Archive for the 'Southeast Asia' Category

On Walkabout At: The Batu Caves In Malaysia

Published on January 20, 2010 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Here is yet another cave I have went to for everyone to check out, this time in Malaysia:

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This location is a Hindu holy site known as the Batu Caves located 7 miles north of the Malaysian capitol city of Kuala Lumpur.  Family friends of my wife and I who are ethnic Malays brought drove us over to the see the caves while visiting Kuala Lumpur.  The caves are one of the biggest tourist attractions in Malaysia.

Someone of you may be thinking that it is odd to have a Hindu holy site is Muslim nation like Malaysia?  What a lot of people don’t realize about Malaysia is that it is in fact a multi-ethnic country where about 55% of the people are ethnic Malay Muslims while about 30% are ethnic Chinese, 10% or ethnic Indians, and %5 are other ethnic groups.  It is this 10% Indian minority that makes such Hindu holy sites possible in Malaysia.  Some of you may be wondering, how did these ethnic groups all get to Malaysia?  Well that is because Malaysia was a British colony until the country gained independence in 1957.  People who lived in the British colonies had the ability to move and relocate into other British colonies.  So that is why many of the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia can draw their families origins back to southern China where Hong Kong is located.  The Indians came here from the native India just across the Bay of Bengal from Malaysia that was likewise once a British colony.

Anyway this cave became a Hindu temple because of the cave entrance looks like a Hindu “vel symbol“.  This same vel symbol can be seen being held by the giant Hindu deity Murugan statue that was constructed outside of the cave:

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Murugan is considered the God of War to Tamil Hindu practitioners in primarily Southern India and Sri Lanka.  Besides the large statue constructed outside the cave, there is also an ornately decorated temple as well:

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All around this temple below the cave was elaborate Hindu imagery.  I have no idea what this imagery means and neither did my ethnic Malay friend who brought my wife and I over to see the caves, but they were impressive to look at:

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The cave system is composed of limestone hollowed out by the abundant rainfall that the region receives.  Just looking at this huge hulk of densely vegetated limestone is impressive much less exploring the cave system within:

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These caves were at first home to Malaysian aboriginals that make up part of that 5% of others that compose the Malaysian population.  Aboriginals are now adays only found living in communities deep in the mountains of Malaysia, and in the 19th century when British explorers began arriving in the area these caves had already been abandoned.  In the 1860’s Chinese colonists began to use the caves to excavate guano from to fertilize their fields down below.  It was probably these early Chinese who gave the cave system its name of Batu Caves after the Batu River that flows in the valley below.

The most popular time to visit the cave is during the Hindu holiday of Thaipusam.  It is during this holiday that as many as 800,000 people visit the caves to see devout Hindus place hooks in their backs and head to drag objects such as jugs or frameworks.  These devout Hindus believe that such pain and sacrifice will bring them good favors from the Gods:

Access to the cave is by a steep staircase that caused me to work up quite a sweat walking up because of the extreme humidity the envelopes Malaysia in the summer months:

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My Malaysian buddy an I decided to walk up to the caves because my wife and his wife weren’t up to such a steep walk in the stifling humidity.  So they instead decided to check out the temples and various little shops selling Indian goods below.

Before walking up the staircase all visitors pass through this gate that like everything else at the Batu Caves is elaborately decorated with Hindu imagery:

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Something that visitors to the caves like myself found of interest was the amount of monkeys running around begging for food from the tourists:

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Since I didn’t have any food to give this monkey he was quite upset and making loud noises and showing me his teeth:

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Anyway I made it up to the 272nd step that provides access to the cave without getting attacked by a monkey:

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Once on top of the staircase, just like below, I had to pass through this elaborately decorated gate:

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Once I passed under the gate there was yet another statue of Murugan greeting me to the cave’s entrance, but this one much smaller than the one below:

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My Malay buddy took this picture of me at the entrance to the cave:

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I may not look like it in the picture, but I was actually soaked in sweat after walking up to the cave’s entrance.

Of course before entering the cave there was more monkeys running around looking for food:

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As I entered the cave I was stunned by how big the ceiling of the cave was, it was just absolutely huge:

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It is easy to understand how this largest chamber of the cave system is called the Cathedral Cave. The best part of walking into the cave was how nice and cool it was inside compared to outside.

At the top of the cave’s chamber there was actually a small hole that brought sunlight into the cave:

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On the sides of the cave’s chamber I could see many monkeys crawling up and down from the chamber’s opening.  The monkeys inside the cave are for the tourists enjoyment, but for believers in Hinduism this cave is home to many holy shrines:

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As well as a holy temple:

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This temple was of course adorned with more Hindu imagery:

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After checking out the various Hindu sites within the cave my buddy and I walked back out towards the entrance of the cave to admire the view of the northern Kuala Lumpur suburbs before beginning our walk back to the bottom of the stairs:

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Of course going down the stairs was much easier than going up, but it didn’t matter in the sweat department because I was once again soaked because of the humidity.  We both met up with our wives to get something eat and my wife just took one look at me soaked in sweat and just said that she was glad she didn’t go up there.  She may have been glad to not have walked up to the cave, but I was because it was quite scenic natural attraction in its own right much less learning about the interesting Hindu history that is the true heart of this cave.

Church Bombings Raise Fear Level for Christians In Malaysia

Published on January 10, 2010 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Have spent time in Malaysia as well as having some family friends who are Malaysian, I found this news very surprising:

Would-be arsonists in mostly Muslim Malaysia struck at a convent school and a fifth church on Sunday while church leaders called for calm in a row over Christians’ use of the word “Allah” to refer to God.

The attacks threaten Prime Minister Najib Razak’s plan to win back non-Muslim support before elections due by 2013 and may scare investors away from Malaysia that has trailed Thailand and Indonesia for foreign investment.

Police in the sleepy city of Taiping, around 300 km (185 miles) from the capital Kuala Lumpur, said a petrol bomb was thrown at the guard house of a Catholic convent school but failed to go off.

They also said they had found several broken bottles including paint thinners outside one of the country’s oldest Anglican churches, All Saints, Taiping, and said one of the building’s walls had been blackened.

The row, over a court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use “Allah” in its Malay-language editions, had prompted Muslims to protest at mosques and sparked arson attacks on four churches that saw one Pentecostalist church gutted.

On Sunday, Malaysians packed churches to listen to sermons of “reaching out in friendship to all, including Muslims” and “keeping the peace in multi-religious Malaysia” but many felt their religious rights were being trampled.

“There are extremists in this country and the government seems unable to do anything,” said Wilson Matayun, a salesman who attended Mass at St Anthony’s Church in Kuala Lumpur. “I am losing faith in our government. I pray it does not get worse.”

Matayun is from Sabah state on Borneo island, where a large number of non-English speaking Christians have used the word “Allah” for decades. Christians account for 9.1 percent of the 28 million population.  [Reuters]

Malaysia has three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese, and Indian.  Almost all the Malays are Muslim, the Chinese are mostly Buddhist, and the Indians mostly Hindu.  However, since the Malay Peninsula has been colonized by the Portugese, the Dutch, and the British Christianity has also found believers in the country.   It makes since that non-English people would use the word Allah even though they are Christian because of the word being adapted in every day use by the Muslim majority.

Malaysia does have Sharia law, but it only applies to Muslims and even with them it is not strictly enforced.  Something else to keep in mind is that the Malaysians have a very different version of Shariah law compared to a country like Saudi Arabia, which is ultra-extreme about it.  However, there are a few religious fundamentalists that cause problems from time to time in the mainly northern part of Malaysia, which just happens to be where these fire bombings are happening.  Think of these guys like the Christian fundamentalists that bomb abortion clinics.  That has largely been stopped here in the US and hopefully the Malaysian authorities can stop these church bombings.

It is kind of ironic that this news is happening now after Malaysia was just voted in the Top 10 of the World’s Most Friendliest Countries.

Baby Selling Crime Ring Busted In Malaysia

Published on December 14, 2009 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Having spent time in Malaysia and being good friends with a Malaysian family I find it surprising to see such a criminal operation like this going on there:

KUALA LUMPUR: They “hired” women and made them sleep with men. Nine months later, they would “harvest” the babies born and sell them to childless couples.

And if this was not heinous enough, they would then tell the new mothers that their babies were not “beautiful enough” and cut down the amount of money originally promised to them.

Behind this “baby factory” is a 50-year-old woman from Banting, known as “Auntie”.

She roped in her husband, cousins and other relatives, making the babies-for-sale syndicate a family business that had been operating for more than five years.

Police managed to bust the syndicate with the arrest of 15 people, nine of whom were members of “Auntie’s” family. Two women who had been “hired” were also arrested.

Police rescued five babies — two girls and three boys aged betwen two weeks and nine months — who were about to be sold off.   [The Star Online]

Just goes to show that depraved criminals can be found anywhere.

Malaysia’s Gay Gym

Published on June 13, 2009 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: .

In Western countries we have gay bars, it looks like in Malaysia they have gay gyms:

GEORGE TOWN: Two men were literally caught with their pants down when police broke into a fitness centre at a shopping complex here.

The duo looked stunned when police stormed one of the rooms in the centre at Burmah Road during the 9pm incident on Thursday.

They were told to put on their clothes and taken to the police station for questioning along with nine other patrons. Police also seized used condoms, lubrication gel and nude photos of burly men.

Several raids have been carried out at the centre, which is known as a homosexual haunt, over the past few months.

George Town OCPD Azam Abdul Hamid, who confirmed the case, said police were concerned that such depravity was continuing despite the raids.

He urged the Penang Municipal Council to revoke the business licence of the operator.  [The Star]

Calling Your Wife Ugly May Soon Be A Crime In Malaysia

Published on May 28, 2009 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: .

Could you imagine how many Australians would be fined if this ever became a law Down Under:

Calling your wife ugly to humiliate her may soon be considered an
offence under proposed amendments to the Domestic Violence Act 1994.

The
amendments will include a clause on emotional violence against women
who are currently only protected against physical abuse.

Women’s
Development Depart- ment director-general Datuk Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd
Nur said the aim of proposing the amendment was to safeguard women both
physically and emotionally.

She said emotional violence was a
form of abuse that would scar women deeply and lower their self-esteem,
dignity and self-confidence.

“It could be a case when a husband
tells his wife she is ugly or humiliates her until she feels
emotionally pressured,” she told reporters at the end of a seminar on
how to curb violence against women at Wisma Wanita here yesterday.

She added that they were in the process of bringing the proposed amendments to Parliament.  [The Star Online]

Thailand’s Ladyboys Compete in Pageant

Published on May 25, 2009 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: .

It is down right scary how perfectly female these ladyboys in Thailand’s transexual pageant look:


All man … contestants gather on stage during competition at the Miss Tiffany’s Universe 2009 contest / AP

Australian Police Praised in Malaysia

Published on May 6, 2009 in Southeast Asia. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Australia’s police is receiving props in the Malaysian media for their approach to dealing with hoons:

IT IS a good move by the Government to get the cops and JPJ to seize all illegal racers’ vehicles and non-roadworthy cars. This will, no doubt, minimise crime.

However, I was quite upset to read that JPJ will seize non-roadworthy vehicles (with illegal mods) for 48 hours for inspection. Why does the JPJ need to carry out such an inspection and then return it to the owner within 10 days? It will actually pose more doubts as to what can happen in that 48 hours.

Some officers will mess around with the car and, there is the possibility of items in the car going missing and the owners can’t even lodge a complaint. Even if the owner does, nothing will be done, for sure.

Why can’t JPJ study methods used in other countries. For example, in Australia, the police will be able to identify illegal mods on the spot and will paste a sticker on the windscreen stating that the car is not roadworthy.

That sticker can’t be removed easily and the owner needs to undo the illegal mods within a timeframe and bring it back for further inspection.

Once it has passed inspection, the sticker will be removed by the officers. It is a system worth considering in Malaysia.  [The Star Online]

I have seen the police in Korea do something similar to this as well.  Instead of handing out parking tickets they put these huge stickers on your windshield that are an absolute pain to try and get off. 

Beyonce Knowles Cancels Malaysia Concert

Published on October 3, 2007 in Southeast Asia and Tabloid Crap. 0 Comments

R&B singer Beyonce Knowles has apparently cancelled her concert in Malaysia because she doesn’t want to "cover up":

SKIMP-ALICIOUS Beyonce has cancelled a concert appearance in Malaysia, apparently because she didn’t like the country’s strict dress code.

Instead, the singer will perform in neighboring Indonesia, where the rules about such things are less strict.

The announcement followed recent speculation that Beyonce wasn’t happy about the Malaysian government’s demand that female performers cover up from the top of their chests to their knees, including their shoulders.

Singer Gwen Stefani was also attacked for her raunchy outfits and forced to tone down her act when she toured in Malaysia earlier this year.  [Herald-Sun]

It is shame really that the Hollywood types that claim to be so open minded has people like Beyonce that are not open minded enough to abide by a host country’s laws.  I said this about the controversy back in August involving Gwen Stefani’s concert, but Malaysia is not a radical Islamic country.  It simply has public performance laws just like the US has performance laws that can cause entertainers to be fined if they don’t follow them.  Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction is plenty of evidence of this.  Europeans thought Americans were a bunch of prudes reacting the way the public did to seeing Janet Jackson’s boobs. 

Malaysia is a country eager to integrate with the west but being snubbed by an American performer that doesn’t want to follow host nation laws is not a good way to improve America’s image in the Muslim world.  What is so hard about "covering up"?  It isn’t like they are asking her to wear a burkha?  Just look at what Gwen Stefani wore during her concert.  What is so bad about that?  That is why I commended Gwen Stefani for doing her concert which by the way was sold out to thousands of excited fans.  Who would have thought that Gwen Stefani would have more class than Beyonce Knowles?

Explaining the Gwen Stefani Controversy

Published on August 23, 2007 in Southeast Asia and Tabloid Crap. 0 Comments

Gwen Stefani has found herself embroiled in a controversy over her decision to cover herself up in Malaysia:

Gwen Stefani was a good girl, just like she promised.

The 37-year-old pop star wowed fans in Muslim-majority Malaysia on Tuesday, performing in costumes that showed almost no skin after Islamic critics claimed that her revealing clothes could corrupt the country’s youth. She burst onto the stage wearing a black leotard under a white short-sleeved shirt and black-and-white striped hot pants suit, with black gloves up to her elbows.

“I am very inspired tonight,” Stefani told some 7,000 cheering fans at an indoor stadium.

She changed costumes for every song, remaining fully covered as she belted out tunes such as “The Sweet Escape,” “Rich Girl,” “Wind it Up” and “Hollaback Girl.” Stefani had promised to dress modestly after the 10,000-member National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students charged that her skimpy outfits and cheeky performances clashed with Islamic values. The opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party also accused her of promoting promiscuity and corrupting the country’s youth. In an interview with Galaxie, a local entertainment magazine, Stefani said she had made many changes for Malaysia, calling it a “major sacrifice.”

“I’ve been in the music industry for 20 years and this is the first time that I’m facing opposition from people who have misunderstood me,” she was quoted as saying.

“I’m not a bad girl,” she said.

I do think Gwen Stefani is being unfairly criticized over this.  Let me provide some context about Malaysia that her critics do not provide.  Malaysia is hardly the Islamic radical society that the critics of Gwen Stefani are trying to make it out to be.  Gwen Stefani did not give into the pressure from any Islamic group, she just followed the country’s performance laws.  The US has performance laws as well that can cause entertainers to be fined, Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction is plenty of evidence of this. 

Additionally the Islamic student group criticizing Stefani wanted the government to cancel her concert which they did not do.  Also this Islamic student group is not a mainstream group in Malaysia.  Neither I or my Malaysian friends have ever heard of this group before.  This group simply protested against her to get their names in the headlines and the media in the US played it up. 

The media in Malaysia meanwhile could care less about this student group and if you do an internet search for Gwen Stefani on the website for Malaysia’s largest newspaper the New Strait Times you will find no articles critical of Gwen Stefani and supporting the small amount of protesters.  In fact the articles such as this one prior to the concert were very positive of Stefani coming to Malaysia:

Gwen Stefani embraced her fans in Singapore and the audience responded, touched by her sincerity and charisma. FARIDUL ANWAR FARINORDIN was there and expects the great vibes to carry through to her concert in Malaysia on Tuesday.

GWEN Stefani has so much love and respect for her audience and it came through in an earnestly sweet and endearing way. At her The Sweet Escape Tour 2007 concert in Singapore last Tuesday, the 37-year-old Grammy winner acknowledged her fans, pointing out to their homemade "We Love You Gwen" banners and gleefully remarking: "You guys are really cute!"

This article was even critical of the country’s performance laws:

Okay, this is not really original, since multi award-winning vocalist Mariah Carey has done this before — singing her empowering ballad Hero while meeting her audience and shaking hands with them.

And Gwen surely deserves our love doing that too. However, the Malaysian audience is going to miss this. Too bad. For your information, just like Miss Carey (who was here for the Charmbracelet World Tour three years ago), Gwen has been issued a list of do’s and don’ts prior to her performance at the Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Tuesday.

Apart from a "stricter" dress code, she was asked by the authorities not to have any physical contact with the audience. Yeah, what a bummer. Aren’t we all friendly, calm and peaceful people?.

But Gwen loves her Malaysian fans so much that she’s more than happy to do whatever’s necessary so as not to offend anybody here. So those who are getting antsy over her visit, there’s no reason to raise the alarm.

Here is an editorial from the New Strait Times after the concert that I think sums up the whole situation very well:

NO doubt about it, Gwen Stefani’s concert in Kuala Lumpur was a huge success, and an important one.

The bad press the country got over the American pop superstar’s recent Malaysian gig was unfortunate, as international headlines seemed to zero in on the protests by some minority zealots opposed to her show. To her credit, Stefani remained unbowed — though she did promise to be a "good girl" and adhere to the local guidelines on live acts that dictate the minimum dress code and some "no-no’s" for onstage behaviour. She kept her leotards on throughout, and in no way was her show less exciting. In the end, she proved, at least to her 16,000-strong audience at the Putra Stadium on Tuesday night, that a performer can follow our rules without diminishing the performance itself.

It was also commendable of the authorities to stick to their guns and allow the concert despite the uproar by Pas and the little-heard-of National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students, who wanted her show cancelled — reportedly because it could "promote promiscuity" and "corrupt the country’s youth", among other things. True, the authorities made Stefani stick to the guidelines on live performances. But whether or not the rules place the bar too high — or too low — is a secondary issue. There are rules for live shows in most countries, including Stefani’s own. The Malaysian guidelines may on the surface give the impression that we’re prudes, but they are, warts and all, standards defined for our heterogeneous developing nation, and Stefani has shown that there is at least a workable middle path.

The publicity Malaysia draws over the protests against numerous foreign acts who have landed here over the years, ranging from Mariah Carey three years ago to the Scorpions way back in 1996, has led some to wonder whether the majority of us agree with the agenda of those who want to dictate our lives based on their own narrow interpretation of religion or cultural norms. These groups often claim their own narrow-minded opposition to popular entertainment as the voice of the majority. This is all the more reason to understand why every successful show, with Stefani’s concert being the most recent, represents a victory over the intolerant trying to browbeat the rest of us into submission. Malaysians, in refusing to bow, must send these people a clear message that the show must go on — and will.

Does this sound like something from a wacko Muslim country that the US media wants you to believe Malaysia is?  The US media could not even get the attendance numbers correct by claiming that only 7,000 showed up at the concert when in fact 16,000 did yet we should believe them that Malaysia is the second coming of the Taliban? 

Now look at this video of the concert and tell me if this crowd looks like a bunch of Islamic extremists?:

First of all, you can tell Stefani is not wearing a burkah like the US media seems to want you to think she was required to wear and if you look at the crowd you can see that many of the females in the audience are wearing even less than her.  The US media is trying to lump Malaysia in with other intolerant Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia when Malaysia is nothing like the Arab countries.  The vast majority of Malaysians do not want to be like the Arabic countries and in fact enjoy being a liberal Islamic country.  Just the fact that Gwen Stefani is allowed to play to an audience of 16,000 should tell you something right there.  Can you imagine a singer like her singing in Riyadh or Damascus any time soon? 

What people don’t realize is that ethnic Malays make up only 52% of the population while ethnic Chinese make up 30%, ethnic Indians make up 10%, and aboriginal Malayans make up the rest of the population.  The Malays make up the Islamic population along with a few aboriginals which means that just over half the country is Muslim.  Malaysia’s Muslims do follow Islamic Sharia law, but it is not the same as Sharia law that the Taliban used.  Sharia law is dictated by Islamic scholars and Malaysia uses a more moderate form.  The last time I was in Malaysia this year my Malaysian friend’s wife who is Muslim walked around with no head covering and no one cared.  Notice Gwen Stefani did not have to wear a head covering either.  This is hardly the makings of a Taliban society that the US media wants you to believe it is.