PJ
The Malaysian Insider
May 30, 2011

MAY 30 — Some time in the middle of 2006, I walked out of the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban after another meeting with its pengarah. After two years of countless correspondences and meetings, I officially gave up on them picking up my household rubbish in a proper and timely manner. They were not capable of undertaking even these simple tasks. It was a lost cause.

That was the turning point of my life in Malaysia, and it left me exhausted. It put everything into perspective for me. Once again, the bureaucratic system in Malaysia failed me. Once again, it deprived me of a simple need in my life. A need I was already entitled to as a Malaysian.

I never asked for much, and regarded myself as a good example of a first-generation Malaysian. I grew up in a small town in Johor, and still speak Bahasa Malaysia articulately. At the end of my school days, I did not whine when lesser deserving friends earned scholarships to undertake professional courses overseas. I was happy to crawl into a local university. I dismissed my first encounter of racism there, and continued to embrace the multicultural life I was accustomed to. I tried complaining that scholarships for local studies were also disbursed unequally. It slowly dawned upon me that this was something I will need to get used to. But university life was too much fun, and there was no reason to worry about my future, at least while I was there.

After graduating, I worked for one local company. These were good times, where mediocrity was the rule of the day. I realised then that in Malaysia, you can survive by using only 10 per cent of your mental capacity. Not a bad deal actually. Life could not get any better at that point. But I was slowly creating a vacuum between my ears. Wanting to keep some grey matter intact, I left and joined a foreign company. This would be one of a string of foreign companies I worked at in Malaysia.

Life continued to be fun. I was enjoying decent salaries and kept paying a small fortune in taxes. I even contributed to the economy by purchasing several Protons, and changed their power windows regularly. But I was tired of the traffic jams and the floods in Kuala Lumpur. I tried everything, from taking public transportation to buying a motorcycle for work. Nothing worked. I even moved to Seremban.

By then I had worked more than a decade. The mediocrity I thought I had left behind was also catching up with me. I had to once again deal with the same people, who were now in positions of authority, and were making decisions in projects I was working on. Many of them were basically idiots. Some knew there were not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and listened to the opinion of others. But some were so dumb they actually thought they were smart. Life started getting to be less fun. But I did not complain. It was easier just to butter them up and get the projects started. You knew the projects will never fully meet their objectives due to bureaucracy, but you just did what you were paid to do. Thankfully nothing is actually audited in Malaysia.

As much as I thought I didn’t care, I slowly started looking at the negative aspects of my work. Perhaps it was mid-life crisis. I became a huge pessimist. This began to spill over to my personal life. Let me tell you one thing. It is not easy being a pessimist, especially when you are not too smart and not at all enterprising.

I had always wanted a simple life. But life was becoming increasingly difficult for me. The people I was entrusted to deal with in the public service irritated me. I became a very bitter person, and had very little patience. I did not like being surrounded by incompetence. I just wanted to pay my taxes (without all the complications), and receive the basic necessities I am entitled to as a taxpayer.

All this while, the wife and I could not tolerate the fact that our kids were being schooled by teachers who were only good at making straw baskets or dealing with Amway products. These thoughts kept us awake at night.

As I walked out of Majlis Perbandaran Seremban that day, I knew what had to be done. It was not an easy decision to make, but our surroundings made it unbearable for us to live in Malaysia. Our needs were simple, but it was obvious that these needs could not be met in Malaysia. Not in my life time anyway.

We left Malaysia more than two years ago. Australia is not only a nice place to live in because of its beautiful surroundings, but the systems and processes in place make every day life so easy. My kids also actually enjoy school because teachers here accept them for what they are, and treat them with respect.

I do miss Malaysia. Not the Malaysia I left behind, but the Malaysia I grew up in.