Just something that I realized today, was that over the past several months I've have had this conversation several times with different friends, family & acquaintances, of many who are Malaysians of different ages as well as a Thai friend or two.
Many of us(Malaysians) have been brought up with the illusion that we have and are always next to Singapore. I don't mean in a physical sense but more from an economic, social & infrastructure developement point of view.
Well I'm no economist or sociologist, so i won't be able to give you facts and figures to justify what I have to say. I speak only from my observations as a layman who grew up as a PJ boy(PJ is a suburb 15min from KL) and a visitor who has been to Thailand several times in the past few years. I also speak based on experiences related to me by friends and acquaintances.
Malaysians(here i generalise, just my personal opinion) has always had a notion that Thailand/Bangkok was always abit more 3rd world than Malaysia/KL. This could be due to the mainstream medias & governments' constant salvo of how great/developed/advanced our country was in the region. How we were no. 2 only to Singapore. etc, etc..
However, after visiting the country I beg to differ from this viewpoint and change my personal stand on this.
I have several very simple reasons to justify my viewpoint, as below:
- I've you've flown to BKK(my 1st was via Airasia), once you depart the Suvarnabumi airport you will hit BKK's multi-storey highways into the city. I thought, "Wow!! this is such an architectural feat(also a practical one)". I can't understand why can the Thai's build such straight & organized roads and Malaysia can only build curvy & pothole filled roads. First topics that come to mind for KL'ites when it comes to roads will always be MRRII incidents, potholes & tolls.
- This brings me to my 2nd subject tolls, I have done road trips around the Northern & Central regions in Thailand and never seen a tolled road. How does the Thai government do this??? KL have many tolls(with never ending payment to toll concessions, it seems) yet we still have incidents like MRRII.
- Well since we are on the subject of transportation, yes both BKK & KL have a traffic problem, but I dare say that BKK has a better public transport infrastructure as opposed to KL. They have the Skytrain(our equivalent of the LRT), easy availability of taxis which run on meters unlike KL's infamous taxi touts as well as tuk-tuk's & motor-taxis. Not to mention their taxis are mostly Toyota Vios or Altis compared to our 15 year old Proton Iswara's & Saga's.
- Yes their cars are cheaper but they pay world prices for petrol. However, we are easily looking at a RM20,000 difference in car prices for our CKD cars in Malaysia. A Vios in Malaysia would cost around RM70,000 but in Thailand it would cost RM50,000(500,000B).
- Having said that the Thai's pay world prices for petrol, however they already have 2 alternative fuels compared to Malaysia's 1. The Thai's have NGV and Gasohol. Yes Malaysia has NGV too, but the availability of NGV at petrol stations are a far cry from Thailand's.
- Well enough, of the costs comparisons above. I think Malaysia Tourism always used to say we are warm & frienly lot, yes we are, but depends on who la...(u know what I mean). Few years back if you meet a cop on the road to ask for help it seems like u asking him a big favour, see a Thai cop & ask him for help and see. I think the naming of Thailand as Land of Smiles is spot on. This may probably be due to the Thai's Buddhist upbringing of being polite.
- Freedom of speech/expression, look at the protests in Thailand. We only see the sacry part on TV, but if you are in BKK, u realize that it doesn't really affect yr daily going about town, just don't go to the affected area. Malaysia means, FRU & ISA.
- Ok la... this post is getting abit long. I'll end it with some food for thought la. GO check out the public toilets in both our countries. Check out the toilets in LCCT and Suvarnabumi and see for yrself la... Cleanliness is Next to Godliness.. I shy, shy wei!!!
Good on the Thai ppl, Malaysian's if we wanna stick to the claim we need to buck up..
