One of the most interesting conversations that I came about in recent times was as recent as this morning. Here I am in Kaula Lumpur bragging about the place to all my friends, telling them how wonderful it was and how green the whole place is. Believe me it is one of the greenest places I have come across and the infrastructure is really amazing. And then I meet this gentleman from Dr Ibrahim's office who apologizes to me for the pollution, stating that the place in KL where we currently are is one of the most polluted and that the infrastructure was also really bad, and I am like thinking to myself - Dude what is wrong with this guy but this is one of the most wonderful places I have been too.
Anywayz having digested that when I started talking to a host of people right down to the cab drivers on what they think about Malaysia, the government and what was going on in general the real story and the real reason for the growing discontent and dissent started coming to the fore. Malaysia once a truly great economy is slowly but steadily deteriorating and slipping back to the dark ages be it on the fronts of education, sport, economic freedom, growth, etc. Today Malaysia which at one point of time was ranked as high as 4 or 5 on the global economic freedom index today is ranked even below some of the least developed countries. The education system sucks and the process of re-distribution of wealth going completely awry has ensured that the billions of petro dollars earned is being retained by only a select few and not peculating down to the Masses nor is it being used to better infrastructure - even today there are many regions within Malaysia that still do not have basic infrastructure such as drinking water or electricity.
But the most obvious manifestation of this plight is in the media which though constitutionally being a free press is one of the most state controlled and un-impressive media that I have ever come across. I thought some of the Middle East media was backward but the media in Malaysia is way worse then them, even the Nepalese media is far more advanced.
Work apart am now planning to enjoy Malaysia a bit and go do a lot of sight seeing tomorrow or day-after when am relatively free. Will post a lot of pictures. But for now got to rush as am going to meet with a gentleman who is not only known as the true voice of democracy in Asia but one who also most definitely will be the next PM of this fascinating country - Dr Anwar Ibrahim.
Cheers
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