If one were told to describe what they know about Malaysia in one sentence, one would probably say, “A poor country in South East Asia blanketed with thousands of acres of tropical rainforest” or anything along this line. Such simple responses are not at all surprising because it is merely a stereotypical view of Malaysia or any South East Asian country from a Korean’s perspective. Having graduated from an international school in Malaysia, I was asked countless times by my Korean friends if I lived in a dilapidated hut in jungles, depicting an uncivilized person from the past. Sadly, such stereotypical views of Malaysia are never going to change unless we study about it in depth or travel around its major cities. Continue reading this article, and you will find out you have been living in a world of your own imagination.
I cannot deny the fact that Malaysia is still a developing country and there are many vast undeveloped areas i.e. jungles. However, major cities have numerous towering skyscrapers portraying Seoul. Hundreds of years of western influences have had positive impacts on the mindset of the inhabitants, leading to ongoing surges of economic development. Also, the fact that Malaysians are naturally multilingual begs us a question whether the education system in Malaysia is partly more reliable than the one in Korea.
Unlike Korea, Malaysia is a multi-racial country with the likes of Malays, Chinese, Indians, and even indigenous people. We would then assume there would be an unbearable number of internal conflicts among different races as each and every race has distinct cultures and religious beliefs. Fortunately, sets of unbiased laws have allowed these races to harmonize, respecting and understanding one another. For instance, during the Chinese New Year and Hari Raya (a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims at the end of Ramadan, the fasting period), people invite acquaintances, friends and neighbors over to their houses where they chit-chat and provide feasts with the sole purpose of intimacy, similar to family gatherings during Seolnal and Chuseok in Korea. A sense of love towards other races has habitually become a part of the daily lives of every individual in Malaysia. Although Malaysia may be less economically developed than Korea, it is somewhat more mature and open in terms of willingness to accept other races as its citizens.
Still, there are limitations in expressing and describing a country with words. The best way to break the prejudicial view towards Malaysia is to travel and directly observe the lifestyles of those who have a different view of life.