Christmas in Malaysia
It's not what you might imagine
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8300
by Justin Raimondo
To say that Malaysia is not what I imagined would be an understatement of epic
proportions. Situated just south of Thailand, north of Indonesia, and quite
close to the equator, the country describes itself as officially "Islamic," and
this, at least in the minds of most Americans, means a stultifying uniformity, a
monolithic apparatus of cultural and all too often political repression. It
means women in burqas, gay people in hiding, and a society generally groaning
under the weight of an enormous repression. Therefore, when I was invited to
attend the Perdana Global Peace Forum as a speaker, I was somewhat hesitant, to
say the least: did I really want to venture forth into such a forbidding
landscape? So my initial answer was "no." But after doing a little research, and
in response to the urgings of Antiwar.com's webmaster, Eric Garris, I
reconsidered. What, I reasoned, could possibly happen to me? After all, I had
lived in that most dangerous and forbidding realm, the New York City of
pre-Giuliani days, where you were just as likely to be mugged as anything else,
and in broad daylight, too. Yet I had lived to tell the tale. So, I thought,
what the heck – why not?
I am now well into my second week of staying in Kuala Lumpur, at the fabulous
Crowne Plaza Hotel, and it is clearer than ever that my prejudices were not only
mistaken – they were and are the exact opposite of the truth. Malaysia is the
virtual incarnation of religious and ethnic diversity, a veritable melting pot
of racial and devotional groups that somehow manage to live in relative harmony
far beyond anything I have seen even in that paradigmatic paragon of
multiculturalism, California. Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, and a generous
smattering of Anglo expats swarm the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the biggest city
in the country: yes, there is a Muslim majority, but non-Muslims are not subject
to sharia law. Malay Muslims coexist with Chinese Catholics, and Buddhist
priests roam the Bukhit Bintang plaza, begging, amidst crowds shopping for the
latest fashions and punk rockers with pink hair stroll fearlessly down the
street.
You never saw such diversity. And that's just during the daytime. At night…
I'm getting ahead of myself. Of course, I didn't come here for the nightlife: I
came for the Perdana Peace Forum, which was favored with an impressive array of
speakers: former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, British MP George
Galloway, former UN assistant secretary-general Denis Halliday, Pakistan-born
Britain-based writer and filmmaker Tariq Ali, former UN assistant
secretary-general Hans von Sponeck, Daniel Ellsberg, and anti-nuclear-arms
activist and writer Helen Caldicott. Representing the Malaysians were former
prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi, and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
I had some concerns about former Prime Minister Mahathir, but then I read this
Paul Krugman column and my fears were somewhat allayed. Upon meeting Dr.
Mahathir, whatever reservations remained were put completely to rest: the man
seems to emanate benevolence and great gentleness, almost an aura of serenity,
like some sort of Buddhist guru.
Another concern was the appearance of any connection to a government entity:
Antiwar.com does not accept money from any governmental source, nor do we
affiliate ourselves with the activities of any government. Only after receiving
assurances that not a penny of Malaysian government money was going into the
conference did we agree to attend. The conference was, indeed, a model of
private enterprise in action, with corporate contributions from Ambank Group,
Berjaya Corporation Bhd, Country Heights Holdings Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd,
Malayan Banking Bhd, Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd, Sri Inderajaya Holdings Sdn
Bhd, the Sunway Group, and the Sapura Group of Companies. Nestle and Dell
Computers were also among the corporate sponsors.
At any rate, the conference was… amazing. Literally thousands of ordinary
Malaysians heard the speakers and then divided into discussion groups. Around a
third to a half were young people, and their questions and comments provided an
illuminating glimpse into the minds of non-Americans, who look on America with
great affection and respect and yet object to the actions of the American
government.
Eric Garris has gone into the incident involving Zimbabwe's dictator Robert
Mugabe, who suddenly showed up uninvited, so I won't go into too many of the
details. Suffice to say that I made a point of working a denunciation of
Mugabe's thuggery into my speech, an event that seemed to catalyze general
opposition to his presence. An event at which Mugabe was supposed to speak was
canceled, and, in answer to inquiries about Mugabe's presence, Dr. Mahathir
remarked: "Everybody can attend. If he wants to say how good it is to be a
dictator, he can."
I have to say that there was none of the crude anti-Americanism at the
conference that one has – sadly – come to expect at gatherings of antiwar
activists. Eric and I made a point of linking the cause of peace to the cause of
free markets at every opportunity, a viewpoint that was especially appreciated
by the conference organizers.
I have to say that I am… astonished by Malaysia. Here is an "Islamic" country
where a gigantic Christmas tree sits in the lobby of the hotel I'm staying at,
and the café waiters in the plaza a few blocks away are dressed like Santa's
elves. Here is a city where the nightlife puts San Francisco's to shame. Where
the city's oldest gay bar, the Blue Boy, makes Baghdad-by-the-Bay seem like a
dive in Podunk, Idaho; where people party well into the morning light, and you
can have a good time for a few ringgits (the Malay currency: around 30 cents).
The food is fabulous: Malay (spicy, somewhat Thai-like), Arab (there's a great
place right off Bukhit Bintang), Chinese (you haven't lived until you've sampled
the pleasures of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown), and too many more to go into here.
The place is a gastrointestinal paradise!
Modernity is juxtaposed next to traditionalism: on the one hand you have the
soaring heights of the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world,
lit up like a vision of futurity against the night sky, and on the other hand
you have women in traditional dress – colorful costumes of bright color and the
requisite head covering – traversing its corridors. Two, three, many worlds
coexisting: the past and the future converging into a new synthesis of
creativity and entrepreneurial energy. The impression one gets is of a
tremendous vitality, a restless yet directed life-force that seems to spring
right out of the earth.
A final note: nowhere have I experienced more genuine warmth and such a feeling
of welcome. When you come to Kuala Lumpur, you are made to feel very special.
The gentleness and politeness of these people is a phenomenon that doesn't
exist, to my knowledge, anywhere in the U.S. Malays are generally puzzled by the
actions of the U.S. government abroad, and do not support the war in Iraq: but
they love America, the country, and show great admiration and respect for the
American people. And that is the kind of "anti-Americanism" that I can live
with.