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posted by BK at 7:38 pm
malaysia!!!
as someone who left the country awhile back and has swapped citizenship, it felt strange for me to be following the elections with such interest, yet also know that i had very little say in the whole issue...
i wonder if it was the same for you? :)
I suppose the answer is both yes and no. :)
No, since I am, after all, still a Malaysian citizen, and theoretically can vote (once I get myself registered when I get back!), and still see my long-term future back in Malaysia. So, of course the socio-political situation in Malaysia hits closer to home for me.
Yes, since right now I'm in the UK for one thing! For another, as an East Malaysian, there are things which West Malaysians take for granted that are not that familiar to me. The most obvious eg. is that of the mamak store, which many will claim as something which represents the essence of Malaysia, yet does not exist in Sarawak or Sabah!
So it is with the political culture. Politics in Sabah and Sarawak are distinct from the Peninsula. Malay issues, for eg., are something I know less of first-hand, since Malays are a minority in Sarawak. Media coverage has always been heavily tilted towards West Malaysia, which is fair enough since the capital is there, the industrial hub (Penang) is there etc. etc. but it just means East Malaysia is under-represented in the national discourse. I was reading a piece in the lead-up to the election by a fairly well-known independent political analyst, and he made the erroneous observation that Penang was the only BN-controlled state that did not have an UMNO/Malay CM. I immediately said out loud, "No, that's not true, Sarawak doesn't have one!" But it just goes to show that we're kind of forgotten in these debates.
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