What went through my mind as I left for Stansted Airport

I said my goodbyes to my aunt and uncle and drove to Stansted in my wonderful little silver VW Polo, getting slightly lost initially. My auntie told me if ever I get lost, I should park up and read al Fatihah and inshaAllah, I will find my way so, I stopped at Tesco carpark and looked at the map and then I read al Fatihah and Alhamdulillah i found my way back on the M11 and reached Stansted, fuelled up and found my way to the car rental returns. Alhamdulillah. My short visit here had been a fruitful one achieving all the things I needed to achieve.


There are a few things that I will truly miss about Britain when I return to Malaysia; for one the 24 hour news BBC and al Jazeera. I know that these channels are available on satellite but it is not easily accessible to everyone and you have choose for the news package to get access to it. How many people in Malaysia would choose News package over movies or entertainment? Emm...let me not offend anyone. For too long, I feel that the masses of the Malaysian society have lived in the dark, excited only by the news reported in Metro. It is unhealthy. So, these are some of the changes that I would like to see in Malaysia.

1. More responsible driving – maybe people should realise that they need to be responsible drivers. Put some order into things and not just turn into a wild beast as soon as they get into a car.

2. More 24 hour news – I know you can get it from Astro but not everyone has Astro and I would like to see news more available to ordinary people. For example with the new Unifi TM, you can subscribe for Cbeebies but not BBC News 24. Why?

3. More political analysis – I would like to see the news reporters actually discussing the news rather than just regurgitating the news that they have received from newsagents such as Reuters or Bernama. Is that a bit lazy reporting? There should be more analysis and more discussion and more critical thinking although I respect our journalists who risked their lives onboard the Marv Marmara to bring us the story from Palestine.

4. More people reading – definitely reading should be encouraged and I'm not talking about reading romantic novels but rather intelligent reading. Newspapers should stop reporting gossips and trash but there should be evidence based reporting, process of verifying news before it goes to print.. If the people demand for better quality news, I'm sure the news agencies will have to succumb.

5. People who simply gossip and say things like 'I heard from such and such and such and such that person x did this' should really be told to shut up and get a life. There should be no room for hear say and chinese whispers rather, any form of corruption should be discussed with evidence and political awareness.

6. Quality control - there should be a tight control over the quality of things that are sold especially when it is presented as a luxury item. Sometimes the price certainly does not reflect the quality of the thing. There are so many Western owned supermarkets in Malaysia but the items sold are not as good as the ones sold in the same stores in Western countries and that includes even something as simple as nappies. You start to wonder if the conspiracy theory of rejected items in the west are being sold in developing world for profit is actually true. Cetainly cars are over priced. I have seen 2nd hand BMWs being sold for less than RM50,000 in London and the car I was driving in UK was indeed one of the most precisely immaculate engineering. Yet, some cars around here are like cardboard on wheels.

I'm sure there are other things I can think of but I will not bore you and I don't want to make people feel defensive. I shall refrain from my complaints but there are many things about Malaysia that are wonderful, like the sunny weather, even the rain and thunderstorm just reminds me of the greatness of Allah, the sound of Adhan, the places to pray all over the place, the facillities to make istinjak, the pasar tani, pasar malam, kedai mamak, the people are friendly and they are often grateful to Allah, gratefulness also equals happiness and tranquility. So, I love it here really but improvement is never a bad thing.