NEWS: Woman ends sticky relationship

A Melbournian woman ended her hour-long relationship with a tube of super glue yesterday.

The woman, Ellen Feely, and her partner were on holiday in Malaysia when she decided to end things.

"It was just getting a bit too much, he was getting a bit too clingy and it turned out to be quite a sticky situation," she said.

Friend Claudia Kowalski, said she believed Ms.Feely had the better side of the relationship.

"If you ask me, she had him wrapped around her finger. But in the end she turned to hard liquor to get rid of him," she said.

The super glue declined to comment.

High End of Town

It’s just after 2pm but there’s no sunlight, the roller shutters are firmly closed. His brother and father had recently decided that it was time for lunch and had ventured out into the day and across the street in search of something to eat. There’s a knocking at the door upon their return. They have brought lunch back with them although it cost more than normal - their eyes are burning. Even in the short time it took Suresh* to open and close the shutters he started to feel nauseous. There’s a large crowd outside on a Saturday afternoon, although the only people coming into Suresh’s shop are looking for respite, not high end fabric.

It’s now almost exactly a week after the anti-ISA (Internal Security Act) demonstrations, the tear gas has cleared up along with Suresh’s nausea, and natural light makes its way back into his fashionable textiles butik on Jalan Tuanku Adbul Rahman. However, there is still little sign of the shopping frenzy that habitually precedes Hari Raya each year. Suresh, a well dressed middle aged salesman of Indian appearance, theorises that people have been put off shopping on this normally busy street by the same reason his brother has gone to work in a different store today; a fear of reprisal of the demonstrations.

“It’s affected business all week, we’re 50% - 60% down on sales. It’s supposed to be the peak sale period, it’s the critical time,” Suresh proclaims in a downbeat tone. “We only had two to three hours of trading last Saturday, which is normally the busiest day.”

“I don’t understand why they didn’t protest somewhere else that didn’t affect others, like in a stadium, but now it’s not looking so good.” Suresh put this in the context that normally at this time of year everyone is buying their cloth to send it off to be sewn before the start of Ramadan, because once Ramadan starts the tailors stop taking orders.

On a slightly brighter note, Suresh said he had seen none of the physical damage to property that Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin has made reference to and that “business has picked up slightly over the past few days.”

Whilst another shopkeeper in a carpet store down the street towards the Sogo shopping centre said that he had seen police beating people as they were detained, Suresh’s views were more reserved. “Based on what (the police) were given they did ok, they didn’t kill anyone.” “I was a little bit scared but I felt safe because I was inside.” Outside, thousands of anti-ISA demonstrators and general shoppers were running from police as they used ‘water’ cannons (with some sort of noxious element in the water) and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Even so, Suresh’s thinks that the problems were not caused by the police. “It’s more of a government problem.” “If you ask the general population, people who read newspapers, people don’t want ISA.” “They just take all your rights, for however long they like, they can question you but they don’t even have to. It’s just like Guantanamo Bay.”

Skip to the end: I interviewed a shopkeeper on the street where there were some demonstrations recently.

Six Malaysian ones, Half a dozen Australian others.... well half of that anyway.

Arriving in Malaysia from Japan, my first impression was that this country is a lot more like Australia. For a start, the highway signs here are a familiar shade of green, not to mention being in English. I’ve been here three weeks now and I can confidently say that taking comfort in the colour of street signs is a completely delusional thing to do.

In that time I’ve learned to appreciate Malaysia as a completely unique place. Whilst there are other majority Muslim countries where English is an official language, (such as Pakistan) I still find this a good indication of the multicultural nature of Malaysia. However, since I’ve been here I have been shocked by some aspects of this society. That said, after getting over the shock I realised that similar sorts of things happen in Australia.

The first issue I had with Malaysia was the traffic. Lane markings, like a lot of things around here, seem to be for ‘display purposes only.’ And maybe car makers should think about making indicators and seat belts optional extras for this market since no one seems to use them. In my first week, I was content to survive a taxi ride in a rural area on the way back to Kota Bharu airport from the Perhentian Islands. The driver went to overtake a van and a truck at the same time because they were slowing down. Surprise, surprise, they were slowing down for a reason – the truck was turning right. I think the driver felt bad so he took us for a brief stop at a Buddhist temple (pictured above). Whilst this sort of traffic incident seems pretty common here, my girlfriend told me of a near fatal accident that happened right outside her house that would almost never happen here. A car was apparently doing burnouts on the road when I car come round the corner and smashed into the passenger side, luckily no one was in that seat. I can't imagine people doing burnouts here in their front wheel drive Protons with half the power of Australian cars. I don't think it would be culturally acceptable either.


I was also shocked recently to learn that a Singaporean Muslim women was to be caned for drinking. Part of the reason this was shocking is that I believe it to be reasonably common for some Muslims to drink here. However, Malaysia’s hard line stance on drugs, especially narcotics, might not be such a bad thing compared to their quasi acceptance in Australia. One of my flatmates learned over the weekend that a girl she went to school with had been charged with murder for reportedly stabbing someone in St Kilda. Whilst nothing in the media has stated that drugs were involved, it is seemingly probable from all reports.

The third incident that has shocked me of late is the police reaction to protests on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Whilst this seems like a strong reaction to me, it is nothing compared to the Iranian government’s one to the post ‘election’ rallies. And in the other extreme, Australian governments have a history of simply ignoring whatever protesters have to say. It took around 30 years for an apology for the treatment of the Stolen Generations to be forthcoming, and this was just an apology (albeit a significant one). So, maybe Australia isn’t entirely the mythically wonderful place to live we make it out to be, it’s just what we’re used to.

Skip to the end: Some things shock, but it's partially just due to one not being used to it.