Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 5 January 2015 issue)

Dear Kam,
Malaysia is under water. I’ve never seen floods like this before. Are we prepared?
Deeply Concerned

Over 100,000 Malaysians have been made homeless by the worst floods in decades, perhaps since 1971. It is the worst natural disaster Malaysia has seen since, well, I can’t remember. I wonder if US President Barack Obama would have been playing golf if the homes of 100,000 Americans were under water. I’m guessing that the devastating criticism hurled at President George W Bush after his awful response to Hurricane Katrina would have compelled Obama to rush to the emergency. I’m guessing that nobody on his press team would have allowed him to suffer a public relations disaster of being seen playing golf if 100,000 Americans had just been made homeless.

Hurricane Katrina was the death knell for the hapless presidency of Bush because his response to that disaster was, well, utterly rubbish. Long after New Orleans had been submerged under water, Bush finally appeared. He had a photograph taken of him looking out of an airplane window at the devastation and then he praised the government relief operation (“Heck of a job, Brownie”) even though everyone could see that the response had been awful.

After his re-election and for the last years of his reign, Bush seemed disinterested in his job. Personally, I think he was clinically depressed. I think he knew he was out of his depth and that he didn’t even want to be president. It’s just that his father had been president, so he felt he had to become one to get some respect. He looked bewildered and spent more time away from the White House than any other president. He didn’t spend his time flying around the world on private jets, holidaying and shopping with his wife and/or conducting private business deals. Bush spent his time on his Texas ranch pretending to be a cowboy. Perhaps the dreadful Bush response to Hurricane Katrina was on our PM’s mind because shortly after his round of golf, he flew back to Malaysia to be photographed looking out of an airplane window at the devastation.

Should a PM be at every disaster? After all, it’s not his fault the rains were heavy. Should a PM cut short his holiday every time it rains? I mean, it rains every year and it might have been literally weeks since his last holiday. There is probably no specific protocol, but it’s a matter of scale. It does rain every year, and if a couple of thousand are made homeless, then it is regrettable but understandable. But if the number is over, say, 50,000 and rapidly approaching 100,000, then people should be asking if the disaster is a priority for federal government and they should be asking, where is the PM? Safeguarding people’s safety is the ultimate purpose of government.

It does rain every year, but the scale of this year’s flooding has been stunning and calamitous. The clean-up operation is going to be huge when the waters do eventually ebb away, and many people will discover that their homes are irretrievably ruined. Nobody is to blame because it is a natural disaster, one that may return very often with global warming.

Dear Kam,
Malaysia is under water, so naturally I’m thinking of going on holiday. Where should I go?
Travel Light

I’m overseas at the moment. I’m on holiday while Malaysia is being flooded. I’m in England and London, which are two very different countries. In London, you don’t see any English people, and in England, you don’t see any foreigners.

London’s demographic seems to change each time I visit. Last time I was here, the place was packed with Russians, but with the collapse of the rouble, they seem to have all gone and now, it is packed with Italians. I spoke to one Italian student and she told me how incredibly hard it is to get even a part-time waitressing job in Rome. She said you have to know somebody who knows somebody and yet, in London, it is incredibly easy. Just fill in the form and you’re hired. Now, every waiter/bartender in London appears to be Italian, but just over 100 years ago, they were all German, so it’s part of a long tradition.

London keeps luring in people from around the world. I can understand London’s attraction for people from the old British Empire. From the Caribbean to Africa and Asia, there are George Towns and Downing Streets, so London can feel familiar for the newly arrived. But Russians and Italians? London is so ugly compared with Paris or Rome, but perhaps London, and maybe New York, are the only cities in the world where people can feel like locals within a matter of days. London is an international city. It is not parochially English, and any Englishness on display merely makes for a colourful backdrop. London and England run on parallel but very separate tracks, never touching, if that’s what you want and if you can afford it.

Malaysians have a long relationship with London since, well, before Merdeka. How many Malaysian students have passed through London, how many stayed on, and how many wealthy Malaysians own property in London, let alone football clubs? Malaysians can feel strangely “at home” in London, even if they’ve never visited before, because there’s a cultural memory handed down over generations of places to stay and eat. And most importantly, there’s the unexpected excitement of anonymity. Suddenly, nobody can judge you. You can do, wear and eat whatever you want. Petty, zealous and parochial small-mindedness has been left behind and you can be who you want to be. If you can afford it.

I just don’t think that Indonesians, for example, have an equivalent connection with a foreign capital as Malaysians do with London. Even for Malaysians who have never visited London, it exists as a kind of extension of Malaysia because just about everybody knows somebody living in London. But the Malaysian familiarity with London can be a curse. We can find ourselves judging Kuala Lumpur in comparison with London. Why doesn’t KL have the arts, culture and buzz of London? But KL simply does not have the money, population and gigantic tourism traffic of London. The government could and should spend money on Malaysian arts and culture. Its contribution is really tiny at the moment. That would help inject some buzz into KL, but at the end of the day, there is only one London and one New York.

London is a bustling city. It is probably many different bustling cities, depending on which one you want and can afford. It’s also a state of mind, encapsulating freedom, excitement and possibilities. Maybe I’m only speaking for myself, but I think it’s a state of mind from which many Malaysians are in exile.

Reprinted with the kind permission of