Of myth and mindset
A few weeks back, when I attend the much-needed class for my driving test, my instructor tells me that she can’t come the next day. She has to see a ‘bomoh’ in Kuala Lumpur since she is having problems sleeping since her body itches every night for the past few nights.
She convince me that this particular ‘bomoh’ is good since she has to queue up for hours just to see him. She is convinced that dia ‘dibuat orang’.
A few months back, I receive the news that one of my favorite grandaunts has cancer. She too seeks the help of a ‘bomoh’, not the same one, to ‘cure the cancer’. The bomoh tells her (despite the fact that a few days earlier a doctor tells her that she has cancer) that dia ‘disembur oleh puntianak’.
Another grandaunt has to dress her 2-year-old daughter in black for one year due to some bomoh’s predictions. Failing to do so will result to my grandaunt losing her daughter to ‘orang bunian’. The daughter has to change her name to ‘buruk’ during that one-year period.
I don’t know what is happening to the world today. Day in day out you watch information on diseases on TV, yet we resort to ‘bomohs’ to help us cure these so called ‘buatan orang’/’sembur dengan puntianak’/ ‘orang bunian culik’. Are we living in denial?
For some people, knowing the truth is not exactly ‘their cup of tea’. They prefer to listen to these ‘bomohs’ instead of religiously taking the pills/medications given by the doctors.
To the driving instructor, I tell her that maybe her liver is not functioning well, thus resulting the body to itch (it happens to my late grandmother, she is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer), to that favorite grandaunt of mine, the one with breast cancer, I just feel like smacking her sober. She has an ‘anak saudara’ in KL who is a doctor. We tell her every week to go and meet the ‘anak saudara’ to get further treatment. To date, she still refuses to accept the fact that she has cancer. To that other grandaunt her daughter actually has Infantile eczema.
I’m not denying the existence of this so-called black magic phenomenon in the Malay Culture. But, we have to make full use of progress as well. Ape guna we hantar our kids to universities if by the end of the day we still resort to this practice of trusting the bomohs. We have to belief in modern medicine jugak.
So make your choice. Nak mati dengan bomoh ke atau nak mati lepas we try as hard as we can.
She convince me that this particular ‘bomoh’ is good since she has to queue up for hours just to see him. She is convinced that dia ‘dibuat orang’.
A few months back, I receive the news that one of my favorite grandaunts has cancer. She too seeks the help of a ‘bomoh’, not the same one, to ‘cure the cancer’. The bomoh tells her (despite the fact that a few days earlier a doctor tells her that she has cancer) that dia ‘disembur oleh puntianak’.
Another grandaunt has to dress her 2-year-old daughter in black for one year due to some bomoh’s predictions. Failing to do so will result to my grandaunt losing her daughter to ‘orang bunian’. The daughter has to change her name to ‘buruk’ during that one-year period.
I don’t know what is happening to the world today. Day in day out you watch information on diseases on TV, yet we resort to ‘bomohs’ to help us cure these so called ‘buatan orang’/’sembur dengan puntianak’/ ‘orang bunian culik’. Are we living in denial?
For some people, knowing the truth is not exactly ‘their cup of tea’. They prefer to listen to these ‘bomohs’ instead of religiously taking the pills/medications given by the doctors.
To the driving instructor, I tell her that maybe her liver is not functioning well, thus resulting the body to itch (it happens to my late grandmother, she is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer), to that favorite grandaunt of mine, the one with breast cancer, I just feel like smacking her sober. She has an ‘anak saudara’ in KL who is a doctor. We tell her every week to go and meet the ‘anak saudara’ to get further treatment. To date, she still refuses to accept the fact that she has cancer. To that other grandaunt her daughter actually has Infantile eczema.
I’m not denying the existence of this so-called black magic phenomenon in the Malay Culture. But, we have to make full use of progress as well. Ape guna we hantar our kids to universities if by the end of the day we still resort to this practice of trusting the bomohs. We have to belief in modern medicine jugak.
So make your choice. Nak mati dengan bomoh ke atau nak mati lepas we try as hard as we can.