those arent surnames as such are they? because a wan ali bin wan abu is mr wan abu rather than mr wan.

damn, i was just gonna name my future kid coli liwat

anyway as a sidenote, please be informed that an angmor whose name is John Smith or Alan Brown should be referred to as Mr Smith or Mr Brown respectively, NOT Mr John or Mr Alan.

I cant tell you how many times i've had to correct malaysians (and consequently reprint thus wasting my ink) on this.

if you are to be referred to as a mr, then the correct way is to use your surname/patrynomic name.

you are not "correcting" anyone.

you prefer what you prefer, but they didnt do anything wrong. just so you know.

if your name is ali bin abu, they either call you ali or in formal situations, mr abu. if you insist on being called mr ali in a formal conversation then yes, you will look like someone who is ignorant of social etiquettes. calling ali bin abu mr ali in a formal conversation is not "correct". just because you prefer it doesnt make it "correct".

obviously i was talking about when you are in a western surrounding, not necessarily white. but i still think if you are going to be addressed in a formal way by your given name, then its best to use encik rather than mr.

if you "befriend" someone then obviously the formal convention no longer applies.

frankly its not even a western thing. indians are addressed formally by their last names, as are chinese, thais, japanese etc etc etc.

I think it's a shame the Malays prefer to use Arabic names and not retain their original traditional Malay names.

yes but many muslims who are not malay retain at least some part of their original ethnic name, but for the malays, its like the history has been wiped clean.