Karaoke Kings...

I know Sabahans are known to be pretty good (okay, lemme rephrase that.... pretty enthusiastic... or comfortable... whatever) behind the mike, but I never knew it would be to this extent.

Check out this story from The Star:

Man killed over tussle for karaoke mic
By MUGUNTAN VANAR


SANDAKAN: A 23-year-old man who hogged the microphone at a karaoke outlet here was stabbed to death by irked fellow customers.

Abdul Sani Doli was stabbed by customers of a coffeeshop cum karaoke outlet at Lebuh Tiga here late Wednesday after a fight broke out with other customers following his refusal to give up the microphone as he continued to sing.

Abdul Sani and his assailants had argued over the microphone before it turned into an exchange of blows that spilled over into the street where the three assailants stabbed him.

Abdul Sani staggered a short distance before collapsing on the walkway in front of a machinery shop and died at about 11.55pm on Wednesday.

Sandakan district police chief Asst Comm Rosli Mohd Isa said police have classified the case as murder and two people have been detained to assist in the investigations.

Abdul Sani is believed to have suffered chest wounds. His body was sent to the Duchess of Kent Hospital for a post mortem.

Mat Salleh is....

A warrior?

A rebel?

A terrorist?

Well, if you happen to be in Malaysia from the 20th century onwards, he (or she) is a westerner.

Seriously, I can't make the connection here.

According to the history books, Mat Salleh was any one of the first three (depending on which side of history you read).

All I remember is he definitely had a bone to pick with the British during the late 19th century. (I'm not gonna give you a history lesson so you can go read up about it here and here. Oh, and here too.)

However, I am curious about how we ended up referring to (no offence to all westerners out there) "orang putihs" (literally, white people) using the name of someone who is considered a folk hero of sorts in Sabah. After all, we do have a street named after him so he must be important.

Come to think of it, do Sabahans refer to westerners as "Mat Sallehs" as well?

Hmmm... maybe not as often as referring to them as "orang putihs" but I can be wrong on that.

Anyway, googling around, I found the answer to my question. I'm not sure if it's true but hey, at least it's a good theory.

Apparently, during the colonial times when the people of this region knew very little about the languages of the west, an English-speaking person had called a bunch of partying caucasians "mad sailors" (because most caucasians at that time were, in fact, sailors).

The locals who heard that mispronounced it as "Mat Salleh" and this somehow stuck.

(You can read about the story here. Somebody even posed the question on Yahoo Answer.)

Now let me give it a shot.

Madsailormadsailormadsailormatsailormatsallormatsallermatsalleh......

Maybe they're right.

:-)

(disclaimer - this post is not meant to be offensive to anyone. The picture of the caucasian family is a random one obtained via Google)