Hi SyaifulAzwan!

Robert Raymer is an expat who has lived in Malaysia for the past 20 years, so I guess his views on Malaysians do warrant a look, don't you agree?

Your view is definitely not out of track, as I, myself, see the points that Raymer DID NOT put in. Up to us to interpret the seemingly 'superficial' issues in the story.

Of course, after reading the story again carefully, I notice that Raymer did not actually stereotype the Malaysians. We have our own prejudice and bias also, am I right?

For one, Mrs.Koh, Veronica and Miss Chee are all Chinese, but only Mrs. Koh is potrayed as the antagonist. While as far as I know, through real statistics and not just presuppositions, the Indians (No offence please) are the ones that is usually connected to suicidal act. But it is a chinese, Johnny Leong,that is potrayed as the one who tries to kill himself

From there, I see that Raymer did capture what he thinks people in general are like, not particularly Malaysians. He might only used us as a setting since well, he did stay in Malaysia for almost 20 years.

But of course, along the way, being surrounded by Malaysians, the Malaysian cultures and habits are shown in the short story. But I think Raymer certainly did not mean to overgeneralise

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CARPE DIEM!

"Neighbours" is a short story which not only presents us the multicultural community in Malaysia but also shows us the attitudes that Malaysians have.Although we come from different races,backgrounds,cultures and religions,we tend to share the same attitudes when something arouses our curiosity.We seem to care and concern a lot on the recent issues but on the other hand,we have,sort of "crossed our borderline".It means that sometimes we ask too much and become too busybody.Oftentimes,we do not realise that we are actually gossipping instead of concerning other people.When this happens,we tend to exaggerate or create our own story which might be different with the original story.This is clearly portrayed in the story,"Neighbours".

In fact,the events that portrayed in the short story do not necessarily happen in a neighbourhood,it happens anywhere in Malaysia(workplace,school,market etc.) and the participants involved are not necessarily females but males as well(Please do not stereotype that women are the gossip mongers).
This is illustrated in the story in which men are "actively"involved in the conversation as well .Therefore,i think Robert Raymer is trying to bring up the common phenomenons that are happening around us without our realisation.For me,this is quite a common situation that we experience everyday in our life but it does not mean that Malaysians are "gossip kings or gossip queens".Perhaps we are too curious in everything that people do or perhaps this is the type of personality that a person has.The most important thing is we cannot generalise that all Malaysians are busybody which is exactly what Rorbert Raymer wrote.This is unfair to make such a statement.

I don't think there are issues that really concern the writer in order to write this story.In my opinion,i think he wrote this story just because he wanted to give an overall picture of how Malaysians react when they have been told of the "burning topics" and what attitudes they would show when the topics(not their business) interested them.For me,"Neighbours" is neither an informative nor exciting or imaginative type of story.It is just a simple yet creative piece of writing.

I am sure everyone here has no difficulties in understanding the story.That's all i have to say.Thank you for reading!

Hi, Jake…

I totally agree with u, the habits if gossips are the reality of our life…we cannot even avoid it happen but we can control it. A small case maybe will become serious case after few hours. There are very terrible. Therefore, everyone who wants to tell your friend for the updated news, please make sure that is not a rumours or try to exaggerate the news that u heard from others……

hye pang,
believe or not sometime the rumours do make our society close in a certain ways. in the story, we can see that, if the "meeting of rumours" in that day didn't happen, maybe the neigbours may not know even the names of their own community. but of course the wild rumours are bad in our daily life. so it depends on how you perceive the rumours wether good or bad.

hai everybody! through this story "Neighbours" we can see that people in Malaysia can live in harmony even though they comes from different background, races, religion and culture. For examples they knew their neigbours' name and their occupation. This is the first things that i get from this story about Malaysia and the people that live in this country.However this story tells us the characters loves to gossip and say something about their neighbour even though they do not know whether it is true or not. Besides that, they help their neighbour but they not help from their heart.I mean they are not sincere. For examples Mrs.Koh gets upset because her husband uses their new car to send Johnny to hospital. She worry if the car is mess.All Johnny's neighbours gossip them but when come to where they need to tell his wife Veronica what happened to her husband, everybody doesn't want to take the responsibility. Some of them go back to their house to do their own things and even some of them said that, it is not their business. How selfishness they are! Pretending as a good person from outside but inside they are not. The author wants us to aware not every neighbours is a good person. Maybe sometimes we also act like that. Think about it! I think the author wants us to be a good neighbour to our neighbours. Not only from outside but deep inside our heart.

Hai OpahrOck i agree with you. this story happens in reality. our people like to make their life busy by gossiping and talk about other people. But the problem is they only talk about the bad ones and not the good ones. That's why we have movie in our country such as "mami jarum". Am i right? But yet not all peole are like that.

Hi there,

Before I begin, I would like to congratulate Mr. Raymer for a good job with this short story. I find it light and honest. I am happy with the overall story as it is unbiased towards any particular race plus I get to know a foreigner’s point of view of Malaysia.

Neighbours is about a small community living in a new medium-income housing area. It also depicts the realities that are happening in Malaysia. Everyone wants to know about someone else or something that had happened. The characters are mostly a bunch of busybody people. The funny thing is, in the end no one wants to be holding the responsibility of telling Veronica (what had happened to Johnny, her husband). The characters would also come up with their own assumptions of what caused Johnny to drink the weed-killer. For all we know, it could have been an accident. Mrs. Koh for example, said that Veronica and her daughter Lily were busy gambling when in fact they went shopping.

Malaysian lives in harmony. The three main races can co-exist with each other. Religion and race is not an issue. The one thing I do not quite agree with is the busybody part. Not everyone is busybodies. I live in a place somewhat similar to the one depicted in this short story. To my right lives an Iban family and to my left, a Chinese family. Whenever things happened they do not have this bad attitude. This does not mean that they are not friendly. They are but with limits. I am glad I live in such a place.

One of the concerns of this short story is the unity among the races in Malaysia. There were also a lot of tolerances practised among the characters. An example would be facing a woman like Mrs. Koh which can be a challenge if we cannot tolerate her. I am happy that the writer did not provide all the negative elements in this short story. Mr. Koh and Mr. Tan did save Johnny’s life by sending him to the hospital even if it means Mr. Koh had to face his wife later.

To conclude, we can live in a place where everyone wants to know every single thing we do or we can live in a place where no one cares about us. The choice is ours. Even if it is not, we have to blend in. It is our only way to survive.

This is a story that reflects the Malaysian society through a conversation among neighbours of different races. It highlights each character’s personality vividly via the way they talk, and how they react to the issue at hand-Johnny’s presumed suicide attempt. I think it is a realistic illustration of today’s Malaysians, with its growing social concerns such as gambling, drinking and illegal racing, among others.

This story also brings to light some of the negative attitudes of Malaysians, such as materialism, gossiping and bad-mouthing behind someone’s back, (all which seems to be characteristics of Mrs. Koh alone); though it also features the neighbourliness of the characters involved, that they highly value their relationship in light of others, regardless of race, social economic background as well as religion. This can be clearly seen from the way the characters interact with each other, and how everyone seems to know something about somebody, which proves they do not seclude themselves in their own homes. It is an accurate account and a convincing description of a typical exchange among typical Malaysians in a typical residential area.

Through only an afternoon chat between the "neighbours" has revealed so much about Malaysia and her multicultural people, especially when "Mrs. Koh's beady eyes lit up like shiny coins", Dr. Nathan "looking as if he had just pulled the wrong tooth", and Ramli with "his dark brown eyes rolled upwards to heaven". I find the descriptions of the characters quite interesting and funny, yet these excerpts from the story do not simply mean so without implying how concerned, empathetic and appalled our community can be towards others’ catastrophe if we see it from a positive perspective. It’s true that gossiping may be deemed a negative activity, but it can be positively seen as a means of keeping ourselves abreast of the happenings around us, provided that we do not diverge from what is true and start spreading unsubstantiated rumours.

There are several concerns presented in the story. It’s interesting to see how the author assigns quite typical occupational roles to the characters – Ramli (hawker), Mr. Koh (insurance broker), Dr. Nathan (dentist), Mr. Tan and Miss Chee (teachers whose status are single). Another concern is how gambling and debts can lead to dysfunctional family relationships as seen in Johnny’s family. Meanwhile, Dr. Nathan’s claim of “you can't get more reliable than a neighbour" serves to highlight the underlying values of being neighbours, further demonstrated by Mr. Koh and Mr. Tan who try to help Johnny. Surely it’s hard to convey bad news especially of one’s partner suicidal attempt, but I think as neighbours who are aware of the situation, they shouldn’t avoid the confrontation and push the obligation to break the news. This is the one value lacking in them despite the tolerant and harmonious atmosphere painted. Perhaps this suits Mrs. Koh’s favourite remark “it’s none of my business”.

Hi everybody…
Obviously, Malaysian multicultural life has been portrayed in this story. The interpretation that can be drawn from this story (I think) is the way Malaysians live in their neighborhood. Malaysia is very well known through her friendly people. Here, I wonder why gossips always take part in our daily life. For most of Malaysian, gossiping is just like a routine in order to get touch with other. Still, I can’t see what advantages that comes with it…
In this story, we can notice that all the characters in this story quite don’t know each other although they live in the same neighborhood. They spread gossips for no reason which might be wrong because they don’t really know the actual fact and the real situation. It is just like accuse someone doing something that it is not true...