Nice to Meet You

And here is my story

We were in quarantine while I was scrolling up and down on Youtube and noticed that I have watched almost every video posted on Youtube. It was mid of April when I first discovered Medium through a Youtuber who is also a writer on Medium. I was always looking for a platform to express my thoughts, ideas, and feelings. I used to blog when I was in high school many years ago but after a while, I deleted my account because I said something unpopular and contrary to the norms, culture, and beliefs of my society.

I am from Malaysia. A country that is very rich with its own cultures. Malaysia is a multi-cultural society. If you have been here before, you will notice that the ethnicities retain their religions, customs, and way of life.

Malays, Chinese and Indians all strive to maintain face and avoid shame both in public and private. Face is a personal concept that embraces qualities such as a good name, good character and being held in esteem by one’s peers.

Face can be lost by openly criticizing, insulting, or putting someone on the spot; doing something that brings shame to the group; challenging someone in authority, especially if this is done in public; showing anger at another person; refusing a request or disagreeing with someone publicly.

“Freedom of Speech and Expressions” seems to be a utopia to me. Our culture teaches us to always listen to your teacher, do not talk back to your elders, never say no to your parents, do not befriend gay, do not talk about politics in public, do not speak of something that can cause conflicts or disgrace. That is the society I live in, my friend. However, I do not deny the fact that the desire to maintain face makes Malaysians strive for harmonious relationships.

I was 19 when I got into law school. I guess being a law graduate changes my perspective of what my society claims as taboo. I learned about constitutional rights, consumer rights, gender equality, political agenda, international relations, public policy, religion, and other things that I saw lacuna in every aspect of it. There are always things to debate and discuss — openly. The law school taught me differently from what I have learned while I was in high school. Speak up. Voice out your opinion. Advocate for the things that are worth advocating for. I graduated from law school in 2011.

After graduated, I embark on my journey as an Advocate and Solicitor in Kuala Lumpur. I have roller coaster experience throughout 9 years journey of my career. I enjoy my career but there is much more of it that I craved for. I want to reach out and make friends with people from other societies. I want to read, learn, debate, discuss with on various topics openly with people that are not within the norm of my society. I want to hear your story and I want you to listen to mine. I want us to share ideas, thoughts, and values without being critical of each other. Without being judged.

I would like to thank Dr Mehmet Yildiz for allowing me to be on board with other writers here. I love reading articles from my fellow writers on ILLUMINATION. There are various topics every day that has widened my perspective on the world. English is my second language. Sometimes there might be some grammatical error that I did not notice and I would appreciate if you could correct my grammar. My use of vocabulary is also quite limited. I am learning more vocabulary and improving my grammar by reading articles here in ILLUMINATION and generally in Medium.

Oh, I think I forgot the introduction part. Hi, my name is Meen Sokri. I am 32 years old. I am a Muslim and not racist. I am here to bring you my story from this part of the world. Please share yours too. Thank you.