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Saturday 28 August 2010

Integrating East And West Malaysia

This was posted last year, but it is still relevant today:

Your Malaysia Isn’t My Malaysia

Go and read it in its entirety, but here are some excerpts:

We call ourselves Malaysian but when we come over to West Malaysia, we might as well be aliens in hostile land.

We don’t understand your hangups about alcohol.

We don’t get why you can’t build religious buildings that aren’t mosques without hassle.

We don’t see why you’re always in a hurry to get everywhere and drive as if you’re the only one who wants to get home. Why you won’t wait for the pedestrian to cross when we do that all the time.

We don’t understand you at all. And that’s a shame.

Because we don’t need National Service to teach our youngsters to hang out with each other. We know that tolerance isn’t ‘Saya tak kacau kamu, kamu jangan kacau saya’ (I don’t bother you, you don’t bother me)

We’re just sorry that you still haven’t figured that out after 52 years of so-called independence.

I'm sorry, too. We could have achieved so much, if only we had our priorities right.

4 comments:

jugular said...

So is East Malaysia (Sabah, Sarawak) not predominately Muslim? Please excuse the ignorant foreigner's dumb question. It's just that I know a couple who spent quite some time in Kuching.

Crankster said...

I think Sabah and Sarawak are predominantly Christian, though that may have changed. There's been allegations that incentives have been promised if they would convert to Islam.

Starmandala said...

Can't claim to know Sarawak well but most Sarawakians I have met come across as far more human and fun-loving than their peninsular counterparts. Have yet to set foot in Sabah but the same applies to Sabahans I have met - most seem a lot less uptight and much easier to befriend. In terms of warmth, East Malaysians are way ahead of West Malaysians. Clearly, an overemphasis on the material aspect of development is detrimental to the soul.

cass said...

And we western Malaysian non-muslim apparently can't go into mosques. Dirty little buggers we.