“You stay in Singapore too long, you die,” our Singaporean born Malay taxi driver said as we drove from the Penang airport to our hotel in Georgetown – the island’s major city.
His father is Singaporean, his mother Malaysian and at the age of three, his family moved back to Penang. He retains only his Malaysian citizenship. Our 43 year-old driver who looked to be about 30 explained to us that Malaysia’s multicultural society is more free than Singapore and with Malaysia’s – and particularly Penang’s – industrial growth over the past 15 years, it has a stable economy and a nice standard of living while remaining a considerably more affordable place to live than Singapore.
Singapore vs. Malaysia is the great comparison everyone seems to make. After all, they were intended to be one. They were both part of British Malaya and then the Federation of Malaysian States, until 1965 when Malaysia expelled Singapore from the federation. Malaysia’s dominant party started the Bumiputra (Sons of the Soil) First movement with their slogan “Malaysian Malaysia!” This led to rights and privileges for Malays that Malaysia’s many Chinese and Indians were not afforded.
Differences resulted in race riots which led to expulsion.
Although today they cooperate on most major issues and have generally good relations, Singapore and Malaysia’s parting left bad blood that has never fully dissipated.
Naturally, being a former resident, friend and admirer of Singapore, I have been wary of Malaysia. I have heard from Singaporeans about its good and bad aspects. In the course of two years in Bali and Singapore and one living in Thailand, I never entered Malaysia. I never felt a need and when living in Singapore, all I wanted when I had the chance was to return to my beloved Bali.
What could that questionable Malaysia possibly offer me that would make it worthier of my time than Bali?
Maturity made me realize that if Lee Kwan Yew can reconcile himself with Malaysia, so should I. It was time to see it. Besides, the racially charged, socially inequitable Malaysia of yesteryear has begun to change.
So far, Penang has been a wonderful surprise. It is far more developed than I imagined with solid infrastructure and shockingly new and fancy retail. I’m writing from a Starbucks in a mall (air conditioning break).
Penang seems to have money – or at least a decent standard of living. There are tall government-built condo blocks outside town that greatly resemble Singapore’s HDB condo blocks and some of the tall apartment buildings in Hong Kong. Of course, the island itself is gorgeous with beautiful white sand beaches and shimmering blue-green water.
The city is what I imagine Singapore would be had it remained part of Malaysia. Chinese shophouses line the streets of the center of town while large, beautiful freestanding houses fill the suburbs and recently built new condos and hotels line the beaches of the island’s north shore.
Unlike Singapore, there are rough edges – places showing age and tarnish. Peeling paint, unpainted trims, overgrown yards, people who leave their junk or their old beater car in the front yard. Not everywhere – The people of Penang keep a nice city – but it’s allowed. People can be lax. Things decay. People are allowed their human faults.
Penang is organic.
It’s also relaxed. An island state of Malaysia with a predominantly Chinese population and a history as a British colonial port, Penang has economic drive and success accompanied with diverse cultural tradition and practice. Penang has progressed without engineering or structured change. It has modernization integrated with tradition and beauty with imperfections.
To my surprise, coming to Penang from Singapore made us all exhale.
However there is one giant commonality that makes clear that Malaysia and Singapore are estranged siblings. The multicultural mix of both and the way of life associated with it are perhaps unique in all the world.
Whereas America became a country founded by a group that created a culture and structure and then absorbed immigrants from all over, converting them into Americans, Malaysia and Singapore’s Chinese, Malay and Indian people all sort of arrived in the same spot.
Over centuries, overseas Chinese made their way to Malayan shores – and Penang in particular. They set up fishing and trading operations, then shops and businesses. The Malay sultans and rajahs allowed it. They saw no harm. The Chinese were non-threatening and hard working. Some Indian traders came with the spice trade.
Through their clever mix of wooing and threatening Malay rulers the British colonized the Malayan Peninsula. They brought in Tamil Indians as workers, soldiers and government administrators and allowed Chinese to settle in even larger numbers. The poor and starving of Southern China dispersed around Asia and the entire Pacific. Malaya was a good place to go.
When the sun finally set on the British Empire, Malaya was tasked with defining itself for the first time ever as a unified single country. The Malaysia – and then Singapore – that resulted had to form a nation from a semi-segregated mass of people and it had nothing to guide it.
Malaysia and Singapore are two different answers to the same question – or two manifestations of the same endeavor.
Here in Penang, it looks nice. People seem happy and one of Malaysia’s minorities, the Chinese – in Penang the majority – are doing well.
It all seems to have charm and a comfortable, inviting feel.
Today was just the beach, spice garden and exploring the center of town. There’s so much more to see and experience – here and in the parts of Malaysia to come.
Guest Photographer – Ryan Conlan
Sent from my iPad
