A guide book targeting English-speaking tourists in Malaysia has outraged locals by ridiculing Africans, Chinese and Indians while praising Malays for their superior sense of community spirit.
Dos and Don'ts in Malaysia, written and published in Thailand, is an attempt at irreverent humour poked at the social mores of Malaysia - a country often beset by racial differences - while politely pointing tourists down the road of least offence. It was written by Thirunavukkarasu Jr Karasu and illustrated by Nurhyati Yusoff and Nik Rafin Mustapha.
It tries to cover various aspects of life - from dining to dating, weddings and arranged marriages, funerals, children and religion. Some of it is banal: the author notes that Muslims don't drink alcohol and prefer not to eat pork and advises guests to wash the right hand before dinner.
Occasional one-liners hit their mark, such as: headhunting on Borneo these days is confined to selecting the best person for the job. But Thirunavukkarasu misfires on the issues of race, relationships and stereotyping, offering outright insults instead.
The Chinese 'can be brash, crude and uncouth' and possess zero generosity while piling more food on their plates than they can possibly consume at free buffets, he writes. They also rush the exit doors of aircraft before they stop.
Urban Chinese, being in possession of the business DNA gene, will do business anywhere, 'even in a sleazy pub joint', and can adopt 'ridiculous' western names: there is 'probably a Hitler Ang somewhere downtown', he writes.