A vibrant and new city, packed full of bright lights, wide
streets, Indian, Arabic and Chinese restaurants, trendy bars, huge shopping
malls, some of which contain whole theme parks, all encircled by a monorail,
and watched over by the sparkly majesty of the Petronas Towers. It feels like I have gone ‘Back to the
Future’. All else that is needed is Doc
to fly in on an air-borne Delorian and pow! here is the future. Of course there are no flying cars but there is
a shiny new sparkling feel to the place.
Even the heritage sites (of which there are depressingly few) look like
they were constructed a few years ago, I assume they have been revamped, in the
most unauthentic manner imaginable. It
is possible to walk across the whole ~3km of the central district, and not even
leave a shopping centre or an air conditioned walk way (almost). There are malls dedicated to different
themes, much like old bazaars are where one finds all the fruit sellers in one
area, the pot sellers in another and the cloth sellers in another. There are malls for electronics, malls for
designer clothes, malls for cheap clothes, malls for theme parks and malls for
food. 
Kuala Lumpur is a truly multi-cultural city that I haven’t
yet found in my travels around Asia.
There are, to fill the restaurants, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, and Malays,
all mingling around seemingly happy in this bright, bold, but somehow,
not-too-tacky city. And for an Islamic
country it appears very tolerant. Women
wear short skirts, Indian people walk around with symbols of their Hinduism on
their foreheads, and shameless drunken cavorting can be found in the late night
bars. In fact, a few days ago I would
have recommended any anti Islamist to visit Kuala Lumpur to see how a tolerant
and moderate, modern Islamic country can be.
And then….I got speaking to a Sikh, born, as were his
parents, in Malaysia after his grandparents had emigrated, and an Austrian born
man of Malay parents. The man of Indian
descent, despite his family having lived in Malaysia for that past three
generations, did not have Malay status – he was not known as a ‘son of the
land’ – yet the man born in Austria to Malay parents, did have, along with Austrian
status. The Indian Malay is not
recognised as a citizen of either India or Malaysia. He is not entitled the privileges that a
Malay person is, such as 30% off housing.
However, if he converted to Islam, he would be considered a citizen of
Malaysia. I also met an Egyptian, tortured
by Mubarak in the 1980’s. In 1986 he
came to the UK and was treated for his injuries and given money to live
off. He expressed the opinion that
modern Islam states are interested only in the pursuit of power, and with all
their money, none invest in social or health care for its residents, and those
seeking asylum. It seems even the example of a tolerant
Islamic state is distinctly divided and full of inequalities. I find myself feeling more appreciative of
England and the privileges it affords its citizens.
And then….we went to the National Museum, which should be
more appropriately labelled, the Islam is Brilliant and Made Loads of Money for
Malaysia Propaganda Museum. Which as you
might guess from my newly assigned title, devoted most of its space to
proclaiming Islam to have made Melaka (how Malaysia was once known) a great
centre of Eastern trade and that was pretty much it. Oh, and how shit the Europeans were
(especially at respecting the religious sensitivities of dress sense).
On a lighter note I did enjoy my 33rd birthday
here. I awoke to smiling balloons,
chocolate cake, candles and party hats.
We went to the roller coaster mall, and I managed to persuade Alex to
accompany me on most of the rides, despite his apprehension. After that it was free gins, a lot of
dancing, new, fleeting friends and laughter.
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