I WAS ONCE APPOINTED THE GENERAL MANAGER OF A COMPANY and it was my responsibility to hire people to staff the company. We advertised in the newspaper as per the normal practice and soon a few people called in to arrange for interviews. One of them was a person who spoke in a soft voice. I immediately recognised it as a male person trying to sound like a woman. The voice asked if I would grant him an interview for the position and I said, yes.
I said “yes” not because I was curious to see this abnormality of a human being but because I did not discriminate against gender or race; I felt it was more important the person suited the position and could deliver the results expected by the company than his physical appearance.
For years, I have been conditioned to think it was against nature for a person to behave or feel any way but according to the sex of their birth. But a few years ago, after searching the Internet for knowledge, I began to open to the fact that Mak Nyahs (a Malay term for a male-to-female transsexual) are mere human beings with their own personalities, just like you and me. I was also fortunate to meet one of the foremost experts in our country in the field of sex change operations. He candidly explained the facts about such people to me and lamented the problems of abuse of Mak Nyahs by their families, friends and even their government.
The Mak Nyah who came for the interview suited the job and she asked if I would consider her two friends to fill the rest of the positions on offer. I said, yes, and that week I ended up hiring these three ladies as part of my staff.
In the beginning, I was unsure how the other staff would accept these three ladies but I soon set the rules in the company. Everyone in the company would be treated the same: with respect and professional acceptance. Maybe one or two of the male staff did feel squirmy but they soon got used to see the three manly looking ladies with outlandish clothes and make up.
Over the months, I got to know these three unique ladies better and they opened up to tell me their stories. As part of my management style, I try to get to know my staff as much as possible in order to foster good working relations with everyone. These three ladies’ life stories fascinated me.
They explained that it was difficult for them to find jobs as many employers did not accept such people in their staff. Even if the employer did not discriminate against them such as McDonald’s Restaurants, their colleagues would taunt them and make their working life miserable. As such, they drifted from one job to another, unable to make ends meet while spiraling down the abyss of discouragement and despair. These three friends lived together and helped each other out as much as a family would. They were shunned by their families and only had each other for comfort.
They helped each other to pay the rent and put food on the table. One of them had a manly haircut and would take off her make up when going to work. She felt unhappy because she could not be herself. She dressed as a man and behaved like a man at work. She resigned for that job soon after.
If I had to wear a dress against my will for work daily, I would feel the same!
I am pleased to report, the three Mak Nyahs’ work performance in the company were no different from the other staff. Just like everyone else, they scrambled to meet their quotas weekly, had the same anxiety when I raised my voice to chide those who underperformed, felt the same rejection feeling when customers turned them down and the same exuberance when they closed a sale. In short, there was nothing special about them; they were just like the other staff.
So there you have it, the story of how I paid 3 Mak Nyahs their salaries every month for the services they provided to the company.
Pepper Lim supports LGBT rights and believes a person’s sexuality is no concern of others. In his spare time, he authored “The Troublesome Prince Lucky Mole”; a best-seller children’s story book. Available at all good book stores.
love this amazing post
"They explained that it was difficult for them to find jobs as many employers did not accept such people in their staff. Even if the employer did not discriminate against them such as McDonald’s Restaurants, their colleagues would taunt them and make their working life miserable. As such, they drifted from one job to another, unable to make ends meet while spiraling down the abyss of discouragement and despair. These three friends lived together and helped each other out as much as a family would. They were shunned by their families and only had each other for comfort."
"If I had to wear a dress against my will for work daily, I would feel the same!"
One of the reason why i like this article and what Pepper did. Would anyone of us here done the same? Would I have done the same? Maybe not because I would fear what people say and react.
BUT.. after reading what Pepper shared here, it gives me hope that I will do the same. What this article did was to help people like me to open up my mind and give the courage to do what is right.
Of course there will always be that disturbing noise that will try to distract us from the real message of this article, which is why it is important for us to help each other in reminding what is worth while to focus on.
Pepper Lim is a hero.
Now, go hire some lepers, then write about it, so we may heap more accolades upon you.
Geez Louise. This reminds me of the white guy in the 1970's going, "my kids have lots of Negro friends, sometimes they even come over the house and eat off the same China".
Give Pepper a medal.
the headline seems like a last nail to the coffin that enforce further the stereotyping of trans people but thanks for the sharing Pepper, hopefully more positive news like this from other employers, in times like this where most mainstream media are gov controlled thus brainwashing the majority of the people outside there, we need more positive ones to counter the propaganda
Sex is so over-rated. Why all these obsession over a reproductive function that has been hyped up as something it is not? Look at it from that point, the form and function, then all the pleasure aspect of it becomes secondary. It is because we are programmed to think that sex is more than just a reproductive function we have so much trouble with it.
Nature has made mating pleasurable for the purpose of propagation of the species. We have hijacked it to become a moral issue. Illusion.
I can noticed there are many DONKEYS here who crave for FAKE TITS & jolok ARSEHOLE. Remember to ask ya AH QUAH to sapu "KY" before you thrust it into her (ooppss sorry "his", I mean) backlane, ok???
Hmmm (sedap). How FETISH. Ice cream & anal but sadly main JANTAN with a FEMALE makeover.
Hahahahahaha!!!
Hahahahahaha!!! Yeeeaaaahhhh!!!
The amount of response towards my comments certainly showed I've hit BULLS EYE (Ooopps, "G Spot", I mean). Well, PONDANS doesn't have "G-SPOT" (sori ah). Hehehehehe.
KY is GOOD becos' BAPOK/PONDAN/AH QUAH uses KY for ANWAR IBRAHIM's favourite position (Backlane Entry). I can now understand why so many WANKERS here are so fascinated & these WANKERS respond immediately whenever they hear/read the MAGICAL word called "KY" becos' all these WANKERS get a instant "Hard-On" whenever they hear…..
"Sapu KY sebelum cucuk Mak Nyah"
This is freaking HILARIOUS. Love it to the max.
Dear KY ..
YOU ARE SO LAME!!!!HAHAHA…
Dear KY Jelly,
I believe you post all those comments to divert the readers' attention to you since right now almost all of us is replying to your (crappy) comments.
There's a name for that.. what's that called again?
Oh yeah.. Attention Seeker.
Cheap one too.
Because you have to resort to those crappy hurtful comments.
Your 'big ego' must be so stroked right now because all of these comments are dedicated especially for you.
But isn't it ironic that it's in a post about transsexual people that you get all this attention in your life?
These people that you seem to dislike or maybe hate so much, have actually made your life a bit brighter.
Including mine I think you have 6 comments just for dear ole you since your last comment. Must be one of your "YAY!!" moments eh?
Oh by the way, for someone who seem to have a negative attitude towards transsexual people, you seem to know a lot about them. Have you been fooling around you naughty boy?
So, KY Jelly (your favourite lubricant isn't it? that's why you call yourself KY riigghhtt?) my attention limit is nearing its end and after this you will no longer be in it and will just be a figment of my imagination. My suggestion is you can copy paste all of our comments and put it in your scrapbook. Who knows this might be the highlight of your life. Not that it's a bad thing you know.
Ciao KY Jelly boy.
Julian Joo,
I am not the writer of this article but I can try explain why Pepper chose those words you mentioned.
"…choose to see this abnormality of a human being" -while you may see your transsexual friends as regular people in everyday life, general society does not. Like it or not, they are deemed "out of the ordinary". Pepper is probably trying to use the sentiment of general society to demonstrate therefore that he does not necessarily view Mak Nyahs from that perspective.
The title itself – This wordplay. Words that play on the prejudice of general society itself. It is a satire of it in fact. Of course as you read along you realise that "services" here were entirely of the "kosher" sort, not what most people expect of Mak Nyahs. Wordplay is a trick journalists and copywriters use to capture the attention of readers. E.g "I have secretaries for breakfast" DOES not literally mean the person eats secretaries for breakfasts. :)
Cheers!
@KY: It's obvious you live your life by stuffing everybody and everything, concepts included into boxes – "Good", "Bad", "White", "Black", "friend", "not friend", "gay", "straight", "rich", "poor", etc., etc.
Your senseless babble indicates the constant need for reassurance by your own voice that you MUST belong somewhere, but you're scared to know where, because the occupants of every "box" you've created and tried to crawl into eject you forthwith, on account of you being what you are. Live and let live – if you don't understand a lifestyle, and the person practising that lifestyle doesn't get in your face, why knock it?! You're no different from the morals police lurking behind bushes waiting to catch transgressors of some imagined Code Of Behaviour. I've got a box for that … "CRAP".
Good one Petra!!!
@KY – If you want to call everyone ‘Bapok Lovers', fair enough. If everyone showed more love to transgendered people, there’d be less room for people in this world for people like you.. People support Anwar Ibrahim because of his political promises; but frankly, if he was gay, I’d still vote for him. And KY, it is very well known to the psychological world that a lot of homophobic and transphobic people tend to be just closeted people who can’t seem to begin their journey of self discovery, simply because they don’t have the balls to go against what mainstream society believes is right.
Do us all a favour; get a vasectomy.
@KY – If you want to call everyone 'Bapok Lover's fair enough. If everyone showed more love to transgendered people, there'd be less room for people in this world. People support Anwar Ibrahim because of his political promises; but frankly, if he was gay, I'd still vote for him. And KY, it is very well known to the psychological world that a lot of homophobic and transphobic people tend to be just closeted people who can't seem to begin their journey of self discovery, simply because they don't have the balls to go against what mainstream society believes is right.
Do us all a favour; get a vasectomy.
the last time i checked, KY is a lubricant for smoother sexual intercourse. didn't expect to see one commenting in the internet. but alas, no intellect, considering where he is normally put to use :)
KY,
We dont want your ice-cream…. very small….like 3 yrs old boy.
Now I finally understand why Anwar Ibrahim got so many supporters. It's becos' there are a lot of BACKLANE ENTRY LOVERS just like their idols. The comments here showed it all.
BINGO!!!
Hahahahahahaha!!! Oh man, Oh man….I just CANNOT believe there are actually sOoOoOoOoOo many BAPOK lovers here. I bet George Michael, Boy George & Elton John will love it here too.
Bunch of LADY BOY lovers here……Yeeeeeaaaak!!! Lu mau ICE CREAM kah??? Kekekekekeke
Dear Sir,
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!
For your information, I also MakNyah and for KY, I feel sorry for you. I really hope you could save some money and time to go back to kindergarten and learn how to respect others.
this is reply for u..KY…
…NK KATA TAK SEKOLAH CELIK IT…TAK KAN TAK PENAH BACA ABOUT PROGRESSIVE OF MAK NYAH…THIS IS WAT OLD PEOPLE SAYS …'KECIK2 TAK NAK MAMPOS..DAH BESAR..MENYUSAHKAN ORANG LAEN'
KY, you may think that you're really funny but all you have done is show the world how immature and brainless you truly are. You underestimated yourself though… you didn't have to post 3 comments to show what a dumbass you are – we knew as soon as we read your first comment.
well, if his company ever need a transsexual IT technician, he can look me up in facebook. :p
Even the title of the article smacks of stereotyping!! Minus fifty points!!!
I know this article was written with good intentions but in paragraph 2, the author distinctly acknowledged that being a transgender/transexual is an "abnormality in a human being" (whilst at the same time saying that this was not the reason the interview was granted). As a gay man, I see my drag friends and other drag queens as peers and as part of common everyday society. I hope the author did so too and perhaps there could have been a better choice of words in the article.
I just met one in facebook yesterday, she asked do I mind, I told her that I am not. And we talked about a lot of things, will be meeting her one of the days.
ANWAR IBRAHIM also pays Mak Nyahs for their GoOoOoOoOoOoOoD service lah.
ANWAR IBRAHIM often ring 'Backlane Entry Sdn Bhd' for these Mak Nyahs.
I bet the most frequent question often asked by the 3 Mak Nyahs to Pepper Lim is …..
"Hey ABANG, hisap atau goncang untuk over time?"
Hahahahahahaha!!!!
Hi PEPPER LIM,
So, did u sprinkle some PEPPER on ya DICK & ask that 3 'BAPOK' to give you 'ICE CREAM' service????
Thanks Pepper Lim for being a true human
See Teck, it will help if you don't put them in open and close inverted commas as if they are not normal.
Hope this article will inspire more people to treat 'them' as normal people!
Great article Pepper. Just wanna quote something from my last article: "The medical world no longer refers to it as "sex change operation" but "sex reassignment surgery". To a transsexual who feels she is a woman, she is not changing her sex, she has always been a woman; she is merely correcting the biological defect protruding from her groin to match who she is inside. Some of us are lucky our brain sex matches our external organs, some of us aren’t so lucky. That’s all."
But somebody pointed to me that anyone who can learn to be proud of who she is, is lucky enough.
I'm glad there are people like you, being part of the management.There are just like any other Human Being who considered themselves "normal".
Thanks Pepper, i enjoyed reading it, and YES, they are human being too. So what they dress that way, is their right.Nobody,including government agency, has no right to set rules on them.(Recently,a government agency will ban cross dressing,let see what rules they are going to set).
dat's a jaw-dropping title.LOL
Treating them as any other respectful person is perfectly and absolutely necessary.
Marry a girly man is perfectly alright for Elton but not to a Manly man!
LOL!!
Thanks so much for this post. Good to know there are people out there like you.
Bless you.