PETALING JAYA: We’ve heard it ad nauseam on the educational opportunities that abound in the West, their high regard for meritocracy in the work place, and the vibrancy and fairness of their brand of democracy – unlike in Malaysia, where corruption is the order of the day and democracy comes with glaring undertones of race and religion.
Well, to the many who still believe in the Utopia of the West, you may want to give “Brighter Future in the West, Sure Meh???” a read.
Its authors, brothers Ken and Michael Soong, present some rather thought-provoking morsels of knowledge that may turn everything you’ve thought about the West on its head.
In an interview with FMT, Ken said the book tackles the West-means-best mentality most Malaysians have subscribed to for generations, particularly when assessing which society, East or West, best caters to their well-being, happiness and sense of hope about the future.
The information in their book is fact-based, with statistics to support their claims. Also included are the brothers’ personal observations and experiences after having lived in the West for several years.
“We try to show readers that the very problems they are running away from (by migrating to the West) also exist there, and in many cases are way worse than those in Malaysia,” Ken said.
He said he too had once believed that “West means best”, but having been burned once, hoped to “move towards being smarter and wiser in the years ahead”.
Racism alive in the West
On the argument that race does not factor into how one is treated in the West, versus the situation in Malaysia, Ken said corporate America was in reality still race-based.
“The Americans might have had their first black president, but how many black CEOs or senior executives are there in the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies? Not many,” he said, quoting a March 2018 article published on the Fortune website, showing only three African-American CEOs in 500 companies.
Conversely, he said, the number of African-Americans in US prisons was astounding. “Dr Umar Johnson did some really groundbreaking discoveries on how the blacks in the US are still being exploited and discriminated against today.”
Ken also said while there were many Asian doctors in Australia’s hospitals, senior positions like departmental heads went mostly to Caucasians. “In the Australian Parliament, out of the 76 senators and 145 members, the number of senators or MPs of Asian heritage is well below five.”
Western democracy no different from Eastern version
In Chapter 5 of their book, “What’s so sacred about democracy?”, Ken and Michael say the West is not any more democratic than Malaysia in the way countries are governed.
“What is bluntly called corruption and bribery in Malaysia might be referred to as lobbying in the West. Different names but the same old acts. Unlike in Malaysia, their spade is called by a different name,” Ken said.
He added that Western leaders like Richard Nixon, George W Bush and Tony Blair were never punished for their wrongdoings. “Does that mean Asian leaders are more corrupt than their Western counterparts or Western leaders can get away more easily?”
He said it was different in the East, like in Taiwan and more recently in Korea, where both Chen Shui Bian (released in 2015) and Pak Geun-hye served time in jail for their wrongdoings. In the case of Thailand, Thaksin is still in exile, he pointed out.
“Some might argue that even though Blair and Bush did lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they did not violate any laws in their respective countries.
“But have we not assumed that the legal systems in the West are more sound and their institutions more independent and therefore more effective in upholding democratic values?”
On being gainfully employed in the West
On the issue of employment, Ken said many Malaysians who migrated to the West found themselves in occupations that matched neither their qualifications nor experience.
“As a result, we have overqualified mobile phone salespeople who were university lecturers or engineers in Malaysia,” he said, adding that if they had stayed put in Malaysia, they could have better utilised their skills and contributed to society in a more positive way.
He said many Malaysians wrongly believed that their “destination for happiness” was in the West.
“Happiness starts right here, right now, no matter what our destination is. We should focus on reaching our ‘destination’ happily and not waiting to reach our destination before allowing ourselves to feel happy.”
He said, however, that in some cases the move to the West was the right one. He cited the example of a mixed-race couple with whom he was personally acquainted, who felt “more comfortable” living in the West as did many gays and lesbians.
That being said, Malaysia truly celebrated her diverse races and languages, something almost non-existent in the West, Ken said, as most teenagers ended up speaking only English simply because they felt compelled to.
“So, even though Australia, UK or US have a very culturally diverse population, it is a monolingual society. But in Malaysia, we are a truly multi-cultural and multi-lingual society.”
Think twice before leaving Malaysia
His advice to any Malaysian contemplating migrating to the West is to “think twice”, and if the desire to leave Malaysia is great enough, “do your research”.
“The world is becoming smaller, and the distinction between local and global is increasingly blurred. Please do enough research before you migrate to the West, especially the particular country and particular city you want to migrate to,” he said, whether it was Vancouver, Auckland or London.
Ken and Michael’s second book comes on the heels of “Migrating to Australia: Good Meh???” which gives readers a sense of some of the more common challenges Malaysians face when settling in Australia as migrants.
“Brighter Future in the West, Sure Meh???” is available for RM36.80 at all leading bookstores in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia as well as online at kanyinpublications.com.