Someone just called me a 'Mat Rep'! Which has to be one of the funniest things I have ever been called. Granted, he confused it with the more generic term, 'Mat', which is short for a common Malay name, 'Muhammad' or 'Ahmad'. (So someone like Mohamad Sabu might be called Mat Sabu).
Please be reminded that there are many kinds of Mat. Here's a brief guide:
1) Mat Rep: someone who's lowly-educated (often a gang member) with a 'low class' fashion sense (high trucker cap that sort of levitates on the head, dyed hair, skinny jeans with slippers, tattoos) and delinquent or criminal tendencies.
2) Mat Rock: someone who's a fan of hard rock or heavy metal music. In the 80's, distinguished by long tangled hair, tight jeans (Wrangler or Lee Cooper), Ray Bans, often with a comb or one of those hair-prongs in the back pocket. Forget the 5 C's, he lives by the 5 M's: Minah, Marlboro, Motor, Metal, Maintain. ('Maintain' is slang for 'keeping cool', can be used in phrases like 'didn't cry because he wanted to maintain macho')
3) Mat Jiwang (Or Mat Jiwa-Jiwa, Jiwa=Soul): someone who's always love-struck, who considers himself some kind of wounded, precious troubadour. Always 'feeling feeling' and 'emo nemo'. Usually has a guitar with which he can compose love songs or sing covers of romantic ballads, straining nasally at the high notes.
4) Mat Bunga (Bunga=Flower, also known as Adik-adik=little brother): someone who's sensitive and sulks easily. Often goes into typical passive-aggressive behaviour known to Malays as 'merajuk' where one pouts, gives silent treatment, says sarcastic things, etc.
Mat Bunga: OK lah, never mind, you all don't think booking a chalet is a good idea. Just celebrate birthday at my house lah, I know you all miss my family also, can celebrate with them.
Other Mats: Eh, if you're going to be such a Mat Bunga, you wear skirt lah better.
5) Mat Kahwin-Kahwin (Kahwin=Marry, soulmate to Minah Kahwin-Kahwin): someone who always has marriage on his mind. Always checks a girl out for the ring on her finger. Will propose two months into a relationship.
6) Mat Tapered: someone who wears skinny jeans, often used to describe a fashion-conscious hipster. Probably does graffiti art, B-boy or skateboard routines and hangs out at Haji Lane.
7) Mat Rempit (Malaysian, supposedly comes from 'ramp it up'): someone who's a member of a motorcycle gang and who participates in illegal street racing; who likes to perform stunts like the wheelie, superman, drifting etc.
8) Mat Smart: someone who's always well-groomed, and who irons all his clothes, even T-shirts. Can also refer to someone who's highly-educated, like the Mendaki scholarship awardee who makes it to the front page of Berita Harian.
9) Mat Kental (Kental=dense, thick, stiff): someone who's awkward, makes unfunny jokes, probably likes music from his parents' generation, basically un-cool. While observing Mats hanging out at Simpang Bedok for example, you can recognise the Mat Kental as the guy who tucks his T-shirt into his belted jeans.
UPDATE:
Someone objected to my classification of a 'matrep' as someone who is 'lowly-educated', claiming that some matreps are degree-holders. But my point is that 'matrep' is simply the Malay equivalent of a 'chav' or a 'redneck' (or white trash). By the way, I'm not sure how the word was coined, but it is possibly related to 'makrep' in the term 'beruk (the macaque monkey) makrep', to mean someone who is unruly and often causes trouble.
I think terms like 'matrep' enter the vocabulary because of class stratification in society, and is used by the middle-class to create class distinctions and exclusions. So the appearance of the 'matrep' is related to the phenomenon of an emergent (quite often English-speaking) middle class in the Malay community that is increasingly vocal and visible. The 'matrep' then becomes an abject body where undesirable qualities (low level of education, gangsterism, drug abuse, shotgun weddings) are projected onto. Often these qualities are negative stereotypes associated with 'Malayness' that middle-class Malays would like to exorcise from the community.
The same was observed in the early use of the term 'ah beng', often by the English-educated Chinese. While it was initially used as a term of disdain, I think it has undergone a semantic shift where it is now being appropriated by some as a marker of authenticity or non-elitism. Perhaps the new 'ah beng' is now 'ah tiong', who now embodies negative Chinese stereotypes like kiasuism, rudeness and poor hygiene. 'Ah tiongs' are the 'bad apples' and 'black sheep' that make Chinese people look bad.
So when someone claims that 'matreps' are now gaining degrees, perhaps it's a sign that 'matrep' identity is undergoing rehabilitation. But in due time, some other term will inevitably take its place.
Alfian Sa'at