Life in Malaysia through the view of a foreign

Bum bara bam bam bam..it's been almost 4 years now since I started my life as an architecture student in USM. Btw, I am working in KL now as an assistant architect. So many things that I would like to summarize yet little time to do so. Actually I already forgotten that the fact I have a blog. Like wow, I was a blogger once upon a time before, although not a really famous one. But it's fine. I loved to write things around me and my thoughts which I deliberately to express it through my mouth.

Ah so, how did I come across about my blog today? Well, this evening I was watching a cooking channel made by a Japanese guy named Taro or rather known as RunnyRunny99 on youtube. Yes, cooking videos guys.. He is just a normal guy who took cooking as his hobby and love to share it with everyone else regardless who. As we speak, not many of Japanese know how to speak in English, and some not even bother to speak this international language. Well, I believe this implies to my country and other country as well. But we often came across foreigners from Japan who cannot really speak English. Sometimes I wonder how on earth did they make it to here O_O? Anyway, this guy Taro..he speaks English in his cooking videos which is I am so impressed. The viewers get to order food from him so, he will make it on his video with him speaking in English. I can tell that he tried so hard to improve his language and he loves making friends from all over the world. How cool is that? 

Lol hes cute XD

 Then I looked up for Things about living in Japan videos made from foreigner who lives in Japan. Well, it has pros and cons..but its the same thing in other places as well. Oh, I was thinking to continue my master in Japan after watching Taro's videos lol...so I looked up for some information IF I decided going to Japan next year. My boyfriend and I, we decided to continue our master next year, together in UK or Australia..which, honestly I don't have a clue yet even tho we sorta planned it together. I mean, anything can change right? So I  rather not stick to the plan that much. 

Then, I wonder what other people might said about my country, so I google up a little bit and found a blog and surprisingly what he wrote is entirely true. It was negative comments but it true.  So here's what he said ( copy paste):

Problems with living in Malaysia
Examples of problems in Malaysia
A modern-day caste hierarchy in Malaysia

• Chinese Malays with money rule the roost, will keep to their own, and are often linked with still being influenced by China, but argue they have the least rights of all groups in Malaysia.

• Indian Malays are often accused of misgivings, really promoting their own caste system, and again keep to their own while often promoting Indian only business.

• Ethnic Malays are often said to have too many rights, are lazy, and generally end up working for other people whilst having more support than any other group.

How bad can all this really be?

I am mainly going to deal with living in West Malaysia here. The reason is that this seems to be at the heart of many issues. While culturally diverse, Malaysia has serious underlying human rights issues.

Not everything is blissful in Malaysia

These types of human rights issues don’t make world headlines that often. And, they are vastly complicated. So much so, that many Malaysian’s I’ve spoken to, don’t fully understand what’s happening themselves.

And, I don’t particularly want to debate these issues here. But, for me, they are important when it comes to choosing a place to live, permanently.

The main issue I found here was to do with ethnic racism. I know many Malaysian’s call this by many different names, which is possibly half the problem in itself, but this is the term I am using here.

Not always visible to the tourist, or even the retired couple living in a town. But, stay a while, travel a lot, listen to the different ethnic groups throughout Malaysia, and you’ll quickly discover a lot of anger and outright hatred.

This, and learning of some quite disturbing stories, makes me put my mental brakes on outright living in Malaysia.

Even as I write this, I know that’s it’s impossible not to offend someone in Malaysia. For if I say that many ethnic Malays or Indians see the huge majority of Chinese Malays in political power as a serious issue. Many Chinese Malays will retaliate and say these people are using religious elements to place blame on them.

There is a multi-cultural vying of power in Malaysia in terms of commerce, politics, religion, education etc.

On the outside, as a tourist everything looks great, but beyond the Malaysia Truly Asia tourism smiles are some serious issues.

Add to this a strange quasi educational / financial / caste system that’s never really spoken about, and you’ll see a glimpse of a modern dark underbelly that runs through Malaysian society today.

This man is Malaysian, has he too many rights? Or not enough?

This took me a while to finally catch onto. Mainly because of the different interpretations of a caste system in dealing with a country like Malaysia which has a huge Indian population. Wipe your mind of that. And, think about a specific Malaysian caste system that’s not spoken of.

Money talks in Malaysia, as it does in the rest of the world. But here I also noticed presumptions, of which there are of course many exceptions.

But, for the sake of argument here we go with some common perceptions I picked up on from speaking with everyday Malaysians: (keep in mind, these are not my perceptions, but those of Malaysians I’ve spoken with)

A Chinese Malay man was refused entry to university because a greater portion of placements were set aside for ethnic Malays. He moved to Korea for work, married and had a son. He is now being told that his son has to go on a waiting list before he can claim citizenship in Malaysia.

Has letting traditional values from home countries caused Malaysia to lose its way?

An Indian Malay had his house destroyed in a flood. He claims that the government did not help his community out financially as they were busy promoting an election where another ethnic group were seen as being more important in that region.

An ethnic Malay has worked for a Chinese Malay company for over 10 years. He is still paid less than his Chinese counterparts, and says he will never get a promotion here as the Chinese Malay’s will favor their own.

P/S: I think this mostly what happened in the city area but not in suburban area like those in my hometown, there's no racism issues back then when I was in high school. We are all friends and we regardless what we are, different culture, different religion, we respect each other. ;)