Malaysia, not so idyllic of a homeland

Outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is paradise. My brief memories of the place, growing up and returning through out my life, have always been rich and intense. Urbanization may have lifted the majority of my family into lofty white collar jobs, politics, and propelled my mother (who was born on a rubber plantation) to raise my sis and I in the Bay Area - perhaps the most progressive and modern place on this planet. Often when I think back on Malaysia, I imagine it to be the ideal goal of all modern nations in terms of cultural pluralism and social harmony.

It is a country where I remember going down the street of modern Kuala Lumpur as a kid to get freshly made roti from a street vendor tightly placed between the bus stop, the hardware store, and a boulevard pedestrian bridge. The vendor was still there when I returned much older and although I had not noticed color when I was younger, I'd come to realize that the vendors were South Indian brothers who not only spoke fluent Malay, English, and their native Tamil, but also Cantonese! They had grown up amongst Straits Chinese and, familiarly, between themselves, the bothers only spoke Cantonese.

Of course, Malaysia is not so rosy as I would like to think. It is not so hard to see the issues that modern Malaysia (and especially its citizens) must deal with now that they have progressed past their hyper modernization following independence in the 60s and federalization in the 70s. Mainly it seems like they have to finally contend with the autocratic government, which had been a useful tool in propelling the country into first world status in the decades prior, but now use their centralized power to oppress. Oddly, the country is a Federal Constitutional Elected Monarchy where the executive branch is the Monarchy, whose throne is elected every 5 years. That's pretty awesome. What is not so awesome is that the country is hardly a democracy, if best it is a republic and in truth it is ruled by the political elite. The opposition party has never held power since independence and two recent, peaceful pro-democracy rallies had been ruthlessly curtailed by government sanctioned police brutality.

The worry is that the country is not entirely corrupt nor is it run by utterly unsavory characters. People do get arrested for political reasons and the country does heavily censor its media, but by comparison, America has FOX news and the executive powers since 911 have been questionable. Much in the same way, Malaysia's problem lies in its addiction to centralized power, its weak judicial branch, and its legislative branch, which is not entirely elected by the population.

Now that I've started looking back at my homeland, I've started to find some, not many, but some activist organizations working to improve the country. There are environmental groups and political groups, and indigenous power groups too. Hearing about these folks really makes part of me ache to return and lend a hand. This is monumentally frustrating as I've made up in my mind to lay a stake down on this land as my land. Coming from an ancestry of migrants, Haka (the guest people), Deojo (the river people), Mongolians, National Chinese exiles, and now Malaysian immigrants makes me really tired of always running from instability and oppression. I can't tell what would be more honest: to return to Malaysia - a country and society I hardly understand, or carving out a place for me here in the US, a society that does not recognize me.


Notes (thank god for Wiki):

1. Jeff Ooi. Member of Parliament, political blogger and dissenter.
2. BERSIH (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections). Held a Nov. 2007 rally, list of member organization here.
3. HINDRAF (Hindu Rights and Action Force). Active force against racist government policies, political corruption, and autocracy. Held a Nov 2007 rally, which led to the arrests of HINDRAF leaders and supporters under the Sedition Act (obviously inciting further pro-democracy action)

can't seem to find a Chinese action organization, seems like they are part of the establishment.