Focus Focus: Give Me The Money

I was talking to a friend the other day. She works in a major local daily, and has been working there for a little while now. We were just chatting, catching up on all the post-Raya gossip and stuff, when she divulged a rather unsavoury morsel: apart from all usual shenaneegans of buka puasa last Ramadhan (too many invitations, expanding waistband, so much food, etc), there was the brazen extension of hands bearing packets of duit raya.

“But what's wrong with that?” you might ask. Sure, it's alright when the hands belong to a member of your family or close friends, but when it's the organisers who invited you, as a member of the journalistic fraternity... what's that trying to say? What's in it for the organizers? Altruism (you know, since the civil servants did get a pay-raise and all this year)? Or are there prawns behind the rocks?

She went on further to explain that what really got her underpants in a knot was, you know, dalam bulan baik macam bulan Ramadhan ni pun diorang nak buat macam ni ke? That money could have gone to some charity or other, instead.

But let's take some time to digest this whole story a little bit more slowly. What's actually going on, here? On the one hand, someone wants to hold a berbuka puasa feast and has invited all these people they feel are important to them, and on the other, people do enjoy going for these festivities because, well, it's pretty much expected during the f(e)asting month. Plus it saves you a little bit of money when someone's already paying for your meals.

And yet, as with feasts and kenduri culture in general, there is a very clear yet tacit understanding that by attending the event and eating the meal you are submitting a certain amount of allegiance to the host. Is that a bad thing? Well, a kenduri is very much a public performance, when you really think about it. You dress up, carry off a certain public decorum, engage in social niceties: it's a performance lah, and what this performance basically says is that “I acknowledge you” where the 'you' here refers to the host, who has managed to carry out a well-planned logistical feat and thereby displays his very public aspirations of social significance and power.

Power. Heh, we're back at that again.

But yes, the act of giving is always about the inequality that exists between the giver and the receiver. The ulterior motives are highlighted (and power is inscribed to the giver) when the performance of “giving” must be documented, articulated, and mass produced. “See how generous I am,” says he. And the social lubricant to massage these muscles of communication, as in the case of my friend's experiences of the above, is the green packet (or red packet, or any of the other color-coded packets). Would this be a thinly veiled form of corruption? Or just a continuation of the so-called tradition of giving?

So, in the end, is this giving packets of money during events and festivities to reporters a bad thing at all? I'm not sure lah. Reporters and writers are just never paid well enough (betul tak, KLue columnists?!), and the price of things are constantly on the rise... As with all things moral, mannerisms and behaviour should not be imposed on others, because then we're missing the point completely (it's all about doing things of our own volition, of our own choice). If there's anything to be changed, it's our attitude towards our own culture.

Oh, did my friend take the money? No.

TEXT Fahmi Fadzil