Mangkali or Punjabi: Misnomer or Malice Meant?

The Sikh Community has just celebrated their new year about a week ago and the newly appointed Chief Minister of Perak, Mohd. Nizar who ignorantly referred the Sikh as "Bengali" where it should have been "Punjabi" in a Sikh Temple celebration, came under fire, big time from certain quarters, Sikh and non Sikh alike, but was also defended by others, Sikh and non Sikh too.

While the fresh Chief Minister may have made a blunder by using the wrong description, does he deserve such condemnation when it is common knowledge that the Chinese Community in Malaysia had always and still do address the Sikhs as "Mangkali" which sounds like "Bengali".

To the Sikhs who originate from Punjab, I can understand why they would detest being called "Mangkali" which sounded like "Bengali", given that Punjab is in the West of India, closer to West Pakistan (now called merely Pakistan) and Bengal is in the East, closer to East Pakistan, now seceded and independent from Pakistan and has adopted the name "Bangladesh".

But the Chinese Community has always refer the conspicuous Sikh who wears a Sikh turban as "Mangkali" and poor Nizar couldn't really be faulted for using the wrong term, even granted as a Chief Minister (albeit newly minted) he ought to show less "man of the street's" ignorance.

My take on the phenomenon is the inherent phonic articulation inability of Chinese tongue in pronouncing certain sounds like "R" and "L", "V" and "B", "Z" and "J".

For example, it is not uncommon for the Chinaman to say, "Bely Good" instead of "Very Good", "Lulian" instead of "Durian". Therefore, Punjabi could be mistakenly pronounced as "Mangkali" because Sikhs address brothers as "Bai" or "Vai" and it follows that "Punjabi" morphs into "Baikali" and then to "Mangkali".

Well, this is only my hypothesis and is subject to further etymological scrutiny by any interested experts out there.

Karpal Singh, who, as a modern Singh is never seen in typical Singh garb turban except on a special day like the Sikh New Year was classic in his defense for the newly minted Chief Minister.

I like how Karpal puts it with style and compassion. Plagiarizing William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (II, ii, 1-2), he said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose? By any other name would smell as sweet." How true!

If my memory serves me right, I have never read in the Press and seen on mass media, a Chief Minister, especially a Muslim (and from a Muslim inspired political party like PAS) entered a place of worship except a mosque and to even officiate the opening of a religious ceremony like Vaisakhi or Baisakhi in a Sikh Temple, is truly a sign of goodwill and humility.

Alas, there are some within and without who took extreme offense and demanded for the Chief Minister's blood, if not head for a common mistake held by the masses.

Nizar has apologized for the mistake and to me, the whole accident ought to be just forgiven and forgotten, because malice was never intended, it was a genuine accident out of a habitual use of a term.

This incident is like one that was told to me when I was working as an Insurance Agent in the 1980s.

The scene was a classroom and the lesson was "cookery". The Cookery Class Teacher held up high a Rastali banana and asked the class, "Girls, do you know what banana this is?".

The class bimbo quickly got up, put up her hand and shouted, "Indian Banana, teacher".

The whole class broke into laughter, the teacher included.

The poor girl was puzzled. It definitely looks like a "Keh Leng Chio" or "Indian Banana" in Hokkien, so what is so funny?

The same goes for the "Indian Temple" instead of "Hindu Temple" and "Malay New Year" instead of "Hari Raya Idil Fitri".

Funny, me think, if some Sikh and non Sikh can be easily offended by such honest accidental mistakes, they ought to take offense when a non Sikh puts on a Sikh Turban in a Sikh Temple, but then, Mr. Lim Eng Guan, the newly minted Chief Minister of Penang, do look undoubtedly cute with it, and so does our Karpal Singh, Esq.

I wonder how they will look in Taliban styled turbans though, but then, as garb doesn't make a man or a woman, it does not matter.

A Rose will smell like a rose, no matter by what you call it and a Sikh will always be a Sikh even when Punjab is split into half Indian and half Pakistani and by what name you can him, Punjabi, Mangkali, Bai or even Bengali.

नमस्त
(Namasté)