Silk
Val
There
was a courageous woman
she had to be
Nick and Val met in New Zealand
When Nick was doing his degree in agricultural science
They fell in love
Living together until graduation
When in a flight of fancy
they eloped to Kuala Lumper back in Nick’s home town
they married
which is when all the fun began
They were arrested by the religious police in the Hilton Hotel
Spending their first night as a married couple
in jail
In separate cells
Nick
Was able to demonstrate he was legally married under Malaysian law
as a good Moslem
But it took him all night
being a Tunku helped
his family coming to the rescue
with these contacts
Nick also got a job in Terengganu
a small fishing village on the East Coast of Malaysia
When the Malaysian silk industry was in its infancy
Nick was smart
Gradually taking a key role in the development and marketing of the Malaysian silk industry
For Val
It was another world
A closeted, embittering world
Living in a Kampung in Terengganu
A white women without money
Converting to Islam
Thrust into the traditional Malay woman’s role
Taking a rapid course in Malay
Segregated from the men in public
Serving her husband obediently
Driving a shock wave between them both
This was at a time
When the PAS party was flexing its muscles
As a radical Islamic Party
With its mission to take Malaysia back to the faith
They lived by the river
In a traditional timber Malay house
with a mosque on each side of the river
They got the call to prayer in stereo
Val
By necessity
Became resourceful
Hardened
Like her tanned skin
And pregnant
Having two beautiful children
A girl and a boy
In quick succession
Being charitable the parents
They were both short but wiry people
Not being endowed with good looks
However
their genetic stock
Produced two absolutely, strikingly beautiful children
Who were a delight
Val schooled them at home until school age
Teaching them English
Which was the language spoken at home
Having children
cemented Val’s position in the Kampung
Fulfilling her function as the wife of a Tunku
Val became more confident
while still ruling the roost behind closed doors
We all used to go swimming in the cooler mountain rivers
Or take a fishing boat out to Palau Kapas for the day
Val deepened her engagement with the community
Founding a help group for Malay women who were abused
Which did not endear her to the men in the community
To tourists
it looked like a paradise
White sanded beaches, clear crystal water, palm trees
Beyond
into the shadowy groves of the palm trees
It became a different world!
Mentally deranged kids
Being chained to balustrades
As their parents did not know how to deal with them
Abject poverty
The traditional life gone
With little education
And no way out
Traditionally
Malay’s were hunter gatherers
As the jungle and sea were bountiful
Suddenly
Under the central government’s dictates
They became defined as unemployed?
Historically
Having their land and sovereignty stolen by the British
Who brought in greater numbers of Indian and Chinese workers
To shoulder the burden of building a new nation
In the British model
palm oil plantations, industrialisation, gas and oil exploration
industrialised poverty
this discontent
boiled over in 1969
with race riots
where the Malays ran amuck
attacking any Malaysian Chinese
in coffee shops, markets with machetes
the blood flowed
the Chinese retaliated
starting in the west coast
it did not take long to infect the east coast
the bitterness
the distrust
still lives
the waves of Vietnamese boat people
arriving on the eastern beaches
much later
compounded the divisions
the refugees became the focus
stories abounded
of Malay fisherman
fisherman by day
pirates by night
boarding the refugee boats at sea at night
taking anything of value, raping the women, killing the men
then sinking the boats
leaving those remaining alive to drown at sea
When some refugee boats got through to the beaches
they were attacked as they landed
with the military being called in to protect the refugees
as a result
All the refugees were put under the control of the UN on Pulau Redang
Away from the main land
The military setup patrols, in an attempt to get the boats before they landed
In the Malay eyes
This intensified the situation
as refugees were now receiving greater assistance
housing, food, jobs
than the indigenous people, the Bumiputra
left behind, disenfranchised
fertile ground for Islamic extremism
as it fermented in the Kampung’s all along of the east coast
despite the Government’s massive handouts to the Malay population
after the ’69 riots
by way of the Bumiputra programme
Val and Nick’s family
grew into this environment
The kids
Now being of school age
Went to the local Kampung Islamic school
Ran by PAS
The kids being kids
Started parroting at home
What they were being taught at school
All white women are whores
Western society is corrupted
and morally bankrupt
The kids were picked on at school
bullied
As their mother was a white whore
Val
Started to panic
As she could see her children drifting away from her
As Nick became a Datu
An honorary title
As a leader in the community
Their lives diverging
Val
Left for New Zealand with the kids
Nick
Distort
being separated from the kids
Visited often
staying in Malaysia in order to support the family
the oceans of time
pushing them further apart
carrying them into their respective worlds
until the legal
second wife
became the final straw