Philippines is one of Malaysia's closest neighbors, just a stone throw away from Sabah! Relations between our two countries in the past were at times strained, but now it looks that our two countries are having stable conflict-free relations.

Unlike Indonesians who aren't happy with us over some cultural issues and territorial disputes off Sabah waters, what do you Filipinos think of us Malaysians? Is the Sabah issue still a major issue in Philippines? For me, I think Philippines is a nice country with many beautiful natural landscapes, beautiful islands and beautiful people (especially its women!!)...

i don't think filipinos think too badly of malaysia. i know alot of filipinos who work there (not the illegals in eastern malaysia). i think there are just misperceptions. i know more filipinos in malaysia than indonesia.

don't really care

for me malaysia is a rich country like singapore..and majority are muslims..and have big chinese population...


Is the Sabah issue still a major issue in Philippines?
no.not now...maybe when we become first world country (which is impossible in 20 years lol).. maybe we can pursue the claim..

Malaysians are aayt. The average Filipino knows very little of their Asian neighbors. Thus, they don't care.

not to offend you, but after the japanese, malaysians are the second asian nation that i hate

I never think about malaysia unless something happens there in the news. My sister has been there for vacation quite a few times

Well I think it's the Malaysians who don't like Filipinos, or at least have a negative stereotype of us because of the presence of illegal Filipinos in Sabah. While I don't like illegals either and I would hate it as well if there are illegal aliens of whatever nationality in the Philippines, personally I think Malaysians are arrogant and look down on their poorer neighbors such as the Philippines and Indonesia. They're just like Singaporeans. Stories I've read of abuse of hired maids just reinforces my belief on this. But as to how Filipinos think of Malaysians in general, most Filipinos know very little about their neighboring countries, and too busy with their own lives to improve their knowledge or just plain not interested at all. Also, I think that the fact that Malaysians are Muslim and Filipinos are mostly Catholic makes it hard for both to relate to each other. Also in my opinion the cultures are quite different from each other, even if we share a common Austronesian ancestry.

malaysians are iigh...

the only time i seen malaysians was when i was in bali. they r usually married couples, usually in their late 20's with a toddler. they look straight up filipino except for they are of course severely muslim. the girls wear head scarf and some of the men sport mustaches. they weren't particularly friendly. i thought indonesians were very curious and friendly & warm towards me. but the malaysians just seem reserved & aloof. anyways they were in bali during ramadan, around octorber.

i think malaysian women are beautiful like us (ehem... )

well, i think malaysian looks like filipinos in some ways like the color, the hair...
i could mistake malaysian as indonesians and filipinos if i'll based it on looks...




i think of KL and petronas tower everytime i think of malaysia.

that like looking in the mirror and hating yourself


the only thing that really divides the 2 countries is religion.

Please forgive them tourists. Malaysian tourists going to Indonesia have a lot of insecurities because of Indonesians' casual observation of our religion (unlike them). I got this from their travel forum: They know that Muslim Indonesians still maintain their ancestral rituals, eat food that is not halal, etc. So I understand that they are very cautious whenever they are in Indonesia, moreover in Bali where Balinese Hinduism is a majority

i've never met a malaysian in my life. except one..but he was a chinese from malaysia, so i guess he doesn't really count.

i met an indonesian once. he looked like a filipino but his accent was different lol..sounded a bit indian hehe :P

Remember Pinas and Malaysia also has/had (cant remember) territorial disputes..

The thing i admire the most is the peace statistics of malaysia. You are 37 on the most peacuful nations in the world.
Your hypocritical nabour (us) also run our mouths about how great we arent a muslim nation because of all the terrorism, but we are nr 100 on the rankings..

i can only say....lol

But cheers to you guys...

best answer

yay
+100

only really known chinese malaysians and they have been really nice.

The only thing I hate about Malaysians is their version of FHM... but Malaysians are ok in my book...

i also hate their commercials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=excxIZ4wUvg

wheres the hair??? lmao

no offense to any malaysians though.

Mahathir bin Mohamad = Hugo Chavez

Hahaha... there are actually a lot of Malaysian commercial that show the hair, but this one is special because it's a marketing strategy to win the heart of more pious Muslim women to buy the product. Don't you guys have commercials which exploit the religiosity of the target audience too in the Philippines?

powered by: UGotBling.com

for me, a lot of Filipinos look the same with Malaysians. tho most Filipinos aren't pure anymore,coz alot of them have spanish or chinese blood. but generally they're physically the same. uhm, many malaysians are also muslims.. and chinese.hehe..

i think Malaysia is getting richer and richer,,in terms of economic growth...
but yeah..they're just fine to me... though there's no BIG IMPACT to me compared to others...

u mean the muslim minority??
err...
none
sorry

Any religion. Don't you have commercials about oh I don't know, a pious Catholic girl who has a busy day doing charity at the church's courtyard, but her hair is still beautiful and fragrant as ever because she use rejoice or something?

where's the expoitation in there?!
catholicism is the major religion in the phils.

i think you dont get it...

@Bhaskara
i think we have..but i dont remember i see it..i dont think religious cathloic is a big market in the philippines..

@Bhaskara

Yup, I also think we have. But since we're predominantly Catholic, it's probably already a given and could be subtle. There have been very few religious sensibilities that are being tried to exploit (in its positive definition) as far as I can immediately observe.

Same thing everywhere else (I may be describing the obvious), what is more observable with commercials here is instead a focus on the unique Pinoy culture that describes the microcosm of the target audience's group(s). You have, for example, commercials that portray the dynamics of family gatherings (Coke, Jollibee, McDonald's), courtship and weddings (Neozep? - bad example, but it's the quick thing in my mind), college life (Nescafe), fiestas (the "Halo halo" commercials), etc...

Err.. callie, I didn't mean it in a bad way. What i meant was, any kind of marketing strategy to get more people to buy their product through the sentiment of religiosity.

@xzsurf&risip: I see. I guess these kind of things is easier to miss when you're a member of the majority But since I'm a minority, I can see what they're trying to do quite clearly

hmmm...
none that I can think of...

^^^
what!?!?

you people don't see it? how about those commercials usually during christmas time featuring simbang gabi, puto bumbong (sp?) everything else...

land grabber?

Dear Filipinos....thanks for the responses to my question! I feel great reading all your responses!! Overall I'd say Filipinos have positive or at least not negative feelings towards Malaysia and Malaysians. Sure, one or two responses that do seem to be negative towards Malaysians..but that's OK, Malaysia isn't perfect, it's alright to feel negative about it in some instances, I don't feel bad at all!!

As for us Malaysians, I'd say that from my observations, majority of Malaysians too either have positive or at least no negative feelings towards Filipinos. Except may be in Sabah, probably due to influx of Filipino illegals there as a result of Sabah's geographical proximity to Philippines. But here in Kuala Lumpur and West Malaysia, mention of Philippines doesn't ring any negative feelings. Most Malaysians here in West Malaysia probably do not know much in greater details about Philippines...

For me, I'd think that Filipinos are people who are very proud about their Malayness though I understand that this Malay theory is being debunked by some Filipinos. Every article that I read that Filipinos write about themselves never fail to mention their Malay origin. And most Malaysians are aware of the Malayness of Filipinos and have always accepted Filipinos as our Malay brothers though we're mainly Muslims and Filipinos are mainly Catholics....and albeit our Constitution peculiar definition of 'Malay'!! SomeMalaysians are aware of Jose Rizal and his dreams of the Malay world...

Many Malaysians too tend to think Filipinos as most western-oriented ASEAN country perhaps due to your long history of being under Spanish rule, followed by American rule and your being predominantly Catholics. Of course, Malaysian views about this could be wrong..

For me too, I'm not very familiar with Filipino culture but I like to know about that culture. Some Filipino cities and place names seem to ring something in my native tongue and Malaysia's national language, Bahasa Melayu (Malay language).....Cotabato sounds like 'Kota Batu' (Stone Fortress or Rock City), Zamboanga like 'Jambu Bunga' (a kind of fruit). Palawan like 'Pahlawan' (warrior)......of course the links between Tagalog and Malay as testified by so many words common to both languages. I've also heard words like 'balud', 'barong tagalog', 'bayanihan', just a few..

By the way, what does 'mabuhay' mean???

Perhaps this feeling is restricted to Sabah. West Malaysians, and may be Sarawakians too, don't have negative feelings so much towards Filipinos. In West Malaysia, negative feelings are more towards Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Burmese, and even Africans, because these foreign people are more visible in West Malaysia. Of course, I'm not saying that these negative feelings towards foreigners are necessarily right. About us being arrogant....hmmmm...let me think about it!! Hahahaha!! But many of us Malaysians also think Singaporeans arrogant...Singaporeans are so squeaky clean in their country..but once they get into Johor Baru (Malaysian city closest to S'pore), they start treating our country like a garbage dump!!

Thanks for your views about Malaysia tamang! I love your response, it's honest to goodness! But why is it that you hate Malaysia? And why is Japan more hateable than Malaysia? I'm asking juts out of curiosity, I won't be offended by your reply!!

i think the problem is miscommunication and misconception. e.g. i think tamang hinala's 'hatred' is due to news of mistreatment of filipinos by richer countries where they work (like japan who have one the higher sexual human traffic of filipinas). i think filipinos think the problem in sabah and the mistreament of some maids constitute the norms.

as for western oriented, yeah. but i think the problem with the outside and filipinos themselves and is that they forget the enormity of 'native' presence in their culture. they act as if all of filipino culture is that of spain or american. it's far from it. and since they think that, they give little to trying to understand it because they think that all they are going to see is 'hispanic' culture.

balot, its duck eggs (a delicacy), barong tagalog is a the national costume for men, bayanihan is the practice of cooperation (lit. to create a nation/village) often practiced with the manual movement of houses carried by fellow villagers< cooperation.

mabuhay lit. means "live". it's sorta the same as "viva", it could be transposed with "long live" it's an expression of nationalism e.g. mabuhay ang pilipinas or viva philippines.

I never heard my Filipino family even mention Malaysians. I dont think Filipinos even think much of Malaysians. I am not saying Filipinos hate Malaysians.
It would probably better to ask the Muslim Filipinos in the south. I think they may share some similarities in culture to Indonesians and Malaysians.

What I do know is Malaysian and Indonesian food is goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddddddddddddddddddd.

right combination of herbs, spices, and sugars.... yummie ...Fusion of Austronesian, Chinese, and Indian...

I've worked in Malaysia for 2 years. I remember my first few days in the country (at work too), I was really wary of the muslims. I attended a Catholic School for ten years and I suppose it was impressed upon us that Muslims are not easy to get along with because their beliefs are different from ours. My fears were allayed by my experience at work. I got exposed to a lot of muslims, buddhists Malaysians who eventually became very good friends of mine. Probably (not generalizing here), my countrymen are just like me -- we have this pre-conceived ideas because of our backgrounds (thus, some hate other nationalities) and we miss out on a whole lot of things because of this. Meeting foreigners opened a new kind of thinking to me. I'm now in NZ and I still keep in touch with my Malaysian friends whom I miss dearly.. :-(

Thank you for sharing your your experience, may it be a lesson for all of us. Especially for me, 'cos I have to admit I harbor a bit of negative feeling toward Malaysia

err...

could be the fact that most filipinos
aspire on going to Europe and the US

I never heared of a filipino wanting to go to other asean countries though
they mostly talked about the US, UK,Germany,Australia,New Zealand and other European countries...
tsk tsk

no, i'm not offended or anything.

i think i get what you mean. i was just kinda confused before (my! im always confused nowadays, i wonder why?!). but now i get what you mean.

yes, since catholicism is the dominant religion in the phils, it's not quite felt. and i think it's a given. the minor religions are not offended because more than anything, it's a given fact. and like the minor religions, we respect that they too have their different traditions.

we study history in elementary and always, we are reminded that we are of the Malay race, brown race.
don't get us wrong. we do not hate malaysia or malaysians. it's just i think it is just now that since globalization is really big right now, it is only now that we are becoming aware of the neighboring asian countries.

yes, due to intermarriages, filipinos have become westernized because mostly, we migrate to states, europe and western countries.

it is only now that filipinos are HUNGRY for their roots - Malayan Roots, Filipino Roots.
it is only now that filipinos are interested in ASia as a whole. somehow, in the desire for that AMERICAN DREAM, we forget that we are in Asia and we are Asian...


btw, im not generalizing all filipinos. just my experience, the people i know and the ones i have read...

Nice meeting you in the Philippines Bhaskara! Nice of you for being honest to goodness! I mean about those negative feelings of yours towards Malaysia!! Hehehehe!! See you in Malaysia Bhaskara!! Byeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

For me personally as a Malay, I feel very close to Philippines because of its Malayness...I look at Philippines as a Malay country. I really don't care if some people say the Malay theory is now unacceptable.

I don't think Islam (Malaysia) and Christianity (Philippines) are impediments to good brotherly relations between our two countries. We Malaysians share the same Islamic religion with the Indonesians, not to mention the bond of the Malay language that forms the basis of the national languages of Malaysia and Indonesia, and yet we have problems with Indonesia, more so with Indonesia than with Philippines.

if that were the case then why not broaden your family tree and just call it all austronesian? people from madagascar are closely related to malay ppl too, yet they are in africa.

'Malay' is a term that has been around for so long, so why not settle for it instead of the nobody-knows-a-thing-about-it term called 'Austronesian'!! Austronesia, from which Austronesian comes from, means 'southern islands'. So, what's the big deal about identifying ourselves as race with a term that has an empty meaning? People say 'Malay' is a clueless western creation that now must be debunked. But 'Austronesian' too is a western creation and its meaning is completely even more clueless to most ordinary Malay stock people. Ask a Filipino in the street if he thinks Austronesian! Most probably he won't have a clue to your question!! Austronesian as a term is just good in academia but nowhere else. I have no feelings for the term Austronesian, it means nothing to me, I might as well go for the biggest human classification: we're all Homo sapiens!!

the only real difference between us is that we filipinos do not hate jews like u malaysians do

I know that we're all related, but we Indonesians don't want to refer ourselves as "Malay". We know we're related to the Malays, but we're no Malays ourselves. It's just as stupid as calling all European people as "Scots". The fact is, our sisterhood and brotherhood of brown skinned people is far too diverse to be called as mere "Malay". We need a more neutral term, and until we find that suitable term, I'm just going to use "Austronesia" instead for its neutrality.

Quoting from my friend Kresna, from a Malaysian p.o.v. we can understand why the idea of a Malay race is so important. Afterall, you only form a very slight majority in your own country, and you want to prevent being marginalised. But outside Malaysia, there really is no need for racial nationalism, mostly because the ethnic natives here form a vast majority anyway. So all in all, I understand that the whole Malayness thing is important to people like you. It is simply the result of the road your country has taken in the past. But also understand that your views may not find sympathy abroad, for we Indonesians might be your brothers, but like in all families, we took a different road and became very different people in the end.

Austronesian... Malay... It's hard to pinpoint really.

Firstly, If i remember, According to studies, Austronesians are the root of aboriginal peoples in the islands north of the Philippines, Taiwan in particular. They came down in waves to the Philippines initially. They spread through Indonesia, Papua New guinea, then onto the Pacific Islands. You can see it in our language, which has many influences.. Polynesian, Malay and even a sanskrit influence (from Budhism brought over from Indonesia, you can see this in certain words).

Our Language, from what i can recall, is a blend of our Austronesian heritage, Malay, and European heritage.

Their simply is too many influences in our culture and people to name it under 1 sole race. We cannot fully claim to be of Malay race, due to differences. We cannot fully claim to be Austronesian due to differences... The way i see it, is that We are Filipino. Of course, we cannot forget the history of our people and where we came from.

We are a big mix of people rolled into one.

And we get this controversial race, known as the Filipino Race.


Peace.

EDIT: After a brief search, i found some nice info regarding it.

Many Filipino still consider themselves as part of the "Malay race" It's because the schools still teach the 3 waves theory, (Negritos, Indonesians, and Malaysians) And the theory says that the majority of Filipinos are descended from the Malaysians. But that theory is wrong because Filipinos came from Taiwanese Aborigines, not Malaysians & Indonesians.

Yes. The newer Austronesian theory, i personally believe (and so do most people from the historical community) is probally the most Accurate of the 2. Not disrespecting the Malay's though, they did have a large influence in our people and culture as well, especially in the southern regions of the Philippines (the Sulu Kingdom, Borneo + Brunei had control of the South of the Philippines as well). The Javanese also had influence over the Philippines, with the Baybayin script being formed, and suspected to have originated from the Javanese Script (old Kawi).

It's the most logical, you can even see it in our Language, where we have similar (if not exactly the same) sounding words for Numbers and common phrases, that are related to Polynesian alphabets. (dubbed Malayo-Polynesian)