Reflections

I have traveled to Penang several times over the past couple of months. The first time we went by road. The highway north from Kuala Lumpur travels via Perak to Seberang Perai, on the east coast of Malaysia. Penang Island lies across a 10 km stretch of sea that separates it from the mainland. We drove over the bridge, which is one of the longest over sea and into Georgetown, the heart of Pualu Penang( or the island of Penang) We could have taken a ferry as well and in fact that was what we would have had to do before this bridge was built in the nineties. The highways in Malaysia are engineering marvels, wide, smooth roads well lighted and easy to drive on. However they have been gouged out of virgin forest and when you are on them, the people and their homes do not exist. For Indians used to seeing a continuous variety of life along the highways, these tarmac ribbons seem a little soul less. However near Ipoh it is possible to see the hillsides gouged out for limestone, reminiscent o

The Chinese form about 25 % of the population of Malaysia. They came to fill the demand for labour that developed in the tin mines, docks and mills that developed when the British took over the Malay Peninsula in the early part of the nineteenth century. They were mainly from the Southern part of China and soon took over most of the commerce and trading in Malaysia. They were also in majority in the principal tin mining states of Selangor and Perak. Together with their economic well being came political power as most of the Sultans were soon in debt to the rich Chinese merchants because of their profligate ways. Most of the Chinese worked very hard to build up their fortunes and a large majority of the immigrants stayed on in Malaysia and imported brides from the mother country. This was the origin of the thriving Chinese community which we see today, to my mind the most visible part of the mosaic that makes up modern Malaysia. There were many vicissitudes in between, the communist r

There is an interesting study from the Indicus Analyticus, a think tank founded by Bibek Debroy. After being kicked out of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for forgetting to mix politics with economics (he authored a study which placed Modi’s Gujarat atop of India’s states in facilitating industry), he has set up this think tank. While I am skeptical of the economists who sing hosannas about the growth rate while forgetting about the human misery it often unfolds, I admire his writings. They are at least always thought provoking. This study available in the net at http://www.indicus.net/Media/index.php/2009/1324-transforming-west-bengal-changing-the-agenda-for-an-agenda-for-change , calls for an overthrow of the comrades. If not in so many words, he points out that West Bengal is ripe for change and in his own words “If it has not succeeded in the past, why should it succeed in the future?” There is statistical data to show that West Bengal is at best in the middle rank of the States of t

It amazes me to see the difference in driving manners in Malaysia and India. We are so used to incessant honking, cars weaving from lane to lane, trying our best to prevent pedestrians from crossing over and all manner of mayhem on the roads that we sometimes forget that normal drivers do not drive that way. I do not remember about Bangladesh, but even in Nepal and Sri Lanka among the South Asian countries are drivers not such louts as in India. And here in Malaysia they follow all the decencies that are normal among drivers worldwide. Drivers slow down at zebra crossings to allow pedestrians to cross, they do not start honking dementedly if the driver in front of them slows down for some reason or does not zoom off the blocks as soon as the light turns green. I have not seen n abusive driver yet and nor have I seen drivers yelling insults in the road at others in the time I have been here.. It is sometimes difficult to believe that Indians are inheritors of a 5000 year old civilizatio