The problem is when people (can) complain, they chill after some time. When they can’t, this is what happens. One of my older articles touched on RIIA’s ability to track file sharing, and esp when there was a war going on. Where were the priorities? Yet, those are the questions that make a society vibrant.

Here in KL, hardly any politician understands the correlation between dissent and innovation. Kuala Lumpur in the 70s was so kool that I was impressed by the Malay culture as a kid. Now, you find politics everywhere…

Anyway, if you’d like to write your experiences in KL, why not publish them on my site? Personal experience are very readable stuff. Gotta go, it is already “pagi” here.

Matt

mathew(at)maavak.net

Bill Evans here. I was the original founder of boycott-riaa.com (which I later sold) I lived in Malaysia from Feb 94 to August 96. I was there doing a couple of multimedia CD-roms for a small company. I lived in KB for approx 2/3 or the time, and Penang the rest (with monthly trips to KL). Everything you state here is absolutely true. I wish I had $1 for every time we were asked for the normal 10% in order to meet with a govt official, get permissions to photograph inside a museum, etc.

At least here in America we can object to a government policy without fear. I can (if I want) say George Bush is an idiot, and at worst I might get into a fight. But no need to worry about getting locked up under the ISA for saying something as simple as “I think the PM could have done better”

I do miss the people and the food terribly however.