There's this whole controversy in Malaysia when the book came out. It's not unexpected. Islam? Corrupt politicians? Even the Prime Minister's office got written in. Secret affairs? Illegitimate children? Pork, bakkwa, Chinese, money? Duhhhh.
When any topic touches race and religion in Malaysia, and even politics, the ermmm... everyone is insulted. 'Born Malay is to be born Muslim' regardless because the law says so. Such dicey topics bravely undertaken by the author.
This is 'The Accidental Malay' (2022) by Karina Robles Bahrin. The author is Malay by way of her father (and her aunt) who was adopted raised by Malays but he is Chinese too, and her mother is Filipino.
In this book, we see characters in a mix of races, ethnicity and identities too. Absolutely juicy. Totally salacious. The protagonist is a Malaysian bak kwa heiress Jasmine Leong who finds out a long-buried family secret. Her birth parents are actually Malay-Muslims (only in Malaysia) because her mother is Malay and her father converted to Islam when they married. The father was murdered. All hell broke loose when the public found out, and when her mother's new husband Burhanuddin, a prominent (but broke) politician found out.
Jasmine is also set to take the reins of family company Phoenix. Her problem — her current secret lover Iskandar, someone whom she has been absolutely entangled with since university days. He is a non-practicing Muslim-Malay who has to marry a Muslim wife. She ends up having an affair with Iskandar through her middle age. As far as romances go, this seems headed into tragedy and no traditional happy ending. And at 41 years old, she got pregnant with Iskandar's daughter, while starting a relationship with some old schoolmate from Ipoh named Olivier Lau Kuan Yew, a banker at an equities firm whose parents are goldsmiths.
At this point, I already knew how the story would pan out. Jasmine can't change her now-public race or religion, even if she doesn't acknowledge it or go by it. By Malaysian law, she is Malay and Muslim, and by law, her unborn child and all future children would be too. Her only way out would have to be leaving the country forever. There's no way this would go down well if she doesn't.
The door beeps. It is Kuan Yew. Seeing him, Iskandar and Jasmine tense, drawing their legs out of the pool. She had told him Iskandar was coming over and wonders now if it was a bad idea. But it is too late. They are all here together, triangulated in their entwined history, present and uncharted future.
"Don't get up, you two. Stay." Kuan Yew walks over, planting a quick kiss on Jasmine's lips. He sits next to her, pulling the socks off his feet and loosening his tie.
Iskandar stands anyway, offering his hand to Kuan Yew. "I owe you a proper apology. I'm really sorry, man, for what happened. Really. I shouldn't have done what I did."
"Water under the bridge, mate," Kuan Yew replies. "I know you weren't in a good place. We've all been there."
Luckily for Jasmine, a flawed protagonist, she's on great terms with her cousin Kevin, who is gay. He didn't want to, but after this turn of events, eventually steps up to take over the reins of Phoenix as CEO. Jasmine makes a new life in Hong Kong with her baby and Olivier, who has magnanimously accepted the child who isn't his.
At five months into her pregnancy, she gets ready to leave for Hong Kong before the airlines stop her from flying. So it's off to Hong Kong for her and to raise her infant daughter mostly alone in the new city. Kuan Yew and her were to be married, but till then, he would visit her on the weekends in between sorting out his ailing father in the nursing home and his responsibilities, even as the rest of his family in Malaysia helps out.
Published by Epigram, this isn't banned in Malaysia, but it might be if the ending didn't go the way it did. The author prefaced Chapter 1 with a Malay proverb. It is so apt, and so applicable to all of us.
Siapa yang makan cili, dia lah yang terasa pedasnya.
He who eats chilli is the one who feels its heat.
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