discrimination should be means-based rather than race-based.

All in all Karim gave us a very thought provoking talk and those who have not done so are recommended to read Ceritalah - Malaysia in Transition and Travels through South - East Asia- Ceritalah 2, his non-fiction compilation of articles written for major newspapers. He has also written a book of fictional short stories entitled Heroes.
- Suzanne Davey

AN ODISSI ODYSSEY - 05 April
It was such a magical evening, with a very auspicious start. The rain gods smiled on us whereby it rained all afternoon and early evening, but stopped when we arrived. With muted lighting, candles and most women dressed in ethnic Indian clothes, the myriad of colours and styles made for a wonderful ambience. Sutra House is a discovery in itself. The architecture and photographic exhibition of Sivarajah Natarajan's works on Odissi complemented the mood for the evening.

After a scintillating performance, we had a short session of Q & A. And soon it was time to call it a night. With our minds and hearts filled with wonderful sounds and sensations we slowly made our way home. Truly a night to remember!
- Nisha Dobberstein

THE NYONYA KEBAYA COLLECTION - 10 April
It was a  pleasure to view the exquisite private Nyonya Kebaya collection of Y.A. Bhg. Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood.  Puan Zanita Anwar, curator of NAG, expertly guided us through the modern and heritage pieces that Endon has painstakingly collected over many years.  She is trying to revive this heritage garment in Malaysia and was instrumental in organizing a kebaya-themed competition during the recent KL Fashion Week.  In fact, fashion schools have brought the kebaya back into the syllabus and students are once again learning this craft.

EXPLORERS' GROUP: Sin Chew Daily - 14 April
For its April meeting, the Explorers' group headed down to the PJ headquarters of the Sin Chew Daily which has the biggest readership of all of the Malaysian papers, even though less than 20 percent of the Malaysian population reads Chinese. So we wanted to find out why Sin Chew was so popular. One of the first things we discovered is that Sin Chew Daily cost RM2.50 a copy to produce but sells at only RM1.20. Nevertheless, Sin Chew makes a profit because the newspaper is stuffed to the gills with advertisements, and advertisers will pay top dollar for a slot in Sin Chew as circulation is so high. We learnt how to type Chinese using a Western keyboard and also how the newspaper is actually printed: Four pages at a time are photographed onto zinc sheets which are then inserted into the rather smelly and very noisy printing press which rolls off several hundred copies a minute. We also met with the group editor, Ms NC Siew, who explained some of the politics of running a newspaper in Malaysia. For starters, the Chinese characters for Sin Chew are actually another name for Singapore. The paper was founded in Singapore (by the same brothers who invented Tiger Balm) back in the 30's and survived the separation of Singapore and Malaysia. But in the 80's, the Malaysian government insisted that Sin Chew be owned by Malaysians, so the paper was sold. Nevertheless it retained its name. Because Sin Chew is in Chinese, the paper has marginally more freedom than the English and Malay papers as most of the top layers of government do not speak Chinese. Still, like all other newspapers in Malaysia, it has to renew its printing licence each year, and in 1987 it was closed for several months in the aftermath of Operasi Lalang mainly because its coverage was considered too risque. The main political issue of the day we visited was SARS and the government's handling of the crisis. Ms Siew said that her newspaper had come under pressure because it was putting SARS information on the front page, and not hiding it discreetly on the inside pages. But she said the paper would continue with its coverage, because it was an issue that its readership felt very strongly about. In fact, Sin Chew's main strength seemed to be the close relationship with its readers. There are two editions of the paper each day and there are more than 500 Sin Chew reporters stationed all round the country, with seven regional editions covering local news. Sin Chew has a charitable foundation and organises lots of public forums on issues of interest, and each day it receives upwards of a hundred calls from readers on various topics. In fact, since the SARS outbreak, calls and letters have been increasing steadily. There was particularly strong opposition to a statement by the health minister in late March that no SARS cases had been confirmed in Malaysia.
- Lorien Holland

CHINESE AUSPICIOUS BELIEFS: RECOGNISING THE HIDDEN - 14 April
For anyone who has lived in Asia for any length of time, you will know that the Chinese are rather superstitious. We all know that the number eight and the colour red are good. But did you know how much more there is to it, even, for example in your everyday Chinese furniture?

Ms Felicia Hiew, Country Manager of the Tomlinson Gallery, gave a wonderful and informative lecture on Chinese auspicious symbols. Held at the Tomlinson Gallery in Ampang, Felicia took us through a selection of symbols and their meanings, pointing out examples in pieces of furniture in the gallery. The old adage of "the more you learn, the less you know" certainly held true here! Nevertheless, below are a few of the things we did learn.

Chinese symbolism was developed as an art form for the illiterate masses, mainly the peasants. As they could not read or write, an illustrative language was used instead to communicate ideas and get the message across. Often, words that sounded the same [homophones] could be shown using pictures. Thus, a picture of a bat communicated the word for fortune, as it sounds the same as the word for 'bat'. These symbols were used in paintings, furniture, ceramics and textiles.

As mentioned before, the bat is a popular symbol in Chinese belief. Whilst in the West, it tends to represent evil, the dark forces or Dracula, to the Chinese it symbolizes good fortune, prosperity and happiness. To represent even MORE fortune, the bat would be painted red. Again, the word 'widespread' or 'huge' sounds the same as the word 'red' - hence the red bat…huge fortune!

To the Chinese, this concept of fortune (fook) is manifested in five things:

• old age (this is good because it means you have good children to take care of you)
• love of virtue
• health
• wealth
• death in peace (die naturally without suffering, sickness or hunger)

These various forms of fortune are communicated through symbols in and on furniture and decorations. They can be both hidden and obvious. For example, a horseshoe chair is often shown in ancestor portraits and paintings. Instead of having the symbols carved into the chair, the symbolism is incorporated into the furniture design. Thus, the back of the chair is horseshoe shaped - round, which symbolizes heaven. The seat of the chair is square and this symbolizes the earth.

On porcelain, it is common to see the 'three friends of winter' - the cherry blossom, bamboo and pine tree. The cherry blossom represents perseverance as no matter how cold each winter is, it always blooms in spring each year. The bamboo symbolizes longevity. This is because it stays green all year round. It also represents a true gentleman's behaviour because when the wind blows, it doesn't break meaning that a gentleman sticks to his principles no matter what. The last of the three friends is the pine tree representing strength and longevity. These auspicious symbols on porcelain are shown below.

Another set of auspicious symbols is The Eight Immortals who are commonly represented in statues of jade or crystal given to people on their birthday. These Taoist figures were real people during the 2^nd century. Each of the eight figures (6 men, 1 woman, 1 unknown) is a patron saint and their motto is that if you work towards what you believe in, you can achieve immortality, as they did. The single female figure, He Xiangu, is the patron saint of housewives - a very important figure as the housewife is the source of happiness for an entire family. She provides the food, takes care of the household, parents-in-law and family whilst the husband works or studies all day. He Xiangu is pictured with a lotus pod. The lotus represents purity as it emerges from muddy water but remains unstained.

The list of symbols is long and for those who are interested, I would strongly recommend that you clear a full morning and go to see Felicia at the Gallery for more fascinating insights. For further reading on this topic, a great book available in the MCG library is Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs by C.A.S. Williams.
- Inge de Boer

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