{"id":523,"date":"2008-03-18T06:27:06","date_gmt":"2008-03-18T13:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2008\/03\/18\/kuala-lumpur-round-2\/"},"modified":"2008-03-30T10:47:29","modified_gmt":"2008-03-30T17:47:29","slug":"kuala-lumpur-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2008\/03\/kuala-lumpur-round-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuala Lumpur, round 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KL<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n\"Subway<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Freeway<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Petronas<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\"RC<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Formula<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Under<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\"KL<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

The monsoon today dumped a phenomenal amount of water in a short space of time. <\/span>A consequence is that it brings total strangers together in places out of the rain and you meet people. <\/span>This happened to us at the train station waiting for a bus to take us a couple blocks back to our hotel. <\/span>We met Soma, a 4th<\/sup> generation Malay of Indian decent who\u2019s ancestors were brought to Malaysia by the British in the 1800\u2019s to work in civil service and administrative jobs.<\/p>\n

I asked Soma a follow on about something our limo driver mentioned yesterday. <\/span>There are 9 states and 2 settlements in Malaysia. <\/span>The 9 states take turns providing a king (Raja is the Malay word for king) for 5 year terms. <\/span>The settlements don\u2019t. <\/span>I think Brunei is one of the settlements. <\/span>This arrangement came about when Britain granted Malaysia independence. <\/span>The settlements share in some benefits of Malaysian nationhood but, at least in the case of Brunei<\/a>, still rely on Britain for military protection. <\/span>It has something to do with the oil down there.<\/p>\n

The current change in elected officials is the result of a change in the majority party in a couple states, however, it takes a 2\/3 majority in parliament to change laws and, notwithstanding the recent rhetoric about ending affirmative action for indigenous Malays, itself a product of the 1969 killings and 2-years of street violence initiated by the “donkeys”, Soma didn\u2019t think there would be any sudden change to legislation.<\/p>\n

Since health care is a hot-button issue at home, we talked a little about Malaysian health care. <\/span>There are two systems here, government and private. <\/span>You can go to a government doctor and pay about a dollar a visit to get seen for a cold, or you can go to a private doc for more of a market fee and see a better doc. <\/span>If you have the money you go to private docs. <\/span>Many of the private docs came out of the government system and went private at some point. <\/span><\/p>\n

The bus ride only lasted for a couple blocks, so Soma and I were pretty busy. <\/span>It was very cool to run across a man on the street so eager to share opinions on heavier subjects. <\/span>He ascribed his interests to his education in British-run schools, and lamented that the current young generation of Malays is not getting the same sort of international education his generation had. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

See http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/May_13_Incident<\/a> for an account of the 1969 violence. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The subway into downtown KL city center moved past many contrasts from nicely landscaped homes in pretty neighborhoods to third-world rusted corrugated steel clusters of huts. <\/span>Downtown was full of young people, most smiled upon eye contact. <\/span>Met one young man, 21, recently moved here from Bangladesh, his name is Enamul, as in Mohammed Enamul Haque and he admired Henry. <\/span>\u201cWhat is your religion?\u201d was one of the first things he asked when we got to talking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Fountain<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"People,<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Floors\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\u201cMy<\/a><\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

The reason we were under the tracks<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Next day:<\/p>\n

Our hosts today are Malaysian and Indonesian Chinese-descent Catholic. Malaysia has Sharia law. In a marriage, if either the bride or groom is Muslim, the other must convert, or they get put in religious jail. They said there is a secret religious police that enforces Sharia. Public schools here teach Islam in addition to other subjects. There are also Chinese, Indian, and international schools. They didn’t mention whether there are Catholic parochial schools. Probably a safe bet that there are no Jewish schools. Malaysia is in the process of overcoming affirmative action and racial preferences. And while there is a significant degree of religious tolerance, there are substantial barriers to religious mingling. Hopefully they will not allow religious differences to become a greater source of friction over time. It’s in human nature to see and find differences, to see contrasts. You have to step back and take a broader view to find the similarities. We all have a lot more similarities than differences.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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