Another term for white people is Mat Salleh. It has two possible origins.
In the late 1800's there was a local chief in North Borneo named Mat Salleh who led a rebellion against the British after they burned down his village for daring to question their rules. Now, why his name would then become slang for white people is unclear.
The other explanation is that Mat Salleh is a mispronunciation of "Mad Sailor" which makes more sense since the first white people in Malaysia were sailors (or pirates), and we all know how crazy they can get when back on land.
Either way, Mat Salleh is not as rude a term as Orang Putih, but still not a compliment. Also, in doing "research" (Google) on Mat Salleh I found one blog that used a picture of the cast of Friends to illustrate the term, which I thought was hilarious and perfect.
2 comments:
Not just three white tourist, three separate GROUPS of white tourists. Totaled together that makes 5!! Almost a double hat trick.
Sorry to bump up an old blog entry, but LOL - ur sneak photos of ur fellow orang putih is hillarious. it seems that living in terengganu has made u rather observant of this :P
anyhow, nice blog, nice pics. :)
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