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| Wall Street Journal |
I moved to Malaysia immediately after my retirement and lived there for about seven years before returning to the United States four years ago. I enjoyed living there except for the constant heat and humidity which was almost unbearable. The reason I moved to Malaysia was to be with my same sex partner, who is now my husband. As soon as same sex marriages were made legal in the US we visited the US to be married and the following year we moved there to live permanently. My partner now is a US citizen.
While living in Malaysia we had to keep our marriage secret, only telling a few close friends, as homosexuality is a crime in this predominantly Muslim country. I really loved the Malaysian people and most of the culture, but I really hated the government with a passion. Because I was living in the country on a guest visa I dared not say anything critical of the government. I wrote a blog called Retired in Malaysia, in which I described my life there, but I had to be very careful not to say anything negative about the government. Since I was so used to the freedom of speech, which I enjoyed so much in the United States, but really took for granted, it was difficult for me to keep my mouth shut. Malaysia is a Muslim majority country and it is a punishable offense to say anything that could remotely be considered to be putting Islam or even the government, in a negative light. Prime Minster Najib, was a member of a political party that had controlled the government since Malaysia gained its independence from Great Britain over 50 years ago. He skillfully remained in power by jailing his opposition on trumped up charges, controlling the media, paying bribes and holding rigged elections. I remember during one election he had rented seven or eight 747 jumbo jets to bring planeloads of Nepalese, who were given 24 hour citizenship and a small cash payment, to rural areas to vote for Najib! There were also numerous incidents during elections when his ruling party was in danger of losing, a sudden power loss occurred and in the end his party won by a landslide as "new" ballots were deliverd by the army under cover of darkness.
Satellite television, radio and newspapers were owned by the ruling party and contained no positive mention of the opposition parties. Opposition parties did exist but their means of sharing their messages with the public were severely hampered by their inability to advertise in the mass media. Naturally opposition parties turned to social media and the internet to spread their message.
The government tried to ban social media to prevent this, but they were not very successful. The rural poor and uneducated were paid to vote for the ruling party, but with the spread of the internet into rural areas the government began to lose support. The Prime Minister and his wife were embroiled in numerous corruption scandals and lived luxurious lifestyles. while the majority of the population was living in near poverty. In May of this year the citizens of Malaysia said enough! Enough to Najib's lying, his family making money from the his position and his corrupt lifestyle! He and his political party were dealt an astounding defeat! He and his wife are now under arrest for their crimes.
Sound familiar? Even though my husband and I are now living in the US, we were both exceedingly happy to see his fall from power and Malaysia returned to the people! Another reason I was so happy was that this gave me some hope that here in this country we could do the same and drive this corrupt, lying, criminal, little dictator Trump from power and restore the US back to ALL American citizens!
