In 1963 the British colonies of Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah joined from what of then would be called Malaysia. Singapore joined Malaysia, although there were a lot of problems with the majority of the population being Chinese. Because of that, tensions grew stronger and two years after the connection Singapore was kicked out of the federation. Tensions between Malay people and people from Singapore still exist (Ars, 2001).
The Malaysian and Singaporean governments have been involved in a range of disputes and disagreements which have tested the relations between the two countries. There has been a long list of issues: the railway, airspace, water supply, pension funds of Malaysians working in Singapore, land reclamation, Singapore's treatment of its Malay minority, and more.
There have been some territorial or border disputes which the International Court of Justice had to decide on. “There is a great deal of cross-border traffic, with an estimated 200,000 Malaysians commuting daily or weekly to jobs in Singapore, and Singaporeans going to Malaysia for entertainment and tourism. Malaysian Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) procedures are completed at the Tanjung Pagar railway station in central Singapore on land owned by the Malaysian railroad. On August 1, 1998, Singapore moved its CIQ facilities to the Woodlands, closer to the Malaysian border. Malaysia refused to move its CIQ facilities, so that rail passengers must undergo two inspections at two locations. Though the incident strained relations between the two governments, visits between Malaysian and Singapore were unaffected.” (Haron, 1998)
Malaysia provides Singapore with about half its water. In the past, Singapore has been cut off of that supply of water because Malaysia needed more water because of the draught. There have been disputes on the price of water as well (the most recent in 2003). Malaysia wanted to renegotiate the price which was agreed on in the 1920s. “Singapore accused Malaysia of changing its stance in negotiations over issues such as water prices, border crossing locations and military airspace by handing out booklets. Malaysia replied with a $526,000 ad campaign accusing Singapore of soiling Malaysia's reputation by spreading misconceptions over the spat” (US Water news, 2003).
Although there is quite some struggle between the two governments, you hardly notice the problems in daily life. Asking several people about their opinions about Singapore gives the idea that there aren’t any problems between the people. Singapore is seen as nothing special by Malaysians though. They only thing they see better in Singapore is the clubbing scene.
Sunday 8 November 2009
The struggle between different Cultures in Malaysia
Malaysia knows a lot of different cultures. The (Soenitic) Islam is the official religion; Islamic people (mostly Malays) represent just a little over half of the population. The constitution gives the Islam a preference: the Malaysian leader is an Islamic religious leader, Islamic religion education is obliged at state schools, Islamic people have their own jurisdictional system and pay special taxes. There even is a special Muslim police force which tries to check up on Muslims so they don’t drink or misbehave in public. The Chinese are supporters of Confucianism, Buddhism or Taoism. Most Indian people support Hinduism. Six percent of the population is Christian. The different tribes at Sarawak and Sabah support animistic religions.
Overall, the people live in harmony but the various races mostly mix among themselves. There is some degree of tension for mostly Chinese due to the feeling of being discriminated. Education and language is one of the most visible signs of the problem of struggles. Most Chinese and Indians send their children to Mandarin- and Tamil-language schools while the Malays attend national institutions.
The struggle between Chinese and Malays came to a sad explosion and led to the race riots in 1969. Hundreds of people were killed, houses were burnt and stores were plundered. A state of emergency was called out for the next two years. After the riots the government tried to restore the delay of the Malays by introducing the ‘bumiputra’ (princes of the country) politics. Chinese still have to pay more taxes, have more trouble getting loans, it’s harder for them to get into state universities etc. Although these problems still exist, I haven’t seen any conflicts between the Chinese and Malays. There are some struggles: Some Chinese people told us to stay away from the Indian restaurants, because they were supposed to be unhygienic. Some Indian people said the same about Chinese restaurants. Malaysians say that Malays are lazy. I have had some experiences that confirmed that statement. Several times when entering a shop the cashiers were sleeping on the counter. When you wanted to pay you actually had to wake them up. Besides that, you could find sleeping Malays everywhere in the shade.
There is a difference between the Malaysians and Malays. Some Malays have very humble jobs. Examples I came across were people at toilets who would hand you towels after washing your hands, people who cleaned the pavement in front of our office even when it was raining, and people at malls who would dry your umbrella with a towel when it was raining outside. So that’s where you could see that some Malay people really were worse off than others.
Some Malays are pretty racist: Someone wrote a message on a wall on the toilet in a mall in Sabah addressed to tourists. It said that all those really black people (meaning Indian labourer workers) were not real Malays and were giving the Malays a bad name. But overall people do live in harmony and it’s very nice to see some of the Malay, the Chinese, and the Indian culture.
I had the privilege of being in Malaysia at their 50th independence day: Merdeka. It was an awesome national party, and people of different races were celebrating together. I have been at the Merdeka stadium. That stadium was especially built for the occasion of independence, where Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, declared Malaya's independence in front of a massive crowd. And now every year that moment is relived with a huge parade were thousands watch and enjoy an amazing and impressive show of hundreds of dancers and soldiers. At the end of the speech 31 August 1957 Tunku Abdul Rahman shouted ‘Merdeka’ three times. When that happened now, fireworks were shot in the air and everybody went wild. I believe the feeling is a bit like celebrating New Years Eve, where you count down in to the New Year and party when the New Year starts. The whole of Malaysia was decorated in August with the ‘Jalur Gemilang’: the national flag. You could see the flags literally everywhere: hanging from windows, painted on walls, cars decorated with hundreds of flags, placemats in restaurants and so much more. The Malaysians are proud of their country.
Overall, the people live in harmony but the various races mostly mix among themselves. There is some degree of tension for mostly Chinese due to the feeling of being discriminated. Education and language is one of the most visible signs of the problem of struggles. Most Chinese and Indians send their children to Mandarin- and Tamil-language schools while the Malays attend national institutions.
The struggle between Chinese and Malays came to a sad explosion and led to the race riots in 1969. Hundreds of people were killed, houses were burnt and stores were plundered. A state of emergency was called out for the next two years. After the riots the government tried to restore the delay of the Malays by introducing the ‘bumiputra’ (princes of the country) politics. Chinese still have to pay more taxes, have more trouble getting loans, it’s harder for them to get into state universities etc. Although these problems still exist, I haven’t seen any conflicts between the Chinese and Malays. There are some struggles: Some Chinese people told us to stay away from the Indian restaurants, because they were supposed to be unhygienic. Some Indian people said the same about Chinese restaurants. Malaysians say that Malays are lazy. I have had some experiences that confirmed that statement. Several times when entering a shop the cashiers were sleeping on the counter. When you wanted to pay you actually had to wake them up. Besides that, you could find sleeping Malays everywhere in the shade.
There is a difference between the Malaysians and Malays. Some Malays have very humble jobs. Examples I came across were people at toilets who would hand you towels after washing your hands, people who cleaned the pavement in front of our office even when it was raining, and people at malls who would dry your umbrella with a towel when it was raining outside. So that’s where you could see that some Malay people really were worse off than others.
Some Malays are pretty racist: Someone wrote a message on a wall on the toilet in a mall in Sabah addressed to tourists. It said that all those really black people (meaning Indian labourer workers) were not real Malays and were giving the Malays a bad name. But overall people do live in harmony and it’s very nice to see some of the Malay, the Chinese, and the Indian culture.
I had the privilege of being in Malaysia at their 50th independence day: Merdeka. It was an awesome national party, and people of different races were celebrating together. I have been at the Merdeka stadium. That stadium was especially built for the occasion of independence, where Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, declared Malaya's independence in front of a massive crowd. And now every year that moment is relived with a huge parade were thousands watch and enjoy an amazing and impressive show of hundreds of dancers and soldiers. At the end of the speech 31 August 1957 Tunku Abdul Rahman shouted ‘Merdeka’ three times. When that happened now, fireworks were shot in the air and everybody went wild. I believe the feeling is a bit like celebrating New Years Eve, where you count down in to the New Year and party when the New Year starts. The whole of Malaysia was decorated in August with the ‘Jalur Gemilang’: the national flag. You could see the flags literally everywhere: hanging from windows, painted on walls, cars decorated with hundreds of flags, placemats in restaurants and so much more. The Malaysians are proud of their country.
Dutch influences in the Malaysian culture
Finding Dutch influences in the Malaysian culture was my third personal objective. I have researched this by asking my colleagues and locals what they knew about the Netherlands. Besides that I have been to Malacca, one of the places where the Dutch have had some influence in Malaysia. The Dutch East India Company beat the Portuguese in 1641, and they colonized Malacca until the Brits came (Ars, 2001). Malacca was an important key in trade. In Malacca there is still a lot to see of the Dutch influence in Malaysia. The old ‘Stadthuys’ is still in use, it’s a museum now. There is a small church that’s painted orange from the inside. And on the main square a small windmill is a great attraction for tourists. Graves at the church still contain classic Dutch inscriptions.
In the rest of Malaysia I haven’t seen (because there isn’t any) very much of Dutch influences. The only influences there are are from Dutch football stars, whose names are printed on the many (fake) football shirts that are sold on the markets. When Malaysians find out you are from ‘bollanda’ they always start talking about Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Ruud van Nistelrooij.
The Netherlands is trying to promote itself in Malaysia though. I went to Malacca when ‘the Holland days’ were organized in the little town. These days had the goal to put the Netherlands in a broad daylight and prejudices about the country had to be eliminated. The theme was ‘Holland, more than tulips’. But of course, the things you could do were making photographs with people in traditional Dutch clothing and life like cows, eat typical Dutch food like ‘poffertjes’, ‘kroketten’ and cheese, buy ‘Delfts blauw’ and wooden shoes as souvenirs and see a movie about the Dutch tulips. So much for trying to prevent prejudices about the Netherlands...
The influence Dutch people have these days, is like I have experienced many times, is on the photographs of people. As discussed earlier: people are always interested in you as a foreigner, and Dutch people have a great reputation (although many people don’t know Holland but they do know Amsterdam). When I was visiting the national zoo in KL with some flatmates, it seemed we where the main attraction – people did not see a 2 metre tall blond guy (one of my flatmates) that often.
In Malaysia there still is the idea that western people are much more wealthy than Asian people. During my internship I was thinking about buying a laptop in Malaysia or Singapore, as electronics are way cheaper there than in Europe. When I was asking my colleagues where to get the best deals they were talking about laptops being around 1000 US dollar in Malaysia. When I told them I wanted to look for a cheaper one they were surprised: I could certainly come up with 1000 USD as a foreigner?
In the rest of Malaysia I haven’t seen (because there isn’t any) very much of Dutch influences. The only influences there are are from Dutch football stars, whose names are printed on the many (fake) football shirts that are sold on the markets. When Malaysians find out you are from ‘bollanda’ they always start talking about Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Ruud van Nistelrooij.
The Netherlands is trying to promote itself in Malaysia though. I went to Malacca when ‘the Holland days’ were organized in the little town. These days had the goal to put the Netherlands in a broad daylight and prejudices about the country had to be eliminated. The theme was ‘Holland, more than tulips’. But of course, the things you could do were making photographs with people in traditional Dutch clothing and life like cows, eat typical Dutch food like ‘poffertjes’, ‘kroketten’ and cheese, buy ‘Delfts blauw’ and wooden shoes as souvenirs and see a movie about the Dutch tulips. So much for trying to prevent prejudices about the Netherlands...
The influence Dutch people have these days, is like I have experienced many times, is on the photographs of people. As discussed earlier: people are always interested in you as a foreigner, and Dutch people have a great reputation (although many people don’t know Holland but they do know Amsterdam). When I was visiting the national zoo in KL with some flatmates, it seemed we where the main attraction – people did not see a 2 metre tall blond guy (one of my flatmates) that often.
In Malaysia there still is the idea that western people are much more wealthy than Asian people. During my internship I was thinking about buying a laptop in Malaysia or Singapore, as electronics are way cheaper there than in Europe. When I was asking my colleagues where to get the best deals they were talking about laptops being around 1000 US dollar in Malaysia. When I told them I wanted to look for a cheaper one they were surprised: I could certainly come up with 1000 USD as a foreigner?
The difference between West and East Malaysia
I did a little bit of research about the differences between the Malaysian culture in West and East Malaysia. I have researched this difference by living in KL, travelling around Peninsular Malaysia and travelling around Sabah.
One of the things that was pretty remarkable was the difference in the knowledge of the English language. In West-Malaysia almost everybody speaks at least some basic English and most of the people speak it very well. Not only in the more developed areas or touristic places, but literally everywhere I have been. One example is the city Taiping, not very much tourists go there because there is very little to see except for a mangrove forest. I went there because it was on the way from the Cameron Highlands to Kuala Kedah and a nice place to stop half way. Me and my girlfriend were literally the only white people in the city, where we walked around the entire day. Our hotel clerk told us that he saw some Germans the week before, but that tourists don’t visit very often. Despite that, everybody we asked something or talked to could speak English very well.
That in contrast to places on Borneo were I had to try to talk in Bahasa and use my hands to point to buy food at the markets. This displays the huge gap between the development in the two parts of the country.
According to Demery & Demery (1992) in 1970 the household income per capita was twice as high for Chinese and Indian people than that of the Malays. But after that poverty has gotten less for all groups, but especially for the Malays it got better. In 1984 only a quarter of the Malays were still living in poverty. After 1984 it only got better, with urban poverty falling to almost insignificant levels. Paddy farmers and fisherman stayed behind though, and poverty among them still is the largest. You can see that poverty is so much bigger in Borneo to simple things. Buildings are old and grey and not very well maintained, people sell fruits like bananas which they harvest themselves, on the streets, dirt and waste is everywhere and people are walking around in old and shabby clothes. Things you don’t see that much in Peninsular Malaysia, and definitely not in KL.
I have been diving on the east coast of Borneo, at the islands around Semporna. There is nothing else to do for tourists than dive, so there are a lot of small dive schools in the little town. There are a lot of small islands of the coast and they are great diving spots (one of the best in the world). So on a few islands there are very exclusive and expensive resorts, and they are built next to the small huts of fishermen. When we were diving we would have lunch which the dive school had prepared (most of the time noodles), on one of the small islands. When we were having lunch, little children would come and sit with us. Our dive masters explained they were Philippine children left on the island all alone. Their parents took them with them when they illegally crossed the border from the Philippines in small boats. Malaysia has a very strict law against illegal people and deports them straight away. But the law also states that only illegal people of ten years and older can be deported, so the small children stay behind. They have no one else to take care of them but themselves, so they stay alive on the island by eating fish and begging some food from the divers. I ate a lot less after hearing that story, just so the children would get a little more. And to emphasize that their live on the island was pretty hard, the children, in age from five to ten, didn’t want to share the food they got from us with each other. I think that’s one of the things that have made a deep impression on me and that showed me that Malaysia is still a developing country in some ways. The difference with West Malaysia was striking.
Another sign of the poverty on Borneo is the fact that pirates are still active in the waters between Sabah and the Philippines. In April 2000, 21 people were kidnapped by a Philippine terrorist group. All victims were eventually released. Two weeks before I was diving around the islands in Semporna the army shot 11 pirates who were aiming to rob tourists. The army is stationed on some of the islands off the coast to protect tourists. When sailing around the islands at Semporna you continuously see boats with heavily armed soldiers passing by. On Pulau (island) Sipadan the army has occupied an old resort. I have been to that island and heavily armed soldiers are walking around the island. As a tourist (only 120 tourists a day are allowed on the island because the eco-system around the island is protected) you can only go to a stroke on the beach of 200 metres, when crossing that border you would be brought back at gunpoint.
One of the things that was pretty remarkable was the difference in the knowledge of the English language. In West-Malaysia almost everybody speaks at least some basic English and most of the people speak it very well. Not only in the more developed areas or touristic places, but literally everywhere I have been. One example is the city Taiping, not very much tourists go there because there is very little to see except for a mangrove forest. I went there because it was on the way from the Cameron Highlands to Kuala Kedah and a nice place to stop half way. Me and my girlfriend were literally the only white people in the city, where we walked around the entire day. Our hotel clerk told us that he saw some Germans the week before, but that tourists don’t visit very often. Despite that, everybody we asked something or talked to could speak English very well.
That in contrast to places on Borneo were I had to try to talk in Bahasa and use my hands to point to buy food at the markets. This displays the huge gap between the development in the two parts of the country.
According to Demery & Demery (1992) in 1970 the household income per capita was twice as high for Chinese and Indian people than that of the Malays. But after that poverty has gotten less for all groups, but especially for the Malays it got better. In 1984 only a quarter of the Malays were still living in poverty. After 1984 it only got better, with urban poverty falling to almost insignificant levels. Paddy farmers and fisherman stayed behind though, and poverty among them still is the largest. You can see that poverty is so much bigger in Borneo to simple things. Buildings are old and grey and not very well maintained, people sell fruits like bananas which they harvest themselves, on the streets, dirt and waste is everywhere and people are walking around in old and shabby clothes. Things you don’t see that much in Peninsular Malaysia, and definitely not in KL.
I have been diving on the east coast of Borneo, at the islands around Semporna. There is nothing else to do for tourists than dive, so there are a lot of small dive schools in the little town. There are a lot of small islands of the coast and they are great diving spots (one of the best in the world). So on a few islands there are very exclusive and expensive resorts, and they are built next to the small huts of fishermen. When we were diving we would have lunch which the dive school had prepared (most of the time noodles), on one of the small islands. When we were having lunch, little children would come and sit with us. Our dive masters explained they were Philippine children left on the island all alone. Their parents took them with them when they illegally crossed the border from the Philippines in small boats. Malaysia has a very strict law against illegal people and deports them straight away. But the law also states that only illegal people of ten years and older can be deported, so the small children stay behind. They have no one else to take care of them but themselves, so they stay alive on the island by eating fish and begging some food from the divers. I ate a lot less after hearing that story, just so the children would get a little more. And to emphasize that their live on the island was pretty hard, the children, in age from five to ten, didn’t want to share the food they got from us with each other. I think that’s one of the things that have made a deep impression on me and that showed me that Malaysia is still a developing country in some ways. The difference with West Malaysia was striking.
Another sign of the poverty on Borneo is the fact that pirates are still active in the waters between Sabah and the Philippines. In April 2000, 21 people were kidnapped by a Philippine terrorist group. All victims were eventually released. Two weeks before I was diving around the islands in Semporna the army shot 11 pirates who were aiming to rob tourists. The army is stationed on some of the islands off the coast to protect tourists. When sailing around the islands at Semporna you continuously see boats with heavily armed soldiers passing by. On Pulau (island) Sipadan the army has occupied an old resort. I have been to that island and heavily armed soldiers are walking around the island. As a tourist (only 120 tourists a day are allowed on the island because the eco-system around the island is protected) you can only go to a stroke on the beach of 200 metres, when crossing that border you would be brought back at gunpoint.
Differences between Malaysian and Western culture
What I believe is the biggest cultural difference between the Netherlands and Malaysia that has the most impact is the religion. Maybe not so in the actual work environment in my office, but in daily life and everything around it. What I believe is a great example is one of the projects I assisted on: the launch of a new ‘halal’ toothpaste from Colgate. During Ramadan Muslims have to fast, and when doing that really strict you are not even allowed to swallow your own saliva. So brushing your teeth is really hard, and a lot of Muslims don’t do that during the day. So oral hygiene becomes a problem. Colgate came up with a solution for that problem: Kayu Sugi toothpaste. Kayu Sugi is a plant Muslims used to brush their teeth with hundreds of years ago. It is even mentioned (not in the Quran) that the Prophet Muhammad himself recommended its use. Muslims chewed on the end of a stick (a good comparison is the Dutch ‘zoethout’) and used that to clean their teeth. The stick contains disinfectant ingredients, has substances that strengthens the gum and prevents teeth from colouring. By using the Kayu Sugi ingredients in their toothpaste Colgate created a ‘halal’ toothpaste which Muslims could use to brush their teeth during Ramadan.
Because the official religion in Malaysia is Islam, Ramadan plays a big role in the society. I was in Malaysia during the entire Ramadan period and you really can notice the difference between normal day life and life during this period. Because people are not allowed to eat or drink anything during the day (officially from sunrise to sunset) they ate at 07:15 pm and really early in the morning. This meant that at 07:15 pm literally all Muslims were at home eating. So if for example you needed a taxi, you would be waiting an awful long time because only non-Muslim Chinese and Indian taxi drivers would be working. Malay restaurants were only allowed to open at 03:00 pm and only allowed to start selling food at 07:00 pm. Funny detail is that Muslims in restaurants or at food stalls would sit at their table with a big plate of food in front of them and wait until it was 07:15 pm and then started eating. If you wanted something to eat before that time you had to go to a non-Malay restaurant.
Besides that some Muslim people could get a little grumpy during the day because they were hungry and didn’t have much sleep. At my office only three Muslims were working and they were pretty serious with their jobs. But I heard stories from one of my flat mates, who did an internship at Guinness Anchor Berhad (brewer of beers like Guinness, Tiger and Heineken), that the Malay workers usually were late at work and sometimes even slept during working hours. The ones who were there by car usually left early to evade the traffic jams in the city and be home before 07:00 pm. So Ramadan did disrupt the work pace at the office and the brewery.
On the other hand, with Hari Raya: the big party after Ramadan, Muslims are very hospitable and invite everyone, including us, to have Hari Raya breakfast with them. Everybody is dressed up in their best traditional clothing and the atmosphere is great everywhere. It was nice to see a traditional Malay Hari Raya breakfast with the common Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leafs and
loads of sweet stuff.
I have written about the different cultures in Malaysia and how there supposed to be some struggles between the different ethnic groups. I have not experienced real struggles in Malaysia and I must say that at the office and in the working environment I have seen even less. It used to be the blue collar workers (like taxi drivers, shop owners, waiters etc.) who would be giving their opinions about other ethnic groups. In my experience and the environment I was in, all the different people work great together and there is absolutely no sign of any troubles between colleagues. That is another interesting difference with a lot of European countries is the respect people have for each other when doing business. Abdullah (2001) did a survey among local and foreign managers to characterize the behaviours of the Malaysian workforce. 8 Core Malaysian values were observed: Malaysians are group-oriented, relationship-oriented, there is big respect for elders, loyalty to superiors and organization is high, there is a strong social hierarchy, Malaysians –especially Malays- identify with a particular religion and religion plays a big role in their lives, Malaysians are often happy in their work if they have harmonious relations with superiors and face-saving (not embarrassing or humiliating people in front of others) is important.
A nice example of the great respect is the ritual of swapping business cards. In the Netherlands you would take the card and put it in your jacket or agenda or anything. And that’s it. In Malaysia you are expected to take the card using two hands (both hands in a fist and hold the card between both thumbs and index fingers), always look at the business card of the other longer than he looks at your business card (you can imagine it usually takes a few seconds before the cards are put away) and never put the card in your trousers, that’s very disrespectful.
Although so many religions and different cultures exist in Malaysia I have not found that was a problem in the working environment. Colleagues were always respectful to each other and to clients.
I was taken to a lot of client meetings at my work even if the meetings were about projects that were not my own. I was the only ‘white’ employee in the office, and for Malaysians that apparently still is some kind of status symbol. So although I hardly had anything to say in some meetings they took me along so they could show others that expats were working in the office. So in the Malaysian culture people are still looking up to the Western cultures.
Another important aspect of working with the media is the freedom of press. Malaysian citizens do enjoy the right to freedom of speech and expression as stated in the Federal Constitution. But in the 30 years after the constitution was promulgated some additional clauses were added that restrain that freedom. Under Malaysian law, people are not allowed seditious and hateful comments towards others and especially the government. For example, it is strictly forbidden to report anything that reflects badly on the president or monarch, or their family and close associates.
I wrote earlier that Malaysia was placed 92nd of 168th countries in the worldwide press freedom index in 2006, reported by Reporters Without Borders, consultant to the UN (www.rsf.com). In 2008 they dropped to place 132, as their index dropped from 22 to 39,5. A complete list is added in Annex 3.
Most of the media are controlled by different political parties. The major dailies and weeklies are controlled by the parties from Barisa Nasional, the coalition who is in control. The biggest party, the UMNO, for instance controls the New Straits Times, the Sun and Berita Harian. The Star is runned by the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), also a member of Barisa Nasional. The political parties decide what and what is not to be in the news. This is why people in Malaysia make a joke that UMNO stands for ‘U (stands for ‘you’) Must Now Obey’. The opposition - and heavily Muslim - parties do not control any significant media. Any other media that is not controlled by politics can’t write what they want: “The wider effects of the Act upon freedom of expression, the media and the development of civil society in Malaysia have been far reaching. Authorities continue to intimidate writers, associations and publishing companies towards self-censorship and restrict the expression and circulation dissenting opinions against NGOs and other social commentators.” (Benedict, 2007)
Because the official religion in Malaysia is Islam, Ramadan plays a big role in the society. I was in Malaysia during the entire Ramadan period and you really can notice the difference between normal day life and life during this period. Because people are not allowed to eat or drink anything during the day (officially from sunrise to sunset) they ate at 07:15 pm and really early in the morning. This meant that at 07:15 pm literally all Muslims were at home eating. So if for example you needed a taxi, you would be waiting an awful long time because only non-Muslim Chinese and Indian taxi drivers would be working. Malay restaurants were only allowed to open at 03:00 pm and only allowed to start selling food at 07:00 pm. Funny detail is that Muslims in restaurants or at food stalls would sit at their table with a big plate of food in front of them and wait until it was 07:15 pm and then started eating. If you wanted something to eat before that time you had to go to a non-Malay restaurant.
Besides that some Muslim people could get a little grumpy during the day because they were hungry and didn’t have much sleep. At my office only three Muslims were working and they were pretty serious with their jobs. But I heard stories from one of my flat mates, who did an internship at Guinness Anchor Berhad (brewer of beers like Guinness, Tiger and Heineken), that the Malay workers usually were late at work and sometimes even slept during working hours. The ones who were there by car usually left early to evade the traffic jams in the city and be home before 07:00 pm. So Ramadan did disrupt the work pace at the office and the brewery.
On the other hand, with Hari Raya: the big party after Ramadan, Muslims are very hospitable and invite everyone, including us, to have Hari Raya breakfast with them. Everybody is dressed up in their best traditional clothing and the atmosphere is great everywhere. It was nice to see a traditional Malay Hari Raya breakfast with the common Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leafs and
loads of sweet stuff.
I have written about the different cultures in Malaysia and how there supposed to be some struggles between the different ethnic groups. I have not experienced real struggles in Malaysia and I must say that at the office and in the working environment I have seen even less. It used to be the blue collar workers (like taxi drivers, shop owners, waiters etc.) who would be giving their opinions about other ethnic groups. In my experience and the environment I was in, all the different people work great together and there is absolutely no sign of any troubles between colleagues. That is another interesting difference with a lot of European countries is the respect people have for each other when doing business. Abdullah (2001) did a survey among local and foreign managers to characterize the behaviours of the Malaysian workforce. 8 Core Malaysian values were observed: Malaysians are group-oriented, relationship-oriented, there is big respect for elders, loyalty to superiors and organization is high, there is a strong social hierarchy, Malaysians –especially Malays- identify with a particular religion and religion plays a big role in their lives, Malaysians are often happy in their work if they have harmonious relations with superiors and face-saving (not embarrassing or humiliating people in front of others) is important.
A nice example of the great respect is the ritual of swapping business cards. In the Netherlands you would take the card and put it in your jacket or agenda or anything. And that’s it. In Malaysia you are expected to take the card using two hands (both hands in a fist and hold the card between both thumbs and index fingers), always look at the business card of the other longer than he looks at your business card (you can imagine it usually takes a few seconds before the cards are put away) and never put the card in your trousers, that’s very disrespectful.
Although so many religions and different cultures exist in Malaysia I have not found that was a problem in the working environment. Colleagues were always respectful to each other and to clients.
I was taken to a lot of client meetings at my work even if the meetings were about projects that were not my own. I was the only ‘white’ employee in the office, and for Malaysians that apparently still is some kind of status symbol. So although I hardly had anything to say in some meetings they took me along so they could show others that expats were working in the office. So in the Malaysian culture people are still looking up to the Western cultures.
Another important aspect of working with the media is the freedom of press. Malaysian citizens do enjoy the right to freedom of speech and expression as stated in the Federal Constitution. But in the 30 years after the constitution was promulgated some additional clauses were added that restrain that freedom. Under Malaysian law, people are not allowed seditious and hateful comments towards others and especially the government. For example, it is strictly forbidden to report anything that reflects badly on the president or monarch, or their family and close associates.
I wrote earlier that Malaysia was placed 92nd of 168th countries in the worldwide press freedom index in 2006, reported by Reporters Without Borders, consultant to the UN (www.rsf.com). In 2008 they dropped to place 132, as their index dropped from 22 to 39,5. A complete list is added in Annex 3.
Most of the media are controlled by different political parties. The major dailies and weeklies are controlled by the parties from Barisa Nasional, the coalition who is in control. The biggest party, the UMNO, for instance controls the New Straits Times, the Sun and Berita Harian. The Star is runned by the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), also a member of Barisa Nasional. The political parties decide what and what is not to be in the news. This is why people in Malaysia make a joke that UMNO stands for ‘U (stands for ‘you’) Must Now Obey’. The opposition - and heavily Muslim - parties do not control any significant media. Any other media that is not controlled by politics can’t write what they want: “The wider effects of the Act upon freedom of expression, the media and the development of civil society in Malaysia have been far reaching. Authorities continue to intimidate writers, associations and publishing companies towards self-censorship and restrict the expression and circulation dissenting opinions against NGOs and other social commentators.” (Benedict, 2007)
Travelling in Malaysia
To compare the life of Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur with the rest of Malaysia I have travelled around Malaysia. During my internship I made some trips around West-Malaysia. I made weekend trips to the island Pulau Penang on the west coast and to Singapore. And I made several day trips for instance to Malacca, a city with a lot of Dutch colonial buildings, to an elephant sanctuary in Lanchang and to Putrajaya; a complete new city next to KL with all government buildings.
But besides those small trips I made a big trip through the rest of Malaysia after my internship. For three weeks I’ve travelled around West-Malaysia with my girlfriend. We’ve been to the beautiful islands of Pulau Perhentian on the East-coast, did trekkings in the Taman Negara: the oldest jungle in the world, we visited the tea plantations and the Orang Asli in the Cameron Highlands, we’ve seen the mangrove forests in Taiping and we enjoyed the nature, beaches and tax-free alcohol on Pulau Langkawi on the West-coast.
After that I went to Sabah on Borneo. I climbed the mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia; I have dived at one of the top 3 dive sites in the world at Pulau Sipadan and spent a few days in the jungle to spot all sorts of wildlife. All of these experiences were better than the other! Malaysia truly is a beautiful country and travelling is pretty easy. The public transport is really punctual. Accommodation is easy to find and although it’s very basic most of the time it was very decent. And people are in general very happy to help without wanting anything in return. Of course there are a few exceptions like the cab-drivers trying to rip you off but I think that’s pretty common all over the world. I must add that there is quite a difference between travelling in West- and East Malaysia. In East Malaysia people are poorer and are trying harder to make some money out of tourists. When I was travelling from Sandakan to Semporna I got stuck half way in Lahad Datu: There were no more busses going to Semporna after 05:00 pm. The next opportunity would be to take the bus that was going the next morning. I wanted to be there the same day as I was going to meet up with some other backpackers I met earlier on my trip and I wanted to dive the next morning. When I was asking local people to help me find a bus or a taxi they told me no more busses and taxis were going to Semporna. One of the people I was talking to came up to me about fifteen minutes later and told me he found a ride for me. It was just an ordinary car with someone who was picking up people to go to Semporna. I had to pay 200 Ringgit and then I could come. After bargaining I could get the price to 100 Ringgit (20 euro’s), still ridiculously much for Malaysian understandings. But I really wanted to go so I agreed on paying the 100 Ringgit. There were three Malay people coming as well. One of them had to pay the bill of 20 ringgit at the gas station and the other two had to pay 20 Ringgit. They were trying to do this so I could not see, but I was already expecting something like that and noticed it. I just accepted the fact that I as a tourist would get ripped off and decided not to say anything.
West Malaysia, and especially KL, is different from Borneo. You can see the difference in development: cities in West-Malaysia have better infrastructure and more developed architecture. The nature in West-Malaysia is ruined by tourism, on Borneo it’s not. I have been to the Taman Negara on Peninsular Malaysia, the oldest jungle in the world. But the jungle has been prepared for tourists. There are pathways everywhere and on slopes there are stairways. We were lucky we were there in October, when it’s not the touristic season. When we were walking around we saw very little other people. But in the tourist season there are thousands of people walking around there. So it’s not very strange that wildlife has moved further into the jungle. If we wanted to see tigers, elephants etc. we had do a trekking of seven days in to the jungle. Unfortunately we did not have the time to do that. In Borneo however I have been in the jungle and spotted ten kinds of monkeys in the wild (including Orang-Utans), saw an incredible amount of birds, alligators etc. In Borneo the jungle is in danger because of the palm oil plantations that are build everywhere. So living space for the animals is getting smaller and that is a great threat to all the wildlife.
But besides those small trips I made a big trip through the rest of Malaysia after my internship. For three weeks I’ve travelled around West-Malaysia with my girlfriend. We’ve been to the beautiful islands of Pulau Perhentian on the East-coast, did trekkings in the Taman Negara: the oldest jungle in the world, we visited the tea plantations and the Orang Asli in the Cameron Highlands, we’ve seen the mangrove forests in Taiping and we enjoyed the nature, beaches and tax-free alcohol on Pulau Langkawi on the West-coast.
After that I went to Sabah on Borneo. I climbed the mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia; I have dived at one of the top 3 dive sites in the world at Pulau Sipadan and spent a few days in the jungle to spot all sorts of wildlife. All of these experiences were better than the other! Malaysia truly is a beautiful country and travelling is pretty easy. The public transport is really punctual. Accommodation is easy to find and although it’s very basic most of the time it was very decent. And people are in general very happy to help without wanting anything in return. Of course there are a few exceptions like the cab-drivers trying to rip you off but I think that’s pretty common all over the world. I must add that there is quite a difference between travelling in West- and East Malaysia. In East Malaysia people are poorer and are trying harder to make some money out of tourists. When I was travelling from Sandakan to Semporna I got stuck half way in Lahad Datu: There were no more busses going to Semporna after 05:00 pm. The next opportunity would be to take the bus that was going the next morning. I wanted to be there the same day as I was going to meet up with some other backpackers I met earlier on my trip and I wanted to dive the next morning. When I was asking local people to help me find a bus or a taxi they told me no more busses and taxis were going to Semporna. One of the people I was talking to came up to me about fifteen minutes later and told me he found a ride for me. It was just an ordinary car with someone who was picking up people to go to Semporna. I had to pay 200 Ringgit and then I could come. After bargaining I could get the price to 100 Ringgit (20 euro’s), still ridiculously much for Malaysian understandings. But I really wanted to go so I agreed on paying the 100 Ringgit. There were three Malay people coming as well. One of them had to pay the bill of 20 ringgit at the gas station and the other two had to pay 20 Ringgit. They were trying to do this so I could not see, but I was already expecting something like that and noticed it. I just accepted the fact that I as a tourist would get ripped off and decided not to say anything.
West Malaysia, and especially KL, is different from Borneo. You can see the difference in development: cities in West-Malaysia have better infrastructure and more developed architecture. The nature in West-Malaysia is ruined by tourism, on Borneo it’s not. I have been to the Taman Negara on Peninsular Malaysia, the oldest jungle in the world. But the jungle has been prepared for tourists. There are pathways everywhere and on slopes there are stairways. We were lucky we were there in October, when it’s not the touristic season. When we were walking around we saw very little other people. But in the tourist season there are thousands of people walking around there. So it’s not very strange that wildlife has moved further into the jungle. If we wanted to see tigers, elephants etc. we had do a trekking of seven days in to the jungle. Unfortunately we did not have the time to do that. In Borneo however I have been in the jungle and spotted ten kinds of monkeys in the wild (including Orang-Utans), saw an incredible amount of birds, alligators etc. In Borneo the jungle is in danger because of the palm oil plantations that are build everywhere. So living space for the animals is getting smaller and that is a great threat to all the wildlife.
Food and drinks in Malaysia
Although we had a quite convenient kitchen in our apartment, we literally never used it. I always had my breakfast at one of the food stalls next to our office. My favourite was Roti Canai, the only ‘light’ breakfast that they sold at the stalls. My colleagues on the other hand were eating big bowls of noodles, Tom Yam soup or nasi lemak at 09:30 in the morning! Not my way to start the day… With my breakfast I usually had a coffee. This meant an instant coffee, as the coffee culture in Malaysia is not very extensive (although there is a Starbucks at every street corner), and I had to emphasize every time that I did not want any sugar, or else it would be so sweet that your teeth would decay instantly. Malaysian people love sweet food and drinks. They add sugar to almost everything: juices, coffee, tea, even cheese sandwiches could taste sweet. And if you ask for something without sugar, the waiters are usually very surprised.
For lunch we usually went to the same food stalls and took some food to the office and ate it there, or we went to the very popular ‘five dollar shop’. This Indian place sold set menu’s for five Ringgit. You would choose your rice, one sort of vegetables and one sort of curry. I’ve come to really appreciate the Indian cuisine in my time in Malaysia.
I had dinner with my flatmates usually around 07:30 pm. Most of the time we went to one of two Indian places in Bangsar. The food was cheap and very tasty! One of the places had a buffet where you could get your own food. The waiter would come to your table when you sat down, had a look at what you put on your plate and would than calculate a price based on how big the pile was. The other place was even better. You would sit down and get a banana leaf as a plate. You could order a lot of different dishes which would be served on small plates. A bit like the Spanish tapas. Rice and vegetables were served on the banana leaf, and it was not very common to use cutlery. Indian and Malay people rather used their hands. Or actually, only their right hand. The left hand was used to clean their behinds after going to the toilet. As we are in the food topic, I’ll leave the description of bathroom visits for another paragraph.
For lunch we usually went to the same food stalls and took some food to the office and ate it there, or we went to the very popular ‘five dollar shop’. This Indian place sold set menu’s for five Ringgit. You would choose your rice, one sort of vegetables and one sort of curry. I’ve come to really appreciate the Indian cuisine in my time in Malaysia.
I had dinner with my flatmates usually around 07:30 pm. Most of the time we went to one of two Indian places in Bangsar. The food was cheap and very tasty! One of the places had a buffet where you could get your own food. The waiter would come to your table when you sat down, had a look at what you put on your plate and would than calculate a price based on how big the pile was. The other place was even better. You would sit down and get a banana leaf as a plate. You could order a lot of different dishes which would be served on small plates. A bit like the Spanish tapas. Rice and vegetables were served on the banana leaf, and it was not very common to use cutlery. Indian and Malay people rather used their hands. Or actually, only their right hand. The left hand was used to clean their behinds after going to the toilet. As we are in the food topic, I’ll leave the description of bathroom visits for another paragraph.
Living in Kuala Lumpur as an expat
In my free time I usually hung out with my flat mates. I finished work around 05:30 pm which meant I was home around 06:15 pm. It took me 5 minutes to walk to the LRT station, wait a few minutes for the LRT, and then sit (or most of the time stand actually) for 20 minutes to get out at the station at the foot of the hill of our condominium. After a 15 minute walk uphill I would be sweating in the elevator before I got home. My flat mates got back later than I would, usually around 07:00 pm. When everybody was home we would go out for dinner and have a drink in Bangsar or play some pool. Very often we met some locals during dinner or while having a drink and we made a lot of different friends. For some reason you are very interesting to Malaysian people as you are white. Some of them invited us at their homes for parties, to teach us Mahjong or to come to their own food stalls and tell us all about their cuisine. Great experiences!
In the weekends on Fridays and Saturdays we usually went out to the clubs in Kuala Lumpur. KL has a great clubbing scene with very trendy places. Typical was that we usually were one of the few Western people and that meant a lot of people wanted to get to know us. We’ve been invited to the opening of new clubs, to fashion shows and all sorts of things. Someone even invited us for his wedding, although we just met him a few hours earlier. It’s a nice, but sometimes a little bit awkward situation of constantly being approached by people who want to get to know you just because you are Western. Besides that, people loved to make a picture with you. They were usually bold enough to come up to you and just asked if they could take picture together. One time even, when I was going to the Merdeka celebration with my flatmates, we were photographed very sneaky by some Chinese people in the metro. They saw we saw them doing that and after that they had the guts to ask us to make photo together. Once we did that, all the rest of the people in the metro wanted to do the same! A really crazy situation and we were posing the rest of our trip.
On Saturdays and Sundays we undertook daytrips (see the next section about travelling) or we just hung out at the apartment. I didn’t do any sports in Malaysia, except for the trekkings and the walks uphill to and from the LRT station.
We used to travel to work and around the city either using the public transport or a taxi. Public transport in Malaysia is very well organized. It has trains, busses, a monorail and an LRT (metro) which work very well together. The only problem is that Malaysians do not have the decency to let people out of the trains first before entering. So when people are trying to get out, others are pushing in already and very often people who had to get out did not manage to get out in time. During rush hour there were special public transport officers who would stand at the door and check if everyone who wanted to leave was out before letting other people in. So that was quite a difference from what I was used to with the decent people in the working life.
So all and all, I had a pretty Western life in Kuala Lumpur. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to travel around the country and see so much more than the well developed parts of Malaysia.
In the weekends on Fridays and Saturdays we usually went out to the clubs in Kuala Lumpur. KL has a great clubbing scene with very trendy places. Typical was that we usually were one of the few Western people and that meant a lot of people wanted to get to know us. We’ve been invited to the opening of new clubs, to fashion shows and all sorts of things. Someone even invited us for his wedding, although we just met him a few hours earlier. It’s a nice, but sometimes a little bit awkward situation of constantly being approached by people who want to get to know you just because you are Western. Besides that, people loved to make a picture with you. They were usually bold enough to come up to you and just asked if they could take picture together. One time even, when I was going to the Merdeka celebration with my flatmates, we were photographed very sneaky by some Chinese people in the metro. They saw we saw them doing that and after that they had the guts to ask us to make photo together. Once we did that, all the rest of the people in the metro wanted to do the same! A really crazy situation and we were posing the rest of our trip.
On Saturdays and Sundays we undertook daytrips (see the next section about travelling) or we just hung out at the apartment. I didn’t do any sports in Malaysia, except for the trekkings and the walks uphill to and from the LRT station.
We used to travel to work and around the city either using the public transport or a taxi. Public transport in Malaysia is very well organized. It has trains, busses, a monorail and an LRT (metro) which work very well together. The only problem is that Malaysians do not have the decency to let people out of the trains first before entering. So when people are trying to get out, others are pushing in already and very often people who had to get out did not manage to get out in time. During rush hour there were special public transport officers who would stand at the door and check if everyone who wanted to leave was out before letting other people in. So that was quite a difference from what I was used to with the decent people in the working life.
So all and all, I had a pretty Western life in Kuala Lumpur. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to travel around the country and see so much more than the well developed parts of Malaysia.
Experience with housing as an expat in Malaysia
I was living in an apartment in one of Kuala Lumpur's suburbs: Bangsar. This area is one of the more expensive neighbourhoods to live, and used to be one of the most happening places in Kuala Lumpur. The last two years the clubbing and restaurant scene moved from Bangsar to Kuala Lumpur, but there are still a lot of nice restaurants (Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western) and food stalls in the area. The suburb also has its own shopping malls, so there is no need to always travel to the more crowded city centre of Kuala Lumpur for groceries or other basic needs. I thought it was a very nice place to live, away from the busy, noisy and more polluted city centre of Kuala Lumpur. On the other hand, it was not the best way of mingling in the real Malaysian life.
The company offered to help me with finding accommodation. I told them I would rather do it myself, because I was afraid if they would help me I would end up in an apartment alone. And I was looking for a house to share with other international interns. I found this apartment after contacting another student from the University who just finished his internship in Kuala Lumpur. He told me some of his Dutch friends in KL had a spare room and after emailing them it was quickly agreed that I would move in.
I was living with three other Dutch interns. It was nice to share our experiences and to undertake a lot of activities and trips together. On the one hand it was fun to live with other Dutch interns as we were on the same level on practically everything, on the other hand it would have been nice to live with other international students to learn more about their daily life and rituals.
Our 12 storey flat was stated on a hill, and we were lucky our apartment on the 10th floor faced the skyline of KL. Truly a magnificent view. The apartment consisted of a living room, a kitchen, three bedrooms with attached bathrooms and a maid’s room. There was a swimming pool at the condominium and there was a 24-hour guard service.
Although this sounds very Western and expensive, a lot of Malay people lived in the condominium. Because we lived near to the Pantai Medical Centre, one of the bigger hospitals in KL, our condominium was an excellent place to live for the nurses. I’m still not sure how many of them lived together in one apartment, but it was definitely more than four people. Every morning literally hundreds of nurses walked to the hospital together. When you imagine they all were about 1.60 metres tall, around 17 years old, they all wore the same white outfit with a white scarf and most them were too shy to look you in the eyes, it was really hard to see a difference between them. You could easily notice that these girls were Muslim and still quite young: every time one of my roommates – or better, all of us at once – came across them they would start giggling. In the beginning most of them even didn’t dare to go in the same elevator with us! Every time we were in the pool we were quite an attraction: the girls would hide themselves behind the curtains and tried to spy on us.
For the first two months we did not have a maid, simply because we were not used to having one. We cleaned ourselves, did our own laundry and did our own dishes, just as we would in the Netherlands. One day when we were visited by two handymen who were there to repair our washing machine. When I offered them something to drink - like I would do in the Netherlands - they were quite surprised already and politely just asked for some water. But when I cleaned two glasses myself they were flabbergasted. They immediately asked why in earths name I was doing my own dishes! When I replied that we didn’t have a maid and that we did everything ourselves they found that very hard to believe. After all, we were Western, so they assumed we had the money to hire a maid.
One of my colleagues attended me on the fact that it’s a good thing to employ local people and besides that it’s a luxury, it’s a good way for the Malays to earn some money. So eventually we hired a maid who cleaned for three hours once a week (for an amount of money a Dutch maid would not even clean for one hour). She sometimes brought her husband and daughter to help her out, so they would only have to clean one hour altogether.
The company offered to help me with finding accommodation. I told them I would rather do it myself, because I was afraid if they would help me I would end up in an apartment alone. And I was looking for a house to share with other international interns. I found this apartment after contacting another student from the University who just finished his internship in Kuala Lumpur. He told me some of his Dutch friends in KL had a spare room and after emailing them it was quickly agreed that I would move in.
I was living with three other Dutch interns. It was nice to share our experiences and to undertake a lot of activities and trips together. On the one hand it was fun to live with other Dutch interns as we were on the same level on practically everything, on the other hand it would have been nice to live with other international students to learn more about their daily life and rituals.
Our 12 storey flat was stated on a hill, and we were lucky our apartment on the 10th floor faced the skyline of KL. Truly a magnificent view. The apartment consisted of a living room, a kitchen, three bedrooms with attached bathrooms and a maid’s room. There was a swimming pool at the condominium and there was a 24-hour guard service.
Although this sounds very Western and expensive, a lot of Malay people lived in the condominium. Because we lived near to the Pantai Medical Centre, one of the bigger hospitals in KL, our condominium was an excellent place to live for the nurses. I’m still not sure how many of them lived together in one apartment, but it was definitely more than four people. Every morning literally hundreds of nurses walked to the hospital together. When you imagine they all were about 1.60 metres tall, around 17 years old, they all wore the same white outfit with a white scarf and most them were too shy to look you in the eyes, it was really hard to see a difference between them. You could easily notice that these girls were Muslim and still quite young: every time one of my roommates – or better, all of us at once – came across them they would start giggling. In the beginning most of them even didn’t dare to go in the same elevator with us! Every time we were in the pool we were quite an attraction: the girls would hide themselves behind the curtains and tried to spy on us.
For the first two months we did not have a maid, simply because we were not used to having one. We cleaned ourselves, did our own laundry and did our own dishes, just as we would in the Netherlands. One day when we were visited by two handymen who were there to repair our washing machine. When I offered them something to drink - like I would do in the Netherlands - they were quite surprised already and politely just asked for some water. But when I cleaned two glasses myself they were flabbergasted. They immediately asked why in earths name I was doing my own dishes! When I replied that we didn’t have a maid and that we did everything ourselves they found that very hard to believe. After all, we were Western, so they assumed we had the money to hire a maid.
One of my colleagues attended me on the fact that it’s a good thing to employ local people and besides that it’s a luxury, it’s a good way for the Malays to earn some money. So eventually we hired a maid who cleaned for three hours once a week (for an amount of money a Dutch maid would not even clean for one hour). She sometimes brought her husband and daughter to help her out, so they would only have to clean one hour altogether.
Culture in Malaysia
According to Ball et al. (2006), there are nine socio-cultural components: aesthetics, attitudes and beliefs, religion, material culture, education, language, societal organization, legal characteristics and political structures. For each component I will write down the most important characteristics of the culture in Malaysia in section 3.1. Wherever appropriate I mention the scores that Hofstede (2001) and Trompenaars (1997) found on their cultural dimensions and if I found those scores are correct.
- Aesthetics
The ‘Kampong’ (village) culture and the Islam have been of great influence on the art in Malaysia. In the isolated villages unique dancing, music and batik styles developed itself. Painting and carving skills on the other hand aren’t so developed because of the Islam discouraging the use of human shape in art. Malaysia has a lack of a literary tradition like in India or China. In fact, the government acknowledges this is a problem. In East Malaysia art consists mainly of warrior dances and different crafts of textile, rotan baskets and woodcarvings (Ars, 2001).
I have travelled around Malaysia and visited an Orang-Asli village in the jungle around the Cameron Highlands. It was nice to see how the Orang-Asli used to live, but you could also notice that these people were not living as primitive as they once were. Tourism has become a good way to get some income and you could see that people were dressed up in their Indian clothing, while others were walking around in jeans and t-shirts. And after visiting the village you were expected to leave some money for the hospitality of the people in the village. The biggest anti-climax was seeing an IKEA bag in one of the huts.
Malaysia, and in special Kuala Lumpur, is a playground for progressive architecture. The city has built an impressive skyline, with the Petronas Towers as the most imposing building. The towers were designed with the Islamic and Malaysian culture in mind. The modern Malaysian motives in the building are designed like traditional weaving patterns and woodcarvings. The patterns symbolise unity, harmony, stability and rationality: important principles in the Islam and Malaysian culture (Ars, 2001).
Malaysians think building big buildings and skyscrapers is a way of showing off how well the economy is doing. This is true in a way, but the problem is that buildings are not fully occupied and a lot of the office space is not being used. The best example are the Petronas Towers: a large part is not being used because of the exorbitant prices for the office space. But the problem exists for hotels as well: some carcasses have been built, but the work never finished because of insufficient funds.
- Attitudes and beliefs
Malaysian people are not very punctual when it comes to being on time. “Malaysians view time as multi-track and infinite. To most Malaysians, there is no need to hold on to time or to try to plan and control it as other social priorities are considered more important than time itself.”(Abdullah & Low, 2001). Malaysians consider human interactions more important than schedules, appointments, delivery dates and deadlines. When working at the office I found out really soon that being in the office on time was not very important. I will discuss more about that in chapter 4.
Some Malaysian leaders had future plans though. When you think of the Wawasan 2020 as discussed earlier, there is a strong long term orientation. For the long / short term orientation Hofstede (2001) has found no score for Malaysia. This example points out that Malaysians do not only live by the day, but plan their future as well. Most of my colleagues all had plans about their future work and the position they wanted to be in after several years. So if I would have to give a score on the Malaysian time orientation based on Abdullah and Low (2001) and my own experiences, I would rank it somewhere around the middle at about 50 points.
Trompenaars (1997) makes a difference between sequential and synchronic cultures. For the first time is absolute and for the second time is intangible and less important. Malaysia scores somewhere in the middle.
The Wawasan 2020 can be seen as a way that Malaysians are taking control of their environment and are determined to become one of the most developed countries in Asia. Malaysians are trying to control nature. Trompenaars (1997) found a score of only 26% of the Malaysians who agree on its worth controlling nature. I have found that that percentage is to low in the 21st century. Most people I have met are ambitious people who have great plans for the future. These people were Malaysians in general, and Malays might have slightly different ideas. I have found, during my travels, that most Malays are making the best out of their lives. One of the best examples, maybe to literally, of controlling nature is the fact that the rainforest is endangered on Borneo. The rainforest is chopped down to make place for huge palm oil plantations.
In Malaysia there is a very neutral culture according to Trompenaars (1997). In a neutral culture people are taught that it is incorrect to show one's feelings overtly. I have found that this is true, especially in the working environment. Colleagues are always very polite and people are never too enthusiastic or to extreme in their emotions. People are interested in each other but the atmosphere in the office never gets to informal.
I found it hard to label Malaysia as a specific or diffuse culture. I got familiar with my colleagues pretty fast, of course more with certain ones than with others, but on the whole people were really friendly. They took me out for lunch and told me all about the food and Malaysia. With some of my direct colleagues I have been going out in the weekends and I have been at the homes of two of them. I have found that when you are starting to build a real friendship, people are willing to do everything for each other. One of my colleagues (which I had a very good relationship with) just got married in India and invited me to come to his wedding over there. He even wanted to pay for my ticket! I still have contact with him on a regular basis and he came to Europe for his honeymoon. I met him in Amsterdam in the beginning of October and it was great to show him and his wife around.
Some Chinese and Malay people I met in Bangsar and KL invited me and my flat mates to come to their homes for a party or to their food stalls to tell us about their food. We met these people while having dinner in a restaurant or while going out, so we hardly knew them. On my trip through Malaysia me and my girlfriend were invited for a traditional Hari Raya breakfast with the owners of a hostel near the Taman Negara. These are examples of how the Malaysians and Malays are letting you in their lives and want to show others how they live. So we were easily accepted into the private sphere of these people, which is a sign of a diffuse culture (Trompenaars, 1997).
- Religion
The (Soenitic) Islam is the official religion, Muslim people (mostly Malays) represent just a little over half of the population. The constitution gives the Islam a preference: the Malay leader is an Islamic religious leader, Islamic religion education is obliged at state schools, Muslim people have their own jurisdictional system and pay special taxes. The Chinese are supporters of Confucianism, Buddhism or Taoism. Most Indian people support Hinduism. Six percent of the population is Christian. The different tribes at Sarawak and Sabah support animistic religions (Winkler Prins, 2007).
A good example of the Islam being the state religion and living by Muslim rules is the way foreigners should behave. Pop performer Gwen Stefani had planned a concert in Kuala Lumpur on the 21st of August 2007. There are strict rules in Malaysia for performers. Under the official guide to performing in Malaysia, a female artist must be covered from the top of her chest to her knees. Jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience is not allowed. Performers cannot hug or kiss and their clothes cannot have obscene or drug-related images or messages. Stefani promised to obey the local guidelines, but still there were protests from different Muslim parties. Janet Jackson refused to obey the rules in Malaysia, so she cancelled the concerts she had planned.
In most of Malaysia mosques, Hindu and Chinese temples are everywhere. Highlights that I visited are the National Mosque in KL, the Dataran Putra; an enormous mosque in Putrajaya, the Kek Lok Si Temple; the largest Buddhist temple in South-East Asia and the Batu Caves; one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India with a 43 metres tall golden statue in front of it. It’s great to see the different kind of ceremonies and have random people telling you what and why people are doing certain rituals. Christian churches are usually not as visible as the other temples and mosques, because they are not so well decorated and usually smaller than other shrines. One of the oldest and most famous Christian churches is the St. Peter’s Church in Malacca.
- Education
“Enrolment in primary school stands at about 95 percent and at secondary school in about 58 percent. Gender differentials in education are narrower than in the past” (Robinson&Ross, 2006).
In education there are strong differences though. For Chinese and Indian people there are special schools were they are lectured in Mandarin and Tamil. These schools are discriminated in comparison to the national schools: they get fewer funds, less materials and the circumstances are not as good. To create unity in the education system, the government introduced Vision Schools in the nineties: national, Chinese and Tamil schools were put together in one compound. But the larger part of the Chinese community resists to these schools because of the fear of losing its identity.
In Eastern Malaysia there are some ethnic groups that have a delay in education because they live in isolated villages. Some children in Sabah and Sarawak have to travel for hours to go to school. Besides that parents want their children to work (Ars, 2001).
Government and private universities and colleges have been established all over Malaysia to provide for the higher education needs of those seeking to progress beyond secondary-level education. At Weber I was responsible for contacting Universities and colleges to promote the ‘Asia Pacific PR Student of the Year Award’. This competition is organized by Weber every year and is meant for communication students all over the Asia Pacific region. While contacting these universities and colleges I got the idea that this is very well organized in Malaysia.
I have heard from some Chinese people though that there is a maximum to the amount of Chinese people being allowed to go universities. This results in brilliant Chinese people not being able to go to (state) universities while mediocre Malay students are able to do so.
- Language
The official language is Bahasa Malaya in West-Malaysia and Sabah and Bahasa Malaya and English in Sarawak. Beside these languages the different ethnic groups also speak their own language. Despite attempts of the government to propagate the Bahasa Malaya, English is the most used language in trade, education and jurisdiction (Winkler Prins, 2007). English is perceived as a language of prestige: being fluent in it is often associated with social status and elitism (Abdullah, Singh & Gill, 2001). Most Malaysians I met speak English very well.
Abdullah, Singh & Gill (2001) describe “Malaysian English”, which is spoken by those who do not speak the Standard English. While they may be able to get the message across in English, it may not be done with grammatical accuracy. This is what I experienced when talking to Malay people: they did not always speak perfect English, but understanding each other was never a problem.
One of my personal objectives was to learn enough of the Bahasa Malaya to make myself understood by locals. It turned out to be pretty hard to speak Bahasa very much. I will reflect more on the language in section 5.4.5.
- Societal organization
The ‘Kampong’ (village) culture was always very important in the Malay culture. In the native villages it was common that when someone committed a crime the entire family, or even the entire village was punished. The people believed that there was a great social responsibility and that when a member of a family committed a crime this could also be assigned to the other members of the family due to their lack of control. There was a law called ‘adat’, which still has its influence on the behaviour of the Malays. The law stated that the entire group (family or village) was responsible for the behaviour of an individual (Ars, 2001). This culture explains the low score according to Hofstede (2001) Malaysia has on Individualism (26). “People in collectivistic cultures belong to groups that are supposed to look after them in exchange for loyalty, whereas people in individualistic cultures are only supposed to look after themselves and their immediate family” (Ball et al., 2006, pp.207). The same goes for scores that Trompenaars (1997) found, although scores were not so low as the score of Hofstede, there is more a communitarian culture than an individualistic culture. Trompenaars (1997) also found a very low score on ‘opting for universalist system instead of social group’ in Malaysia. This means people see the ideal culture in terms of human friendship and in intimate relationships instead of rules being more important. There is a particularistic culture. That is special when you imagine that most Malays are muslim and that the Islamic religion has a lot of rules which have to be obeyed. I have found that this is true for the typical Malay people, but I have met a lot of Malaysian people who are far more individualistic than other Malays and Malaysians. I believe that with the development of Malaysia the individualism will rise as people are becoming more ‘western’.
What you would expect in a Muslim country is females being less important than men. According to Hofstede (2001) Malaysia has a score of 50 on the Masculinity index. That’s no extreme score and I have not noticed any problems or struggles between male and female employees. When you think that at least three quarters of the employees was female, you can imagine that the atmosphere at the office was all but masculine. There is an increase in women in the workforce and in managerial positions as well (Mei Nien, 2001).
In my preparatory report I noticed that on the scores of Hofstede, there is a striking difference between the cultures of Malaysia and the Netherlands between the dimensions of power distance. “Power distance is the extent to which members of a society accept the unequal distribution of power among individuals” (Ball et al., 2006, pp.207). In companies or cultures with a larger power distance superiors have much more power, authority and decision-making rights than subordinates, and there is a strong centralisation. Malaysia scored 104. I noticed that there is quite a difference between companies in Malaysia on this score. In Chinese companies for example, the hierarchy is enormous. One of my flatmates was doing an internship at Pensonic, from origin a Chinese company and with a lot of Chinese employees. People had to stamp cards when they entered and left, and people who were late or took a lunch break that was too long were disciplined. It was not common to talk to the superiors unless people were asked to. The hierarchy was very important.
But even at my company, a more Western company, there is a lot of respect for the managing director. At Weber in Malaysia that’s a woman, something you don’t see very often in a Malay company. She was not at the office that much, maybe just two half days a week, but nobody dared questioning about her whereabouts. When I celebrated my birthday and brought some pie to the office, I put it in the pantry for everyone to take whenever they wanted. When the pie was nearly finished the PA came to me a little panicky, and asked me if I had brought a piece to the MD. When I told her I didn’t, she told me that I had to bring her a piece because she was not going to pick that up herself. At a farewell dinner for one of the colleagues we went to a restaurant with the entire company. There was a long table set, and the MD would sit at the head of the table. But the seats next to her would stay empty the longest, as most people didn’t have any idea how to handle the situation of sitting next to the boss in a more informal setting. In the end the seniors were sitting close to her, so you could actually see the hierarchy in the company.
Trompenaars (1997) has found no score on Malaysia being a culture of ascription or achievement. In Malaysia there is no such thing as a caste system, even although there are lot of Indian people in the country. I have talked to Indian colleagues and they told me that they were making there own career and that that had nothing to do with their family or birth, age, gender etc. I have found that Malaysia is a country in which you have to work hard and then you can accomplish things. But when you think of the bumiputra politics than there is a difference in the things people can achieve based on religion. Malays control the politics while Chinese control the economy. Chinese are not allowed to go to any Malaysian state university. So these stories combined, I think Malaysia is becoming more and more a culture where achievement is more important. I think that is the case for the most developing countries.
- Legal characteristics
The legal characteristics are based on English common law. Judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court are at request of the supreme head of the federation. The country has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction (UNDP Malaysia, 2007). Different states can choose to have their own laws. There are for example states (e.g. Langkawi) that are tax-free: there is no tax on alcohol or cigarettes. Corruption and bribery still are a problem in Malaysia.
Of the last, I had an experience from close by. We were in the car with two Malaysian people, driving home from going out one night. They would drop us off at our apartment. When we were on the way, we passed a road block. Cars had to stop for an alcohol check. Although we thought the guy behind the wheel did not drink any alcohol that night, he passed the police man some money (50 Ringgit). When we drove off, he told us that he did drink some alcohol and didn’t want any trouble. He told us that if it would have been us (or any other white people) the bribe would have been a lot higher.
Law can be very strict in Malaysia. One of my flatmates was doing an internship at the Malaysian Dutch Business Council, which involved arranging internships for students from the Hanzehogeschool in Groningen. He told me a story about a Dutch intern in KL who did not renew his visa before the expiry date was over. A standard visa is valid for 90 days, but going in and out the country gives you a new visa for 90 days. This particular guy went to Singapore after his visa had expired for two months and thought he would get away with that, maybe by paying a fine. He was arrested at the border and was in a Malaysians jail for a week before being deported back to the Netherlands. So that shows the politics are really strict.
- Aesthetics
The ‘Kampong’ (village) culture and the Islam have been of great influence on the art in Malaysia. In the isolated villages unique dancing, music and batik styles developed itself. Painting and carving skills on the other hand aren’t so developed because of the Islam discouraging the use of human shape in art. Malaysia has a lack of a literary tradition like in India or China. In fact, the government acknowledges this is a problem. In East Malaysia art consists mainly of warrior dances and different crafts of textile, rotan baskets and woodcarvings (Ars, 2001).
I have travelled around Malaysia and visited an Orang-Asli village in the jungle around the Cameron Highlands. It was nice to see how the Orang-Asli used to live, but you could also notice that these people were not living as primitive as they once were. Tourism has become a good way to get some income and you could see that people were dressed up in their Indian clothing, while others were walking around in jeans and t-shirts. And after visiting the village you were expected to leave some money for the hospitality of the people in the village. The biggest anti-climax was seeing an IKEA bag in one of the huts.
Malaysia, and in special Kuala Lumpur, is a playground for progressive architecture. The city has built an impressive skyline, with the Petronas Towers as the most imposing building. The towers were designed with the Islamic and Malaysian culture in mind. The modern Malaysian motives in the building are designed like traditional weaving patterns and woodcarvings. The patterns symbolise unity, harmony, stability and rationality: important principles in the Islam and Malaysian culture (Ars, 2001).
Malaysians think building big buildings and skyscrapers is a way of showing off how well the economy is doing. This is true in a way, but the problem is that buildings are not fully occupied and a lot of the office space is not being used. The best example are the Petronas Towers: a large part is not being used because of the exorbitant prices for the office space. But the problem exists for hotels as well: some carcasses have been built, but the work never finished because of insufficient funds.
- Attitudes and beliefs
Malaysian people are not very punctual when it comes to being on time. “Malaysians view time as multi-track and infinite. To most Malaysians, there is no need to hold on to time or to try to plan and control it as other social priorities are considered more important than time itself.”(Abdullah & Low, 2001). Malaysians consider human interactions more important than schedules, appointments, delivery dates and deadlines. When working at the office I found out really soon that being in the office on time was not very important. I will discuss more about that in chapter 4.
Some Malaysian leaders had future plans though. When you think of the Wawasan 2020 as discussed earlier, there is a strong long term orientation. For the long / short term orientation Hofstede (2001) has found no score for Malaysia. This example points out that Malaysians do not only live by the day, but plan their future as well. Most of my colleagues all had plans about their future work and the position they wanted to be in after several years. So if I would have to give a score on the Malaysian time orientation based on Abdullah and Low (2001) and my own experiences, I would rank it somewhere around the middle at about 50 points.
Trompenaars (1997) makes a difference between sequential and synchronic cultures. For the first time is absolute and for the second time is intangible and less important. Malaysia scores somewhere in the middle.
The Wawasan 2020 can be seen as a way that Malaysians are taking control of their environment and are determined to become one of the most developed countries in Asia. Malaysians are trying to control nature. Trompenaars (1997) found a score of only 26% of the Malaysians who agree on its worth controlling nature. I have found that that percentage is to low in the 21st century. Most people I have met are ambitious people who have great plans for the future. These people were Malaysians in general, and Malays might have slightly different ideas. I have found, during my travels, that most Malays are making the best out of their lives. One of the best examples, maybe to literally, of controlling nature is the fact that the rainforest is endangered on Borneo. The rainforest is chopped down to make place for huge palm oil plantations.
In Malaysia there is a very neutral culture according to Trompenaars (1997). In a neutral culture people are taught that it is incorrect to show one's feelings overtly. I have found that this is true, especially in the working environment. Colleagues are always very polite and people are never too enthusiastic or to extreme in their emotions. People are interested in each other but the atmosphere in the office never gets to informal.
I found it hard to label Malaysia as a specific or diffuse culture. I got familiar with my colleagues pretty fast, of course more with certain ones than with others, but on the whole people were really friendly. They took me out for lunch and told me all about the food and Malaysia. With some of my direct colleagues I have been going out in the weekends and I have been at the homes of two of them. I have found that when you are starting to build a real friendship, people are willing to do everything for each other. One of my colleagues (which I had a very good relationship with) just got married in India and invited me to come to his wedding over there. He even wanted to pay for my ticket! I still have contact with him on a regular basis and he came to Europe for his honeymoon. I met him in Amsterdam in the beginning of October and it was great to show him and his wife around.
Some Chinese and Malay people I met in Bangsar and KL invited me and my flat mates to come to their homes for a party or to their food stalls to tell us about their food. We met these people while having dinner in a restaurant or while going out, so we hardly knew them. On my trip through Malaysia me and my girlfriend were invited for a traditional Hari Raya breakfast with the owners of a hostel near the Taman Negara. These are examples of how the Malaysians and Malays are letting you in their lives and want to show others how they live. So we were easily accepted into the private sphere of these people, which is a sign of a diffuse culture (Trompenaars, 1997).
- Religion
The (Soenitic) Islam is the official religion, Muslim people (mostly Malays) represent just a little over half of the population. The constitution gives the Islam a preference: the Malay leader is an Islamic religious leader, Islamic religion education is obliged at state schools, Muslim people have their own jurisdictional system and pay special taxes. The Chinese are supporters of Confucianism, Buddhism or Taoism. Most Indian people support Hinduism. Six percent of the population is Christian. The different tribes at Sarawak and Sabah support animistic religions (Winkler Prins, 2007).
A good example of the Islam being the state religion and living by Muslim rules is the way foreigners should behave. Pop performer Gwen Stefani had planned a concert in Kuala Lumpur on the 21st of August 2007. There are strict rules in Malaysia for performers. Under the official guide to performing in Malaysia, a female artist must be covered from the top of her chest to her knees. Jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience is not allowed. Performers cannot hug or kiss and their clothes cannot have obscene or drug-related images or messages. Stefani promised to obey the local guidelines, but still there were protests from different Muslim parties. Janet Jackson refused to obey the rules in Malaysia, so she cancelled the concerts she had planned.
In most of Malaysia mosques, Hindu and Chinese temples are everywhere. Highlights that I visited are the National Mosque in KL, the Dataran Putra; an enormous mosque in Putrajaya, the Kek Lok Si Temple; the largest Buddhist temple in South-East Asia and the Batu Caves; one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India with a 43 metres tall golden statue in front of it. It’s great to see the different kind of ceremonies and have random people telling you what and why people are doing certain rituals. Christian churches are usually not as visible as the other temples and mosques, because they are not so well decorated and usually smaller than other shrines. One of the oldest and most famous Christian churches is the St. Peter’s Church in Malacca.
- Education
“Enrolment in primary school stands at about 95 percent and at secondary school in about 58 percent. Gender differentials in education are narrower than in the past” (Robinson&Ross, 2006).
In education there are strong differences though. For Chinese and Indian people there are special schools were they are lectured in Mandarin and Tamil. These schools are discriminated in comparison to the national schools: they get fewer funds, less materials and the circumstances are not as good. To create unity in the education system, the government introduced Vision Schools in the nineties: national, Chinese and Tamil schools were put together in one compound. But the larger part of the Chinese community resists to these schools because of the fear of losing its identity.
In Eastern Malaysia there are some ethnic groups that have a delay in education because they live in isolated villages. Some children in Sabah and Sarawak have to travel for hours to go to school. Besides that parents want their children to work (Ars, 2001).
Government and private universities and colleges have been established all over Malaysia to provide for the higher education needs of those seeking to progress beyond secondary-level education. At Weber I was responsible for contacting Universities and colleges to promote the ‘Asia Pacific PR Student of the Year Award’. This competition is organized by Weber every year and is meant for communication students all over the Asia Pacific region. While contacting these universities and colleges I got the idea that this is very well organized in Malaysia.
I have heard from some Chinese people though that there is a maximum to the amount of Chinese people being allowed to go universities. This results in brilliant Chinese people not being able to go to (state) universities while mediocre Malay students are able to do so.
- Language
The official language is Bahasa Malaya in West-Malaysia and Sabah and Bahasa Malaya and English in Sarawak. Beside these languages the different ethnic groups also speak their own language. Despite attempts of the government to propagate the Bahasa Malaya, English is the most used language in trade, education and jurisdiction (Winkler Prins, 2007). English is perceived as a language of prestige: being fluent in it is often associated with social status and elitism (Abdullah, Singh & Gill, 2001). Most Malaysians I met speak English very well.
Abdullah, Singh & Gill (2001) describe “Malaysian English”, which is spoken by those who do not speak the Standard English. While they may be able to get the message across in English, it may not be done with grammatical accuracy. This is what I experienced when talking to Malay people: they did not always speak perfect English, but understanding each other was never a problem.
One of my personal objectives was to learn enough of the Bahasa Malaya to make myself understood by locals. It turned out to be pretty hard to speak Bahasa very much. I will reflect more on the language in section 5.4.5.
- Societal organization
The ‘Kampong’ (village) culture was always very important in the Malay culture. In the native villages it was common that when someone committed a crime the entire family, or even the entire village was punished. The people believed that there was a great social responsibility and that when a member of a family committed a crime this could also be assigned to the other members of the family due to their lack of control. There was a law called ‘adat’, which still has its influence on the behaviour of the Malays. The law stated that the entire group (family or village) was responsible for the behaviour of an individual (Ars, 2001). This culture explains the low score according to Hofstede (2001) Malaysia has on Individualism (26). “People in collectivistic cultures belong to groups that are supposed to look after them in exchange for loyalty, whereas people in individualistic cultures are only supposed to look after themselves and their immediate family” (Ball et al., 2006, pp.207). The same goes for scores that Trompenaars (1997) found, although scores were not so low as the score of Hofstede, there is more a communitarian culture than an individualistic culture. Trompenaars (1997) also found a very low score on ‘opting for universalist system instead of social group’ in Malaysia. This means people see the ideal culture in terms of human friendship and in intimate relationships instead of rules being more important. There is a particularistic culture. That is special when you imagine that most Malays are muslim and that the Islamic religion has a lot of rules which have to be obeyed. I have found that this is true for the typical Malay people, but I have met a lot of Malaysian people who are far more individualistic than other Malays and Malaysians. I believe that with the development of Malaysia the individualism will rise as people are becoming more ‘western’.
What you would expect in a Muslim country is females being less important than men. According to Hofstede (2001) Malaysia has a score of 50 on the Masculinity index. That’s no extreme score and I have not noticed any problems or struggles between male and female employees. When you think that at least three quarters of the employees was female, you can imagine that the atmosphere at the office was all but masculine. There is an increase in women in the workforce and in managerial positions as well (Mei Nien, 2001).
In my preparatory report I noticed that on the scores of Hofstede, there is a striking difference between the cultures of Malaysia and the Netherlands between the dimensions of power distance. “Power distance is the extent to which members of a society accept the unequal distribution of power among individuals” (Ball et al., 2006, pp.207). In companies or cultures with a larger power distance superiors have much more power, authority and decision-making rights than subordinates, and there is a strong centralisation. Malaysia scored 104. I noticed that there is quite a difference between companies in Malaysia on this score. In Chinese companies for example, the hierarchy is enormous. One of my flatmates was doing an internship at Pensonic, from origin a Chinese company and with a lot of Chinese employees. People had to stamp cards when they entered and left, and people who were late or took a lunch break that was too long were disciplined. It was not common to talk to the superiors unless people were asked to. The hierarchy was very important.
But even at my company, a more Western company, there is a lot of respect for the managing director. At Weber in Malaysia that’s a woman, something you don’t see very often in a Malay company. She was not at the office that much, maybe just two half days a week, but nobody dared questioning about her whereabouts. When I celebrated my birthday and brought some pie to the office, I put it in the pantry for everyone to take whenever they wanted. When the pie was nearly finished the PA came to me a little panicky, and asked me if I had brought a piece to the MD. When I told her I didn’t, she told me that I had to bring her a piece because she was not going to pick that up herself. At a farewell dinner for one of the colleagues we went to a restaurant with the entire company. There was a long table set, and the MD would sit at the head of the table. But the seats next to her would stay empty the longest, as most people didn’t have any idea how to handle the situation of sitting next to the boss in a more informal setting. In the end the seniors were sitting close to her, so you could actually see the hierarchy in the company.
Trompenaars (1997) has found no score on Malaysia being a culture of ascription or achievement. In Malaysia there is no such thing as a caste system, even although there are lot of Indian people in the country. I have talked to Indian colleagues and they told me that they were making there own career and that that had nothing to do with their family or birth, age, gender etc. I have found that Malaysia is a country in which you have to work hard and then you can accomplish things. But when you think of the bumiputra politics than there is a difference in the things people can achieve based on religion. Malays control the politics while Chinese control the economy. Chinese are not allowed to go to any Malaysian state university. So these stories combined, I think Malaysia is becoming more and more a culture where achievement is more important. I think that is the case for the most developing countries.
- Legal characteristics
The legal characteristics are based on English common law. Judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court are at request of the supreme head of the federation. The country has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction (UNDP Malaysia, 2007). Different states can choose to have their own laws. There are for example states (e.g. Langkawi) that are tax-free: there is no tax on alcohol or cigarettes. Corruption and bribery still are a problem in Malaysia.
Of the last, I had an experience from close by. We were in the car with two Malaysian people, driving home from going out one night. They would drop us off at our apartment. When we were on the way, we passed a road block. Cars had to stop for an alcohol check. Although we thought the guy behind the wheel did not drink any alcohol that night, he passed the police man some money (50 Ringgit). When we drove off, he told us that he did drink some alcohol and didn’t want any trouble. He told us that if it would have been us (or any other white people) the bribe would have been a lot higher.
Law can be very strict in Malaysia. One of my flatmates was doing an internship at the Malaysian Dutch Business Council, which involved arranging internships for students from the Hanzehogeschool in Groningen. He told me a story about a Dutch intern in KL who did not renew his visa before the expiry date was over. A standard visa is valid for 90 days, but going in and out the country gives you a new visa for 90 days. This particular guy went to Singapore after his visa had expired for two months and thought he would get away with that, maybe by paying a fine. He was arrested at the border and was in a Malaysians jail for a week before being deported back to the Netherlands. So that shows the politics are really strict.
Technology in Malaysia
Malaysia was rated among the world’s potential technological leaders in 2001, and able to use their advancement in information and communications technology to contribute towards social and economic progress. This was reported in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report (HDR) 2001 with the theme “Making New Technologies Work For Human Development” (www.undp.org.my) This report introduces the new Technological Achievement Index of which Malaysia was grouped with 18 other countries as potential global technology leaders. “Malaysia is already making great inroads using ICT as a tool and an enabler for development. Malaysia has used ICT to overcome barriers of social, economic and geographical isolation, increase access to information and education, and to enable poor people to participate in more of the decisions that affect their lives.” (www.undp.org.my).
I have experienced that Malaysia is a pretty developed country. Of course I spend most of my time in Kuala Lumpur and that city is very well developed and technology is advanced. Walking around the city often gives you the feeling of walking in an enormous metropolis, and the huge skyscrapers and advertising gives an American touch to the atmosphere.
I have experienced that Malaysia is a pretty developed country. Of course I spend most of my time in Kuala Lumpur and that city is very well developed and technology is advanced. Walking around the city often gives you the feeling of walking in an enormous metropolis, and the huge skyscrapers and advertising gives an American touch to the atmosphere.
Economy of Malaysia
Because of the presence of tin and the production of rubber (West-) Malaysia has made an impressive economic development after the Second World War. The country is the largest exporter in the world of rubber, tin and palm oil. Everywhere you go when travelling in Malaysia you pass enormous palm plantations. It starts when you fly over Kuala Lumpur and see all the green palm leaves that are stretched out on linear patterns for miles. When travelling by bus through West- and East Malaysia you have the same view for hours: palm trees planted in perfectly outlined rows. In some places, mostly in East Malaysia, nature has been devastated to be replaced for palm plantations. This has its effects on the wildlife: the living areas of Orang-oetangs, elephants and tigers for example are reduced. Ironically the plantations do attract some other smaller wildlife.
Today Malaysia is a modern and technological developed country. In the last thirty years it has developed to one of the Asian countries with the highest yearly incomes. At one time, the ‘newly industrializing countries’ was a category which included Malaysia along with the four Asian Tigers, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Chile. “These countries had what the World Bank considers to be fast-growing, middle income or higher economies, possessed a heavy concentration of foreign investment and exported large quantities of manufactured goods, including high-tech products” (Ball et al., 2006, pp. 102-103). The government had decided that the individual freedom and freedom of press should be retained, to prevent ethnic disorder. The reasoning behind this was that stability was necessary to let the economy flourish (Ars, 2001).
Since 1967 there is more cooperation in the region. Malaysia is a member of the ASEAN. After the 1997 Southeast Asia financial crisis, the ASEAN is one of the most dynamic and fastest-developing economic regions in the world. ASEAN’s purpose is to promote economic growth and peace in the region (Ball et al., 2006).
The former prime minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad had big plans to develop Malaysia. In his plan from 1991, the ‘Wawasan 2020’ (the Vision for 2020) he pleas for an economy that will be eight times stronger than the economy of the nineties. The purpose of the plan is to present thoughts on the future course of Malaysia and how the Malaysians should attain the objective of developing Malaysia into an industrialised country. But not only in an economic sense: developed along all the dimensions: economically, politically, socially, spiritually, psychologically and culturally.
A lot of my colleagues and other people I talked to think the plan is way too optimistic and will not succeed in its ambitious targets. Although they agree on that, they also think the plan is a good thing, and that Malaysia is becoming a better country in many ways because of it.
Today Malaysia is a modern and technological developed country. In the last thirty years it has developed to one of the Asian countries with the highest yearly incomes. At one time, the ‘newly industrializing countries’ was a category which included Malaysia along with the four Asian Tigers, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Chile. “These countries had what the World Bank considers to be fast-growing, middle income or higher economies, possessed a heavy concentration of foreign investment and exported large quantities of manufactured goods, including high-tech products” (Ball et al., 2006, pp. 102-103). The government had decided that the individual freedom and freedom of press should be retained, to prevent ethnic disorder. The reasoning behind this was that stability was necessary to let the economy flourish (Ars, 2001).
Since 1967 there is more cooperation in the region. Malaysia is a member of the ASEAN. After the 1997 Southeast Asia financial crisis, the ASEAN is one of the most dynamic and fastest-developing economic regions in the world. ASEAN’s purpose is to promote economic growth and peace in the region (Ball et al., 2006).
The former prime minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad had big plans to develop Malaysia. In his plan from 1991, the ‘Wawasan 2020’ (the Vision for 2020) he pleas for an economy that will be eight times stronger than the economy of the nineties. The purpose of the plan is to present thoughts on the future course of Malaysia and how the Malaysians should attain the objective of developing Malaysia into an industrialised country. But not only in an economic sense: developed along all the dimensions: economically, politically, socially, spiritually, psychologically and culturally.
A lot of my colleagues and other people I talked to think the plan is way too optimistic and will not succeed in its ambitious targets. Although they agree on that, they also think the plan is a good thing, and that Malaysia is becoming a better country in many ways because of it.
Politics in Malaysia
“Malaysia is made up of 13 states and three federal territories: Kuala Lumpur, Pulau Labuan and Putrajaya. Each state has an assembly and government headed by a chief minister. Nine of the 13 states have hereditary rulers (sultans), while the remaining four have appointed governors as do the federal territories. In a pre-established order, every five years one of the sultans takes his turn in the ceremonial position of ‘Yang di-Pertuan Agong’: the position of king.” (Richmond et al., 2007, pp. 41) The king is also the head of state and leader of the Islamic faith. Currently, the sultan of Terengganu is the king of Malaysia.
Malaysia’s current prime minister is Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who heads up the Barisan Nasional, a coalition of the UMNO: the United Malays National Organisation and 13 other parties. The Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Kaedilan Rakyat and Parti Islam SeMalaysia are the main opposition parties. “There is a two house parliament, comprising a 70 member state (26 members elected by the 13 state assemblies, 44 appointed by the king on the prime minister’s recommendation) and a 219 member House of representatives elected from single member districts. National elections are held every five years” (Richmond et al., 2007, pp. 41).
I have not experienced so much of politics and interest in the king. I have been to Bangkok before I went to Malaysia, and when you arrive at the airport there are images of the king literally everywhere. There is a special day in the week when everyone where’s yellow clothing because that’s the ‘king’s colour’ and everyday at six pm the national anthem is played on the radio. In Malaysia I haven’t seen so much nationalism, except for ‘Merdeka’ (independence day). I will write about Merdeka later on.
I have been to the political heart of Malaysia: Putrajaya. Putrajaya is the new administrative centre of the federal government of Malaysia taking the capital city away from KL and leaving Kuala Lumpur as the country's financial and commercial capital (Putrajaya is situated near KL, about a 45 minute drive). Moving the national administrative machinery from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya is in line with the Government's policy to provide a more balanced development away from Kuala Lumpur. There are some amazing governmental buildings in Putrajaya (among them are the prime Ministers department, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of foreign affairs, the supreme court and an amazing mosque) which are open for the public as well. Controls before entering are strict though and you have to be decently dressed. These immense buildings are a good example of the way Malaysians wish to show themselves: as a nation that is developing rapidly. Picture 3 shows two of the imposing buildings in Putrajaya, the Putrajaya Mosque and the Prime Minister’s office.
Malaysia’s current prime minister is Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who heads up the Barisan Nasional, a coalition of the UMNO: the United Malays National Organisation and 13 other parties. The Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Kaedilan Rakyat and Parti Islam SeMalaysia are the main opposition parties. “There is a two house parliament, comprising a 70 member state (26 members elected by the 13 state assemblies, 44 appointed by the king on the prime minister’s recommendation) and a 219 member House of representatives elected from single member districts. National elections are held every five years” (Richmond et al., 2007, pp. 41).
I have not experienced so much of politics and interest in the king. I have been to Bangkok before I went to Malaysia, and when you arrive at the airport there are images of the king literally everywhere. There is a special day in the week when everyone where’s yellow clothing because that’s the ‘king’s colour’ and everyday at six pm the national anthem is played on the radio. In Malaysia I haven’t seen so much nationalism, except for ‘Merdeka’ (independence day). I will write about Merdeka later on.
I have been to the political heart of Malaysia: Putrajaya. Putrajaya is the new administrative centre of the federal government of Malaysia taking the capital city away from KL and leaving Kuala Lumpur as the country's financial and commercial capital (Putrajaya is situated near KL, about a 45 minute drive). Moving the national administrative machinery from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya is in line with the Government's policy to provide a more balanced development away from Kuala Lumpur. There are some amazing governmental buildings in Putrajaya (among them are the prime Ministers department, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of foreign affairs, the supreme court and an amazing mosque) which are open for the public as well. Controls before entering are strict though and you have to be decently dressed. These immense buildings are a good example of the way Malaysians wish to show themselves: as a nation that is developing rapidly. Picture 3 shows two of the imposing buildings in Putrajaya, the Putrajaya Mosque and the Prime Minister’s office.
History of Malaysia
Around the first century BC the Malay people, who mostly lived in isolated villages, got in contact with the nearby large civilizations of India and China. Traders from these areas had great influence on the culture, language and social habits. Small farm and fishing villages were transformed and organized into political states like in India. Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced. The worldwide development of navy and navigation and the growing role of naval trade routes gave the Malays an important role in the trade between East and West (Ars, 2001).
In the thirteenth century Arabic and Indian traders spread the word of the Islam, which rapidly was taken over by the Malay people and rulers. For the population the Islam meant unity and identity, for traders and leaders converting to the religion also had political and economic motives. The Islam penetrated the entire Malaysian culture and society, but not as extreme as in other countries like Afghanistan and Iran.
In 1511 the Portuguese set foot on the island of Malacca as the first Europeans. The Portuguese did not only come for the spices and luxurious goods, they also tried to spread Christianity and exterminate the Islam. They failed in doing this. The Portuguese were beaten by the Dutch East India Company in 1641, which colonized Malacca until the Brits came (Ars, 2001).
The British took over Malacca from the Dutch in 1824 in exchange of the city Bencoolen in Sumatra. The British started the process of political integration of the Malay states in what was later called British Malaya. Local Malay rulers were allowed to keep their position, in exchange for the British to indirectly use their power to control the island. The colonization by the British has had a great impact on the Malaysian society and economy, a turning point in the history of the country. Malaysia and Singapore were embedded in the British Empire and a government, public services and infrastructure were set up. The British were involved in a lot of trade with the Chinese and stimulated their immigration for more trade and to let them work in the tin mines. The British thought the Malay people were lazy workers, so labourers from India were imported to work at the rubber plants and as civil servants. This was the start of the delay of the Malay people in contrast to the Indian but especially the Chinese, which was the base for the racial conflicts years later (Ars, 2001).
In 1942 the Japanese conquered Malaysia. The cruel treatment of the population by the Japanese ensured that the British were welcomed again after the war was over in 1945. But the occupation did change something: the people had started to think about being independent. The struggle for independence had started and in August 1957 Malaya became independent from the British. In 1963 the British colonies of Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah joined from what of then would be called Malaysia. Singapore joined Malaysia, although there were a lot of problems with the majority of the population being Chinese. Because of that, tensions grew stronger and two years after the connection Singapore was kicked out of the federation. Tensions between Malay people and people from Singapore still exist (Ars, 2001).
The Malaysian government had the difficult task of uniting the different races and cultures under one flag. The Chinese dominated the economy and the Malays ran the politics. The Malays got more control in 1967 when the Islam was claimed to be the national religion and Bahasa Malaya the national language. This led to Chinese opposition and eventually in 1969 to race riots. Hundreds of people were killed, houses were burnt and stores were plundered. A state of emergency was called out for the next two years. After the riots the government tried to restore the delay of the Malays by introducing the ‘bumiputra’ (princes of the country) politics. The traditional population would get a place in the modern economy: every company was obliged to hire Malay people, Malays were favoured in receiving higher education and could become more active in the government. The bumiputra politics eventually did not have much of an effect. Until today the government has not succeeded to give the Malays an equal position and economy and politics still are divided by racial lines (Ars, 2001).
In the thirteenth century Arabic and Indian traders spread the word of the Islam, which rapidly was taken over by the Malay people and rulers. For the population the Islam meant unity and identity, for traders and leaders converting to the religion also had political and economic motives. The Islam penetrated the entire Malaysian culture and society, but not as extreme as in other countries like Afghanistan and Iran.
In 1511 the Portuguese set foot on the island of Malacca as the first Europeans. The Portuguese did not only come for the spices and luxurious goods, they also tried to spread Christianity and exterminate the Islam. They failed in doing this. The Portuguese were beaten by the Dutch East India Company in 1641, which colonized Malacca until the Brits came (Ars, 2001).
The British took over Malacca from the Dutch in 1824 in exchange of the city Bencoolen in Sumatra. The British started the process of political integration of the Malay states in what was later called British Malaya. Local Malay rulers were allowed to keep their position, in exchange for the British to indirectly use their power to control the island. The colonization by the British has had a great impact on the Malaysian society and economy, a turning point in the history of the country. Malaysia and Singapore were embedded in the British Empire and a government, public services and infrastructure were set up. The British were involved in a lot of trade with the Chinese and stimulated their immigration for more trade and to let them work in the tin mines. The British thought the Malay people were lazy workers, so labourers from India were imported to work at the rubber plants and as civil servants. This was the start of the delay of the Malay people in contrast to the Indian but especially the Chinese, which was the base for the racial conflicts years later (Ars, 2001).
In 1942 the Japanese conquered Malaysia. The cruel treatment of the population by the Japanese ensured that the British were welcomed again after the war was over in 1945. But the occupation did change something: the people had started to think about being independent. The struggle for independence had started and in August 1957 Malaya became independent from the British. In 1963 the British colonies of Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah joined from what of then would be called Malaysia. Singapore joined Malaysia, although there were a lot of problems with the majority of the population being Chinese. Because of that, tensions grew stronger and two years after the connection Singapore was kicked out of the federation. Tensions between Malay people and people from Singapore still exist (Ars, 2001).
The Malaysian government had the difficult task of uniting the different races and cultures under one flag. The Chinese dominated the economy and the Malays ran the politics. The Malays got more control in 1967 when the Islam was claimed to be the national religion and Bahasa Malaya the national language. This led to Chinese opposition and eventually in 1969 to race riots. Hundreds of people were killed, houses were burnt and stores were plundered. A state of emergency was called out for the next two years. After the riots the government tried to restore the delay of the Malays by introducing the ‘bumiputra’ (princes of the country) politics. The traditional population would get a place in the modern economy: every company was obliged to hire Malay people, Malays were favoured in receiving higher education and could become more active in the government. The bumiputra politics eventually did not have much of an effect. Until today the government has not succeeded to give the Malays an equal position and economy and politics still are divided by racial lines (Ars, 2001).
Geography of Malaysia
Malaysia is situated in the Southeast of Asia. The country consists out of the federation of Malaya (more commonly known as West Malaysia) which is situated on the island of Malacca and East Malaysia which consists out of Sabah en Sarawak on the North of Borneo. The country is approximately 329.758 square kilometres big and it has an estimated 24.821.286 inhabitants (Winkler Prins, 2007). This means 76 people live on one square kilometre.
The capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur, which literally means ‘muddy confluence’. Approximately 1.297.526 people live in the city, from which more than 50 percent is Chinese. Kuala Lumpur is the economic and the cultural centre of Malaysia. The industry, which is mostly concentrated in the suburbs consists among others out of wood industry and agrarian products (like tobacco), the production of automobiles and railroad materials, and chemical, electronic, metal and food industry. There is a large service sector (national and international banks and insurance companies). This is where Weber Shandwick fits in great as well. We were in the same office block as the ‘Deutsche Bank’ and the Ambank (one of the biggest Malaysian banks) was in the building next to us. Kuala Lumpur is the junction between the rest of the country and Thailand and Singapore (Winkler Prins, 2007).
The capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur, which literally means ‘muddy confluence’. Approximately 1.297.526 people live in the city, from which more than 50 percent is Chinese. Kuala Lumpur is the economic and the cultural centre of Malaysia. The industry, which is mostly concentrated in the suburbs consists among others out of wood industry and agrarian products (like tobacco), the production of automobiles and railroad materials, and chemical, electronic, metal and food industry. There is a large service sector (national and international banks and insurance companies). This is where Weber Shandwick fits in great as well. We were in the same office block as the ‘Deutsche Bank’ and the Ambank (one of the biggest Malaysian banks) was in the building next to us. Kuala Lumpur is the junction between the rest of the country and Thailand and Singapore (Winkler Prins, 2007).
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