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!
