It was March 1993 when I first went to Malaysia for work. I had to for the need to uplift my family from poverty. The Philippine economy was not doing well and I felt hopeless to depend my family's future in it. I was fortunate to work in Malaysia which enabled me to uplift my family from extreme poverty. I have not enrich my family but definitely I made some stride to uproot it from the impoverished rural life, built a house somewhere near Metro Manila. I thought I was on the road to progress when a stroke hit me bringing me back to where I came from. I have to as I am no longer employed and only my loving family in the rural village can help me.
I went to Malaysia without any knowledge of the new country because I went there for the economic need. Only when I was there I learned it's a Muslim country. That time, my idea of Muslims was the violent rebels in Mindanao, in southern Philippines. In other words, I have a scary image of Muslim, which I couldn't blame myself becaus that was my only exposure. In the first few months, I stayed indoors and dared not talk with any Muslim neighbors. Later, I found out Muslims there were the nicest people on earth, so different probably than the Muslims in the Philippines. That time Malaysia was not as developed as it is today, it was the beginning perhaps of its progress and development.
Kuala Lumpur(KL), the capital city, was not as developed as Manila then although it was more orderly and less crowded. I liked the space the city exudes and breath of fresh air both literally and figuratively. First thing I noticed was that it seems everybody is driving a car. In the Philippines, owning a car then was only for the rich.
The world-famous Twin Towers
I saw the development of the Petronas Twin Tower from its early construction. I remember walking towards the Philippine embassy passing through the construction site as the tower building was in progress. That time I didn't know it would be a famous landmark in the whole world.
One popular thing I won't forget in Malaysia is the pasar malam or night market. Almost every village around KL has a night a week where hawkers would showcase their stall of goods. It was interesting going around choosing food, dry goods and others, almost complete market at affordable prices. It was convenient for the working people because the market comes to their village at least once a week.
I am also impressed with the unity among the races, coming from the Philippines with the violent fight between the government and the Muslim rebels, Christians versus non-Christians. In Malaysia, I saw how Muslims, Buddhists, Hindis, and Christians co-exist without violence, without bloodshed. As such they have a pot of many cultures, celebrating the festivals of the races. They share food and culture and live happily. I saw how people of different religions celebrate each other's festivals.
I adore the balanced development from the city to the rural areas. Being a parliamentary form of government, their states have independent legislature and thus they compete with other states in attracting foreign investors. No doubt the national capital attracts many foreign companies but there are other smaller companies in the rural states. In plain economics, that is distributing the wealth to the countryside. Unlike in the Philippines where all development are in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces but the moment you go to the rural areas, especially Visayas and Mindanao, it's rampant poverty and unemployment creating the economic imbalance in the country.
These two make Malaysia for me a great country, much much better than the Philippines, a good balance between progress and rural culture.
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