Matreps/Minahreps are typical young Malays who distinctively must hang around in large groups without any motive or direction. They just like to waste their time, sometimes ironically talking about how their community is being looked down upon. If you still don't get it, they're the Malay ah-bengs/ah-lians. In fact, all Malays are either mat or Minah. It’s the subcategory their in is what matters. E.g. Mat Rock, Mat Smart, Minah Ferring… And so on. Why talk about matrep/minahrep? It is because they make up the majority of Mats and Minahs. Don't believe me? Go to their 'headquarter’ at Esplanade on Saturday evening. Then you'll believe me.

How to detect a matrep/minahrep even though they don't look like one? Well… looks can be deceiving. Anybody can look like a matrep/minahrep and stereotypically, you will start thinking, “Oh he/she is a matrep/minahrep". You can't do that because they're obviously always up to date with fashion. And so if others were to be up to date with fashion, they'll be group as matrep/minahrep too? You don't have to look like a nerd to be a programmer rite? Oh well… my definition of them are purely on their social and lifestyle attitude.

Where can they be found?
They can be found at void decks, parks shelter and outside shopping mall when they're broke. When they have some change, they can be found at coffee shop or simply, places where there are tables, chairs, drink stall and have to be outdoors so that they'll be noticeable and be able to smoke and drink their stuff for hours while they gossip and laugh so ever loudly. On weekends, they're either at their 'headquarter', clubs or simply places where there’s a bunch of them, usually places that are crowded or where the food is cheap. On festive season (Hari Raya), they will branch out to Geylang for a month. While companies branch out to expand its business, matnarep branch out to gain more attention. They’ll be at Geylang for almost the whole night just strolling around without a motive or destination despite that place being densely crowded which makes them a huge obstacle for people who really wanted to shop. You can also find lots of them behind Tampines Mall (Human Resource Department I guess).

How do they speak?
As usual, vulgarities are a necessity to them. Without it, they’ll feel dumber than they already are. Their languages always ends with sial1, siak or sey. Those are slangs they use to make their sentences sounds cooler. Sometimes when they’re angry, they’ll end a sentence with, “Macam Pukimak2 sial!”

What do they talk about?
Even though some of them can be found at parks, they don’t happen to be talking about birds and trees. They usually talk about how cool their friends are, or they talk about what happened at the club, or they talk about how they felt about their friend’s relationship. Basically, they talk about nothing productive. They talk about nothing that will improve their life but talked about other people’s problems and somehow by doing that will create more problems to their life. I call it inviting problems.

How will they react if they’re called a matrep/minahrep?
Oh well, they might be populated by bimbos and himbos but they’re smart at this. They use an act that has been proven effective in combating accusation. They use ‘the art of denial’. As a matter of fact, most of them don’t know that they’re living and talking in the lifestyle of what is a disease in society, known as matrep/minahrep. Well, actually none of them will admit I can bet ya.

What are their hobbies?
Let me make it short and simple. They seek attention so they ‘tangkap hansem’ (Boys) or ‘tangkap jambu’ (Girls) at the places I mentioned earlier, seeking attention from the opposite sex. Girls wear skimpy clothes (while trying to be noticed) to tease the guys while the guys will tease them back, eventually ending up with phone number exchange program.

Disclaimer
I am neither against or trying very hard to discriminate this minor group of people. My only motive in writing this entry is to create the awareness that this kind of lifestyle if practice everyday won’t do any good. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to go to such places or to hang out with your friends but when that activity has become a part of your everyday life, it’s just ridiculous.

Moral of the story is, “Stop wasting your time. Your future is not going to come for you. It’s waiting for you.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Rambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.