The case of one ‘k’ too many

I called Zaid this morning to remonstrate with him for calling Syed Husin Ali ‘nyanyuk’ as reported in FreeMalaysiaToday yesterday.

Instead, I received a ‘Bahasa Malaysia for dummies’ lesson.

“Demi Allah, Haris, saya tak sebut pun perkataan nyanyuk. Saya kata mungin dia dah nyanyu”, Zaid protested.

I did not catch the difference between ‘nyanyuk’ and nyanyu’ at first, and told him in a rather irritated tone as such.

He responded with as much irritation and impatience in his tone.

“Nyanyu? You tak tahu perkataan nyanyu? Sekolah mana you pergi, Haris? Nyanyu tu maksud merepek”, Zaid explained, clearly exasperated.

I was in front of my computer then and asked him to spell the word.

“Nak check, ke? n-y-a-n-y-u”, Zaid spelt the word out for me.

I checked HERE and this is what I got.

Nyanyu : bercakap yg bukan-bukan, meraban, merepek

Damn, the word was there!

I thanked Zaid for furthering my education this morning

Are you not going to set this straight with FMT, I asked.

“As soon  as you get off the phone so I can call them. I can’t believe you have never heard of nyanyu, Haris” , Zaid said, obviously enjoying my embarrassment.

Zaid obviously called FMT soon after I ended the call. Their report clarifying this confusion arising from a ‘k’ that should never have been there can be read HERE.

Was it right to suggest that Syed Husin might be nyanyu, I asked, before ending my call.

“Haris, you know how much work I put into getting the Pakatan Common Policy Framework in place. You read Syed Husin’s interview in Merdeka Review where he said my input in that document was minimal. You know I was away in UK working on the draft. Was that fair, Haris?”, Zaid asked.

Zaid was right.

Syed Husin was being nyanyu in some of the things he had said in that interview.

And as someone said in a comment, don’t fault Zaid for calling a spade a spade.

Posted in: Right to know