Random Play by Graham Reid

Last time I was in M'sia there was a bit of America's Cup coverage but otherwise football & motorsports. Try reading the New Straits Times or the Sun for a bit more independent news (as much as is permitted). The various subsidies are less attractive when you realise they are almost exclusively for the Malay majority and generally inaccessible to the Chinese, Indian & other minorities.

The various subsidies are less attractive when you realise they are almost exclusively for the Malay majority and generally inaccessible to the Chinese, Indian & other minorities.

The time before last I was in KL I had lunch with the family of a Supreme Court judge...all Chinese, at a wonderful Chinese restaurant full of very affluent families, and met a variety of enormously successful businessmen, all Chinese and Indian. The minorities are not as disadvantaged in real terms as one is often led to believe. They've dominated Malaysian economic life since the UK left (and before) and there seems to be a desire by the powers to even the playing field somewhat, albeit a bit heavy handed.

I love Malaysia as a country, its Singapore with it's soul still intact, and is in many ways far more first world now than quite a few first world counties I can think of.

One comment that was thrown at me by a Chinese Malaysian who'd spent some time in NZ was "In this country we all walk on the same path, in your country, no matter what I do, I'm always made to feel like a chink....". It rattles one's cosy preconceptions a tad.

Then again in Indonesia, I'll always be a Bule....after 300 years the Dutch still found that in 1949.