Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 14 July 2014 issue)

Dear Kam,
I must have been mistaken because I thought the Malaysia diplomat accused of sexual assault in New Zealand was going to be sent back there?
Disillusioned

In last week’s Talking Edge, I was in a good mood because Malaysia was going to do the only honourable thing and send back to New Zealand the Malaysian soldier accused of attempted sexual assault. Well, things change. Or perhaps they revert back to normal? At the time of writing (and things could change again), the diplomat/soldier has not been returned to New Zealand to face trial and instead is being kept under psychiatric observation. The New Zealand PM has said he is “confident” that the diplomat will be returned and he assured reporters that the Malaysian authorities were not “playing games”. Well, New Zealand and Malaysia don’t play the same games, and although they might have The Lord of the Rings, we have wayang kulit.

Will the accused be sent back to New Zealand? Or will we grasp the opportunity of this diplomatic incident to further sully our name? I am not feeling confident and I’m no longer in a good mood.

Dear Kam,
Soup kitchens are being shut down in KL. My question is simple: What?!
Soup for the Soul

This week, for some strange reason, I thought of something Abraham Lincoln once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

It’s Ramadan and yet the Federal Territories Minister made a stunningly ill-timed, abrasive and completely unnecessary foray into the issue of soup kitchens for KL’s poor. He demanded that soup kitchens operated by volunteers be shut down or face a fine. He said, “The image of my city is very bad. If I don’t do this sort of thing, society won’t be disciplined.” Er, okay. This haughty high-handedness met with a barrage of complaints at which point we discovered that the idea had been misrepresented and it was in fact part of a well-thought-through plan that involved, well, you know, stuff. But clearly, something needs to be done about these soup kitchens because the Women, Family and Community Development Minister told us, “sometimes tourists are also in the line because they think Malaysians are so generous in feeding everyone”. Er, okay.

About 18 months ago, I worked on a radio documentary about KL’s poor, as well as the soup kitchens and the volunteer medical workers who strive to help the less fortunate. I wasn’t able to join the team when they went to downtown KL but over several weekends, they met with the volunteers of the Kechara soup kitchen (which is partly funded by the government) and many of the people they serve, or whom they call “clients”. From the lofty heights of the buffet at a five-star hotel, it could seem that KL’s homeless are nothing but lazy scroungers who lack discipline. After all, anybody can make it if they try, can’t they? I worked hard for this second trip to the chocolate fountain, so should they.

In making the radio documentary, the team met many people who had been trying all their lives. First of all, not all are technically homeless, not all sleep on the streets. The team met a lot of old people and one in particular, who had worked all her life but was now paying rent for a tiny room and trying to stretch what little money she had as best she could. For her, the guarantee of the soup kitchen meal meant everything as she managed her money. A lot of the people, perhaps the majority, were not from KL. Both young and old had come to KL in search of a decent future. They came without a support system and when despite all their efforts things hadn’t worked out as they had hoped, they were too ashamed of their failure to go back, assuming they had anywhere to go back to. There are people with mental issues, and people who shouldn’t be on the streets but who don’t have the ability to hold down a decent job. Alcohol and substance abuse is an issue but does that mean they should be thrown on the scrap heap?

Queuing up alongside the freeloading tourists for these simple soup kitchen meals are so many different types of people with a complex array of problems that have forced them into this situation. They represent every way that it’s possible to fall between the cracks of the Malaysian economy. They’re not bad people. We shouldn’t speak of them as if they’re children who haven’t met expectations because they lacked the “discipline” to exploit all the privileges they were born into. For many of us, the expectation is that the only way is up. We might be born middle-class, get an education, get a decent job, get promoted and buy the lifestyle we want. What happens when we slide backwards economically? I know I’ve struggled and continue to struggle making my way, but I’ve been really lucky to have support. Could I cope if I didn’t have that support? What would happen if I went past the tipping point and the only way is down?

A lot of people have gone on to become great successes despite coming from a background of grinding poverty. I truly admire them because I don’t how they did it. A lot of people have tried and failed. Since the initial astonishingly crass statement, there has been plenty of back-peddling, sorry, I mean clarification, of a long-term policy. It would be good if the government does take a deeper interest in the plight of those less fortunate and supply the services they need. It wouldn’t cost much (although it would cost more than simply telling them to get away from Lot 10). Hopefully, if the government does get involved, then it will treat its new “clients” with the dignity they deserve. Nobody chooses to live that life, even if tourists choose to eat their food.

Dear Kam,
Germany beat Brazil 7-1. Isn’t Germany simply the best?
Kicking Champion

You may have missed it but our PM has said a few things recently. He told one audience that they should emulate ISIL, the small band of, er, people who have beaten a much larger foe in Iraq. You can win even if you’re small and weak is hopefully the moral. And now he has told some young people that they should emulate the excellent German football team that thrashed the awful Brazil team 7-1 in the World Cup semi-final. You will win if you’re big and strong now seems to be the moral. Perhaps, this isn’t simply careening around in search of examples of success. But at least he didn’t mention Hitler because that would be crazy.

Reprinted with the kind permission of