Malaysia vs New Zealand

It was published on Yahoo News that Malaysia canned 30,000 illegal migrants  since 2005. For those of you who don't know Malaysia, it is located in South East Asia.  It is located right below Thailand connected by a thin strip of peninsular, and just above Singapore separated by Straits of Melaka.  Malaysia is multi-cultural just like New Zealand and many other countries in the world.  People are friendly towards tourists but don't let that deceive you by thinking that we are generally very friendly towards everyone.  Yes, I am from Malaysia too.  Malaysia advertises its tourism programmes with the song called "To Know Malaysia is To Love Malaysia" which is also their caption for tourism advertising.  But my advise to you is try your best not to know too much.  Because the more you know, the more you would be disappointed.

Amnesty International says that caning has hit epidemic proportions in Malaysia, where the beatings are administered with a long stick that leaves permanent physical and mental scars.This form of barbaric punishment  is against various international laws. I suspect this 30,000 illegal migrants includes refugees and asylum-seekers too.  Malaysia treats refugees and asylum seekers the same way they treat the illegal migrants - with canes and prison sentences.

There is no freedom of speech in Malaysia and any peaceful gathering would result in massive arrest and gatherers would be charged with unlawful gathering and subjected to detention without trial, a punishment accorded by  Internal Securities Act (ISA).  The ISA gives the government the power to detain a person without trial for any number of years!!.

There are lots of corruption in the country especially in the government sectors.  Everyone in government wants a cut to approve a permit/license or a project.  The country is highly regulated with all the bylaws and regulations and etc but it seems like they are there just to make it easy for those in power to earn money.  A local councilor could easily have 50 million dollars or more in his bank account, all as a result of his very very hard earned corrupt practices.

There is racial prejudices among the three major races, all by the governments doings, to be honest.  The government creates racial disharmony to divide and control. But the public ill feelings over this inequality is subdued by fear of being subjected to the ISA.

I don't know why I am writing this.  I was just browsing the net this morning and read the article on caning of illegal migrants in Malaysia and thought I would comment on that. It also gave me an opportunity to express my appreciation for New Zealand. Sometimes we move so fast that we forget to stop and think what we have.  New Zealand and its people are the best and we should take immense pride in ourselves in being a role model for other countries.   We may have little problems there in here but then, nothing is perfect.  Nevertheless, we will work towards betterment of the country as New Zealanders for all New Zealanders.