It’s probably the impulse to keep private things relating to the family just that: private. Sometimes what’s worse is not actually being poor, or dysfunctional, or broken; sometimes what’s worse is being thought as such by your neighbours.
I notice how this infects alot of Malaysians. There’s probably nothing wrong with keeping what concerns a family within the family; outsiders really have no business with our own internal squabbles, do they?
All the secrecy, however, breeds a few things: a desire to be perceived as ‘normal’ or ‘with it’; an excuse to silence dissenting voices; and the assurance that if things really are going wrong, the family gets to solve it their own way.
That’s what probably motivated our Deputy Internal Security Minister to tell off potential tourists, though I cannot be sure; we could describe this whole incident as one man suddenly having his authority questioned in a land where he and his ilk have control over everything. [more..]
