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| A Malay government school learning "road safety" at a park in Kuala Lumpur |
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| Fried noodles in a night market |
We crossed over from Thailand by boat, and immediately had the feeling as if we had returned to China. People of Chinese descent make up at least 20% of the Malay population, making it very convenient for the Chinese to travel around as many people can speak Mandarin. There are also many restaurants that are run by Chinese descendants, as well as Chinese newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations. Oddly enough, many Chinese Malay cannot speak Bahasa Malaysian (the national language), and most Malay people cannot speak Mandarin, making English the common language. This also has made it more convenient to travel, as in most the other countries we have visited, it was hard to find someone who spoke English, and harder to find someone who spoke Chinese.
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| Shopping mall in Alor Satar |
So after arriving the team first bought some Chinese newspapers and devoured some Chinese food. The Chinese food here is claimed to be better than native Chinese food and the Chinese culture even stronger. Since the Chinese Malay here have held so tightly to their culture, as to separate it from the Malay, and the Mainland Chinese have raced so fast towards modernity, we keep joking that Malaysia is more Chinese than China!
One Malaysia. Three Worlds.
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| 1Malaysia slogan posterboard |
Malaysia is very unique in that there are many distinct cultures living together. Mainly there are the Malay, making up a 50% majority, who are Muslim by constitutional definition, the Indian (Hindu) Malay and the Chinese Malay. It is not uncommon to see a Chinese Temple, a Hindu temple, a mosque, and a church within a few blocks of each other and there are distinct districts in each city for every ethnic group.
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| Li Yuan with several Muslim students |
Such a diverse society is very intriguing to me. On the surface these people and communities live and work in harmony together and the new government slogan “1Malaysia” seems to sum up everyone’s position. It is not until you dig deeper into the society and the people’s lives that you can truly understand the complexity of the situation. All throughout Malaysia I have been asking people young and old and of all different cultural background, “What does 1Malaysia mean to you?”
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| A Chinese Malay, Two Indian Malay, and a Christian |
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| Silk store in Georgetown |
The overwhelming response was that "it was a good policy" and "I have faith in my government." But with further questioning you begin to realize the controversies. The minority cultures like the Chinese and Indian Malay are worried about losing their language, religion, and culture, and are weary of a policy that assimilates them to the majority Malay. Meanwhile, the Malay are jealous of the overwhelming economic power of the minority cultures and have introduced legislature to increase enrollment of Malay students into Chinese schools. Chinese schools are much better than government schools, and are taught in Chinese, though Bahasa Malaysia is a mandatory subject. Still public schools have very few Chinese or Indian Malay, while Chinese and Indian schools have almost no Malay.
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| Taiping Lake Park |
The overwhelming response was that "it was a good policy" and "I have faith in my government." But with further questioning you begin to realize the controversies. The minority cultures like the Chinese and Indian Malay are worried about losing their language, religion, and culture, and are weary of a policy that assimilates them to the majority Malay. Meanwhile, the Malay are jealous of the overwhelming economic power of the minority cultures and have introduced legislature to increase enrollment of Malay students into Chinese schools. Chinese schools are much better than government schools, and are taught in Chinese, though Bahasa Malaysia is a mandatory subject. Still public schools have very few Chinese or Indian Malay, while Chinese and Indian schools have almost no Malay.
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