MALAYSIA: Behind the Diamond Towers of Petronas and the Muddy Estuaries of Klang Valley
There are indeed a lot more questions to answer on a journey that took me over twelve hours from Lagos across the Libyan Desert and the Red sea, over the Gulf down to South-East Asia in the Gamma city of Kuala Lumpur. As a university lecturer in Nigeria, I could neither afford the Business Class […]
There are indeed a lot more questions to answer on a journey that took me over twelve hours from Lagos across the Libyan Desert and the Red sea, over the Gulf down to South-East Asia in the Gamma city of Kuala Lumpur. As a university lecturer in Nigeria, I could neither afford the Business Class nor First Class ticket, and I was not ready to spend my Bank Loan on either. That is not too bad anyway, because even in the economy class of a Boeing 777-200; -300, it is easy for current geo-technology to provide you a pleasurable view of the earth on your personalized arm-screen from above the rain clouds. This was my Royal experience for over 720 minutes in the air until the Emirates descended upon the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at about 15:20 on 22 February 2010.
From the moment I stepped on the floor of the Klang Valley, I took permission from my spirit and the friends around me to express my culture shock and exhaust my probational ignorance in a land I was told is not too different from where I came. With the permission granted, I was never going to mind any onlooker who may be surprised or even laughing at the stranger. In this spirit, I had to hold firm to the steel cabin pole inside the underground electric train that conveyed me to the Luggage Waiting and Immigration.
Cleared! I was ticketed into an air-conditioned taxi that took me through the lush palm greenery in the country-side, over and under the interlocking bridges of the Klang Valley to the Institute of Post-graduate Studies of the University of Malaya where I was invited as a Doctoral Research Student in Mass Communication.
Salamat datang! That was what I kept hearing from everyone who welcomes me to one of the largest universities in maritime South-East Asia. Then, an ephemeral nostalgia struck me that I was rather too far away from the great continent of Africa. By the way, what is the meaning of these skylines, and whose technology are they? The taxi man told me ‘if it is going to be too tall, Germany and South Korea will handle it’. And what is Proton…in the class of Toyota and Honda? ‘That is the Malaysian Automobile brand, produced here in Malaysia’, he said.
Again, it dawned on me that Malaysia has gone far; so far ahead that every available space outside homes and offices are lavished with deep green productive palm trees! This is where Malaysia, without negotiations, took comparative advantage in global economy of scale and became the world largest producer and exporter of palm oil.
The exuberant palm tree plantation all over Malaysia has not only crowned the country and delivers to it some colossal money from this produce that is consumed everyday and everywhere in the world, but also enhances the beauty of the environment and protects it.
The colors, races and intellect of the people who live in various continents of the world are indeed the wisdom of the creator of the universe. For I wonder what unceasing rainfall and thunderstorm would have done to Malaysia if the country were inhabited by people who are unmindful of the challenges of nature. But alas! Malaysia is a Megadiverse country, inhabited by people who understand the value and are therefore, jealously protective of nature – the trees, the animals, the waters and even the grasses are protected by the law; they are granted the right to life next to human!
From the vast epistemic hub of the University of Malaya, over Pantai Hillpark Complex, where I live, down to Sunway Empire, the Malaysian undulating landscape is presented as the best of human habitations, with a perfect blend of flowery walkways and enduring drainage systems that keeps the floor dry five minutes after the heaviest downpour!. Everywhere is clean and lighted up, 24 hours a day without a blink! You do not need to wash your car more than once in a month. No role for dirt to play on the streets. At every 500 meter radius there are well-fed trees that keep biodiversity and release fresh oxygen for your respiratory needs.
The combined force of these facts make it often difficult for the inhabitants to know that night has come and it is time to sleep, and so the children play football better during the night. Every night indeed, the victory of Malaysia is celebrated with fireworks around the towns. A country I was told once came to Nigeria in search of palm nuts is now a place where the Nigerian lawmakers and executives send their children for higher quality education and travel time after time to enjoy 24 hour electricity and water supply.
I wept over the deprivations that the average Nigerian has been going through for almost 50 years now! This became even more painful when I realized that majority of the people are not aware of these deprivations, and therefore still celebrate leaders who have kept over 70 per cent of the populations of the most endowed African country in abject poverty.
I must drop my pen now because there is Neo-colonialism and Imperialism. But if I may ask, how did Malaysia that was British colony like Nigeria, and operates within the complexes of neocolonialism and Western imperialism moved into a transitional economy? Perhaps I will attempt to answer this question in my next series. For now, never mind that Dubai has taken over from Kuala Lumpur as the home of the tallest building in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers are still towering while the Mud that once described the Klang Valley has disappeared from the primate city of Kuala Lumpur!
Yakubu Ozohu-Suleiman [email protected] IPS, University of Malaysia, 50603 Kuala Lumpur