'Datuk’ is a Malay term for, or a title given to, a grandpa. But Dato is a Malay term for an honorific title that is bestowed upon individuals whom the state considers as people who have served the community and the nation well and also on people who have excelled in their areas of expertise and professionalism.
The first title is ‘naturally’ acquired over a period of time, especially after one’s children get married and have kids of their own. In other words, you get to be a ‘datuk’ to a handful of young and mischievous brats. There are of course certain people who consciously try to avoid getting such a title for it only reminds them of their old age (i.e. assuming that they get married at a ‘ripe age’).
The second category of ‘datuk’, on the other hand, is the one that many a Malaysian craves for day and night, often way before he or she is actually ‘due’ for such official recognition or conferment. Apart from the glamour and social status that the title supposedly carries, it also opens doors to business opportunities and other pecuniary benefits.
Which is why we sometimes hear rumours of certain individuals buying their way into ‘datukship’ because of the apparently high stakes attached to this title. And which also leads us to the question, where else have these individuals bought themselves into especially after being conferred the coveted datukship?
The current brouhaha that has emerged in the Malaysian society indeed has got to do with the second category of ‘datuk’. The problem started when a Sultan stripped two datuks of their titles because they were allegedly involved in things ‘undatukable’. Given the special aura and the political and economic clout that surround datukship, being stripped of it is, to many of these datuks, akin to being stark naked. It’s not quite like the feeling that the emperor without clothes had because these stripped datuks are then made to feel as if they are without their manhood or something powerful.
The reason for many of them feeling so helpless without the title is that a number of them, for instance, are so used to not having to wait in queues or overtaking others on the road simply because they have special badges on their expensive cars.
Complicating the matter further is the fact that certain states in the federation have the tendency to award too many datukships in a year, at times giving the impression that there is some kind of competition going on between the states concerned. For instance, despite the controversy over certain datuks who were apparently involved in things unlawful, Malacca still granted a high number of datukships. This situation prompts us to wonder whether there are enough stones to throw at the datuks because the standing joke is that when one throws a stone somewhere one is likely to hit a datuk or two.
The apparently easy dishing out of datukships to all and sundry has caused concern, if not consternation, among some datuks as their integrity and social standing are at stake. They feel that there has to be some stringent criteria to be employed before individuals are bestowed datukships. It’s like having a SIRIM stamp of quality, except that the output cannot be as massive as one would expect out of a factory production regime.
Concern about this state of affairs has reached new heights and there were calls for a ‘Datuk Watch’ which, eventually, was set up to help people surf a particular website to see who’s who on the datuk list. It’s something like having a Water Watch or Price Watch where one can vigorously monitor any sharp fluctuations that may cause hardship to the ordinary people, especially the less endowed.
Of course, ‘Datuk Watch’ is not ‘Baywatch’. Some of these datuks have figures you may not want to gaze at because many have ugly paunches matched only by the astronomical size of their business profits.
26/06/10
mi1: That is how King and sultans earn living by selling Dato/Datuks in Malaysia
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