Lingua franca: Most Penangites, including those of other racial groups, can easily speak or at least understand Hokkien. — KT GOH/The Star

EVERY month, I routinely return to Penang. Although I’ve spent the last three decades in the Klang Valley, Penang remains my home since my 93-year-old mother and my siblings still live there.

Penangites are very parochial people and one thing that binds us is our unique brand of Hokkien.

When I started my journalism career at The Star in Penang, it was common for the daily editorial meetings to break into Hokkien with even my Malay and Indian colleagues using the dialect proficiently.

When many of us were transferred to Kuala Lumpur, the same pattern continued as the bulk of the newspaper staff was from Penang.

But all that has changed drastically as the dialect’s use has declined sharply over the years, with Mandarin taking its place. It’s not something that happened overnight, but it has almost been a decade or more since the shift began.

Whether one is at a shopping mall or even a coffee shop, it’s likely that Mandarin will be spoken by the staff with the assumption it’s universally understood.

But this uncle is a banana, which basically means an English-educated Chinese who can’t speak Mandarin and only thinks in and speaks English. Like the banana, I am yellow on the outside but white inside.

For older Penangites, and even northerners from Kedah and Perlis, as well as our friends from Taiping, Perak, our Hokkien is a heritage. It separates us from the rest of the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia because of our distinct northern-accented Hokkien.

As I have written in my past articles, it doesn’t matter whether we’re in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, London or Timbuktu because we can always detect a Penangite in our midst whenever we hear this northern style dialect with its rich sprinkling of Malay words that denotes its nonya-baba linguistic roots.

Penangites are fiercely proud of their Hokkien as it’s completely different from the one spoken in Klang, Melaka, Johor, Singapore, Taiwan or Xiamen in China.

As older Penangites, perhaps we can be a little snooty, as we sometimes dismiss the Hokkien spoken elsewhere as somewhat crass and unrefined.

Only the Hokkien spoken by the Chinese community in Medan, Indonesia, and Phuket, Thailand, closely mirrors that of Penang Hokkien, presumably because of the proximity between Penang and the Indonesian city.

Rightly or wrongly, or plainly out of ignorance, Penangites feel the sing-song delivery sounds better.

Words such as balai (police station), balu (just now), bangku (stool), batu (stone), cilaka/celaka (damn it), campur (mix), jamban (toilet), gatai/gatal (itchy) gili/geli (creepy), sabun (soap) and kesian (pity), are an integral part of the Penang Hokkien dialect.

Even Penangites of other races can easily speak, or at least understand it. My fellow moderation advocate, Anas Zubedy, speaks excellent Hokkien. So do my fellow journalists like The Star’s Dorairaj Nadason and Bernama’s R. Manogaran, a former sports editor at The Star.

Then, there’s Tan Sri Syed Danial Syed Ahmad, the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal, the person announcing the date of fasting and Hari Raya, who also speaks Hokkien, being a Penangite.

Last year, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said many Penang-born youth no longer speak Hokkien and the state government was now moving to address this to prevent the dialect from fading away.

The state has also approved an allocation to support an initiative by Han Chiang University College to produce a video on Penang Hokkien.

But it looks like a losing proposition.

In an interview with Penang Monthly, Penang Hokkien Language Association secretary Ooi Kee How was quoted as saying that “people think there’s no benefit in learning or speaking Hokkien, which is not true. Yes, you can survive if you do not speak Hokkien; you can get by with speaking only one language your entire life.”

“But the thing is, something will diminish. Our creativity, our cultural identity, will decline. A lot of innovations will disappear because different languages shape the way we think differently.”

The decline of Penang Hokkien is a result of a combination of factors. For one, a whole generation of Penangites have been educated in Chinese schools, at least at primary level.

This is unlike the older generation of Penangites like me, who are now in our 60s, who attended schools which used English as a medium of instruction. In the absence of Mandarin, we spoke mainly Hokkien and English, but Chinese in their 30s and 40s now find it more comfortable conversing in Mandarin – and for sure, not in English.

There’s also the impact of China as the new economic powerhouse of Asia, if not the world.

Mandarin has taken over the dominant spot as a language with economic value, and certainly prestige. That’s the reality, but it may well be at the expense of a rich heritage.

As a Penangite will say “aun juanh” (so, how?). Like many other languages around the world that have vanished, Hokkien is in danger of becoming a lost dialect, too.

In an era of digital disruptions and reduced attention span, everyone should learn this old journalistic adage: ‘Keep it short and simple’.

THERE is a lesson for speakers in general – don’t bother to give a lecture, talk or sermon that is more than 30 minutes unless you are confident of holding your audience or you have a captive audience that is forced to listen to your monologue.

Unfortunately, many speakers are not aware of the shrinking attention span of their listener, especially the younger set.

Like most politicians, many speakers seem to love holding on to their microphones even as their listeners’ minds drift away.

They are probably too engrossed to see their audience fidgeting in their seats, trying not to fall asleep, looking bored or worse, have started looking at their phones.

It’s not just speakers that should remind themselves but journalists, too. The days of lengthy text or reports are over.

No one has the patience to read tedious length articles when the average Tik Tok video is less than a minute while X, formerly Twitter, allows only 140 characters. Videos uploaded on Instagram are also usually a minute or less.

This is the Age of Instant Noodles, Instant Coffee, and Instant Information, after all.

A decade ago, research had already shown that between 2000 and 2015, our attention span had shrunk by a whopping 25%.

A year ago, a 2023 report stated that the average human attention span has decreased from 12 seconds to 8.25 seconds in the last two decades.

In the case of Gen Z, it was reported that these youngsters, who have been characterised as having “hearing problems”, have an attention span of around 2.5 minutes, which is significantly shorter than the attention of previous generations.

Well, our lives have become more preoccupied now. Our texts keep flashing on our mobiles even if the ringtone is switched off.

Giving online talks is probably the worst as many listeners, especially the younger ones, prefer to switch off their cameras. So, we have no idea if they are following – or even if they are there at all. At least, one can change the approach if it’s a physical audience and humour can be injected to spice up the discussions.

Most of us prefer texting over talking on the mobile phone because we can perform other tasks if we don’t have to speak. We don’t mind voice messages as we then decide when to reply.

Older people prefer to call you on the phone not realising that they are interrupting your work. We could be at a meeting, in a train or having meals but old people, including my 93-year- old mum, have no clue of that.

She gets very upset when I do not pick up the phone immediately. So, I get yelled at practically most times because she has a hearing problem, which is expected at her age, and we are expected to take such calls immediately.

Our lives have become much busier and many of us do not have the luxury of being entrapped in a long lecture because all the good intentions with the research and prepared decks goes to waste if the listeners lose interest.

As a journalist, I have also allowed breaking news alerts to appear on my phone, and this has become a non-stop exercise!

As I struggled to write this article – the result of having to endure a traumatic monologue of one hour and 20 minutes recently – I have been interrupted numerous times. The shows how much digital media affects our lives, and the result is the decline of our ability to focus, and to listen for too long.

A 2023 CNN report, quoting Dr Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, who studies how digital media affects our lives, said in 2004, “we measured the average attention on a screen to be 2 ½ minutes’’ but ‘’some years later, we found attention spans to be about 75 seconds. Now we find people can only pay attention to one screen for an average of 47 seconds.’’

Oftentimes, especially those in the media and finance, have two screens in our workplace. The reality is that we cannot stay focused on one screen for too long.

Writer Alf Rehn wrote that there should be a 20-minute rule for public speaking, reminding us of an old quote, attributed to American businessman Phil Crosby, that goes – “no one can remember more than three points.’’

Rehn argued that “the fact is that we often can’t remember even that many. Life is just too busy and too confusing to really focus more, so regardless of how many brilliant notions are thrown in our way, we subconsciously try to pick out just a few, sometimes, just one, to make sense of it all.’’

The optimal attention span for an audience, i.e. the attention span that can be comfortably held by an interested human engaged to listening to a speaker is not five to 10 minutes. Instead, it is about 20 minutes.

Well, these experts are going to argue and dispute over our attention span but the long and short of it is it is shrinking.

And that brings me to my final point – this article must end too, like now, before the reader gets bored. The point has been made already. This is the Age of Instant Noodles, Instant Coffee, and Instant Information, after all.

IF I’m suffering from a life-threatening disease and laying helplessly on a hospital bed, it wouldn’t matter to me if the doctors and nurses trying to save my life were Type C, Type M or Type I – if that’s a new classification for races.

I would just want the type of medical personnel who are competent and dedicated to their work. Basically, their race or religion bears no significance to me.

Even the most racist politicians and netizens freewheelingly posting nasty comments online would be realistic enough to know they should be colour blind when fighting for their lives.

How many of us, including these racist sorts, have enquired about the source of the blood administered in our hospitals?

Many of us seem to have ignorantly and arrogantly forgotten that skin colour matters little.

Visits to the hospitals should be organised for these types to open their eyes, and hearts, to let them see that patients in hospital wards respect each other.

They embrace prayers of a different religion conducted for them because they understand and appreciate that these prayers are done in good faith – praying for their well-being.

We must remember that come Judgment Day, our Creator will be unconcerned about our “types” but evaluate our conduct through life. If you can’t forgive, then don’t expect forgiveness for yourself.

So, why would anyone running a business – including one selling fried chicken – care about the race of their clients?

The only type of customers you’d want are repeat customers who place big orders. You want loyal customers.

So, what is the “Type C’’ issue all about? Well, it started to trend after local fast-food restaurant DarSA Fried Chicken (DFC) used the term to refer to Malaysian Chinese.

According to media reports, the restaurant in Rawang, Selangor, opened its doors last month. DFC is said to cater to locals with its “Made in Malaysia” appeal against the backdrop of local boycotts of US-linked brands.

According to a Says.com report, amid this “support local” branding drive, DFC left a controversial comment that brought the issue of race into a conversation with a netizen who complained about their pricing.

“I hope the prices can be more reasonable because after looking at the price list, I think they are more expensive than KFC,” wrote the netizen.

In response, DFC said, “Sir, did you skim through the price list or see it in full? You need to see the full price list before considering if it’s reasonably priced or expensive.

“Type C is trying to play up various harmful sentiments towards DFC. We shouldn’t be easily swayed, especially when you haven’t tried it yourself,” replied the restaurant.

DFC has since explained that the mistake may have occurred due to the high volume of comments they received, causing the social media admin to lose focus while responding to netizen complaints.

It has apologised over the issue, adding, “We have decided not to answer the issue from hereon to avoid repeating the mistake. We will only answer issues regarding operations and other matters that do not involve other parties.

“We welcome all our customers from various walks of life regardless of race or religion,” they said.

To err is human, to forgive is divine. Mistakes happen and it’s right that many Malaysians are saying DFC doesn’t deserve to be boycotted over a silly response from an errant administrator.

DFC, however. should have added another line to its statement – “the person responsible for that hateful remark has been reprimanded.”

An employee with that kind of attitude is certainly not the type that the restaurant wants on its payroll.

In a strange twist, DFC had to acknowledge customers’ complaints about their price points but refrained from specifying future steps to lower prices.

At the end of the day, price matters, but customers don’t mind paying more if its fried chicken tastes better than the established competitors.

It can’t depend on an unending well of goodwill and the present sentiment against US franchises for support. It must encourage the patronage of all types of customers.

Thankfully, Malaysians have a great sense of humour. TGV Cinemas wittily rode on the controversy by posting the message – “Type A, Type B, Type C, itu semua tak penting. Yang penting you are my type!”

Numerous cartoons have also appeared on social media, taking a dig at those of us who callously blame the Chinese community for certain things.

DFC has apologised a few times following the incident, revealing that the staff responsible has been transferred. The fried chicken retailer seems genuine, and one staff shouldn’t ruin everything, So, let’s just move on and give them a chance.

I have faith in most Malaysians. Of course, we should support Malaysian products.

I like all types of chicken whether fried, steamed or roasted. So it doesn’t matter if it is KFC, DFC, mamak or Hainanese!

But those who spew racist remarks, especially politicians, should be “deep fried” by us in the next general election. That’s the type we want booted out.

The basic rules of journalism should apply, says the writer: Be able to back what you’ve reported, especially when it involves sensitive matters. — This visual is human-created, AI-aided.

WHEN the Bloomberg editors approved the story about on-going talks to open a casino in Forest City in Johor, they must have been absolutely convinced by their information’s accuracy.

The three reporters, too, must have completely believed in their sources’ whispers to them.

They claimed their information came from “people familiar with the matter”. It must then have solid and credible evidence.

In fact, they even said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had met with Berjaya Corp founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Genting Group’s Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay recently to discuss reviving the troubled RM478bil property project.

The New York-based financial news agency has since reported a denial from Genting, quoting the New Straits Times, alleging its involvement in starting a casino.

The supposedly credible news agency has, however, not retracted its story, which conspicuously indicates its stand.

Unfortunately, the report has detrimentally affected those named in the article. The impact is bad because Malaysiakini and The Edge apart, it was also picked up by a few news outlets in Singapore.

A police investigation is imminent, and the three reporters will likely be called up for questioning, too. Berjaya Corp legal representatives filed police reports on April 26, and it wants the cops to determine the source of the reporters’ information. The editor of a financial portal is expected to be called to Bukit Aman tomorrow, with more journalists asked to do the same in coming days.

Bersatu information committee member Badrul Hisham Shahrin has already been charged for publishing seditious material on the purported casino project.

There are grave consequences from the story. It’s not just a simple speculative news piece which can be dismissed and denied later.

Its faraway ignorant American editors may be forgiven for not realising the implications of the article, but surely their Malaysian bosses should know better.

It may seem like a story that’s too juicy to spike, as veteran journalists would recall the term, but this would simply be put on hold or just deleted.

Still, the basic rules of journalism apply. Be able to back what you’ve reported, especially when it involves sensitive matters.

Bloomberg hasn’t officially denied its story, which means it’s sticking by its report. For impressive stats, their reporters are 100% accurate.

Naturally, they won’t reveal their sources, like any self respecting journalist. The agency ran the story trusting the accuracy of the information and credibility of its sources.

It’s optimistic to expect the sources to vouch for them at the expense of needing to defend themselves instead. Perhaps the media house believes the government is powerless since retribution infringes on press freedom.

However, the aggrieved parties in this article include Sultan Ibrahim, the Sultan of Johor, and the King of Malaysia.

He’s also a stakeholder of the massive Forest City project, and His Majesty has been unfairly dragged into the controversy of the news report because of the article.

Surely Bloomberg is aware that the King is the head of Islam, so there won’t be any approval for a new casino in his state.

The timing of the report certainly raises an eyebrow, and could it also be injurious to the King, PM and even China?

In a nutshell, the purported casino can’t be approved in Johor without his consent.

There are many businessmen and leaders, who may have access to the King, but that doesn’t entitle them to speak with authority or expect credibility.

It may be wishful thinking on their part because over the past few years, many have explored all kinds of ideas, including possibly starting a casino to revive Forest City, but they remain propositions at best.

For the media, which gets fed with all kinds of information daily, good and seasoned journalists would still know how to exercise discretion, maturity, wisdom and remain aware of the impact of what they write.

They would crosscheck with other sources to verify the accuracy of their information.

In this scenario, Bloomberg said “people familiar with the matter.” So, we presume that’s plural?

But in this contentious report, Muslims, who comprise most of this country, will surely be anxious and unhappy with what’s been reported.

It also involves two Chinese tycoons, whose motives will be questioned and likely interpreted as insensitive by Muslims, while for China, it will, again, be seen as the villain and greedy country, like how the Western media merrily spins the narrative.

Fake news? No. It’s a story that has a lot of red flags and a new casino in present day Malaysia is a non-starter.