..one of Kelantan well known attractions is the Beach of Passionate Love, Pantai Cinta Berahi, which the present state government, fearing its sexual connotations might pollute impressionable minds, young and old amongst them, was quick to change it to Pantai Cahaya Bulan, the Moon Light Beach, the full moon being their political symbol, after all...
...which, like the single-sex counters in supermarkets, is an exercise in futility, for locals continued to call it by its acronym, PCB, meaning Pantai Cinta Berahi...not PCB, Pantai Cahaya Bulan..
..but to the older generations like me, it is Pantai Semut Api, its original name..the Beach of Fire Ants, until sometimes in 1950 when it was renamed Pantai Cinta Berahi...and quickly translated into the Beach of Passionate Love, taking the standard meaning of the word Berahi as Passionate...more with attracting the tourist in mind, I think...
...I had a feeling that the gentleman who gave the beach its famous tag is a true-blue Kelantanese with a wicked sense of humour, or someone who had mastered the Kelantanese dialect, knows its people, the traits and customs and was taking a dig...he must have had a devilish smile on when his proposal was approved...
..locals used the word berahi, corrupted to brehi, to mean an intense liking for something..so it is truer to say that Pantai Cinta Berahi means the Beach with a Passion For Love..and that, more or less, described the Kelantanese...people with a fondness for love...for, indeed, we are more known for our amorous deeds than any thing else...
..well, if we take polygamy as a yardstick, Kelantan leads...for the period 1990 to 2004, Kelantan registered the highest number of polygamous marriages... with 5274 cases..(figures from Jakim from a study done by Utusan Malaysia in 2007)...since it is relatively easy to get hitched in Kelantan, and with the generally laidback atitude Kelantanese have for marriages, polygamous or otherwise, I daresay the number of unregistered marriages is about equal the amount registered, if not more..
..in as much as Kelantanese men having no qualms at taking up polygamy, whether openly or covertly, the women, too, displayed a certain degree of practicality when it comes to marrying others' husbands...well...it takes a willing gal before any man can contemplates polygamy..looks like in the state of TGNA, there are many willing girls... perhaps a moot point for those SistersInIslam to ponder...instead of calling for laws making it difficult for men to marry, why not draft laws punishing damsels who agreed to?....I jest, of course, but how about a jail term and rotan?..that will keep polygamy at bay...
..and I do not think that economic consideration is a factor..we have trisha-pedallers and simple village folks with no fixed income practising it as well as those men of means and money...while such marriages tend to be tumultous, women and men being what they are, there are marriages that survived...but the divorce-rate is high..leading at about 15% inclusive of monogamous marriages...
..meanwhile, at the Beach of Passionate Love, the courting goes on.......
No comments:
Post a Comment