If you are Black, or could be misyaken for a Muslim, or if a government employee just doesn’t like your looks, you could be beaten, thrown in a cage & fed on bread & water on a whim!
And these people are government! :eek:
The article goes on to say that local officials & bureaucrats are increasingly out of control, defying the policies of the central government.
This might be a very good part of the world to avoid.
I visited Malaysia several times on business in the mid-90’s. This is nothing new. There is a special branch of the police there (we called them the Sin Police) whose job it was to make sure that Muslims didn’t violate Islamic law. They would patrol the bars and massage parlors to looking for Muslims and also the lover’s lanes to make sure that there weren’t any unmarried and unescorted Muslim women there.
A couple of anecdotes: An American co-worker of mine who was of Philippino descent was at a bar and didn’t have ID on him. He was taken away by the Sin Police and put in jail. He had to have one of our colleagues go to the hotel to get his passport before they would release him.
A friend of mine from grad school worked for a company there and lived in Penang for a two years. He had a Malay girlfriend. She would wear one of those dots above the bridge of her nose so she would look like a Hindu when they were together.
By law all Muslims must follow Islamic law. If you are born to Muslim parents, it is illegal to convert. If you marry a Muslim, you have to convert. Religious discourse with a Muslim is illegal.
On the other hand, Muslims get preference in state funding for scholarships and admission into State universities. They get lower interest loans on housing. The head of HR in every company must be a Muslim. Muslims, and no one else, get Friday afternoons off for prayer.
It goes on and on.
Anybody else have a story about this stuff?
I don’t know about you (and I’m really not trying to open up a can of worms) but this sounds surprisingly like what the US government does to people they “suspect” are “enemy combatants”.
I heard on the radio this morning that we just passed some sort of law saying that it was OK to capture and detail forein nationals indefinitely if they were suspected of terrorism or being enemy combatants. With no opportunity for reprisal on their part if it was ultimately decided that they were innocent.
This sounds like exactly the same thing.
I found myself wondering how the US could get away with such a policy and how we would feel if the same thing were happening to US citizens travelling abroad.
Looks like we’re not the only ones with that type of policy.
Wow. I just got back from Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi). I’ve never heard of this but it wouldn’t surprise me. Incidentally, it’s “Visit Malaysia” year and the kickoff party is on Jan 6.
I’ve always had a pleasant time in Malaysia when I’ve visited. The wife likes it, too.
To people suspect of being illegal immigrants as well.
In the '90s (so, way pre-9/11) there was a law passed that gave Customs Officers the power to detain anybody that they felt might be wanting to overstay. This lead to the detention of, among others, a cousin of mine.
This woman (then 34) was the manager of a bank branch, in Spain. She and her friends (similar ages, most of them married couples) made the mistake of booking a week in Miami but no cars. Miami simply doesn’t have enough material for a week; heck, with no car it barely has enough for one day. These were 17 non-adventurous people, the kind of people who would like to be able to take a map to go from the living room to the bathroom. The idea of renting 5 cars without a preorder and then trying to find rooms for 17 in unknown hotels down in the keys or up in Orlando was just unavailable to them.
They signed up for a casino cruise. As most of you guys know, those “cruises” are just a few hours, enough to get to international waters and open the tables. Passengers have to go through Customs as the ship reaches port, since it has been outside US territory.
And that’s when a genius decided that this “young attractive bilingual Hispanic female” was in the States to find herself a green-card husband. She was separated from her friends, not told what was going on, not given food or water nor allowed to go to the bathroom for the 18-or-so hours it took her friends to find the consul and for the consul to get there.
She wasn’t caged, no. But the rest… TAER
(This is the one story I know first hand; I’ve seen articles mentioning among other people who were detained and returned to sender - the general manager of Citibank Latinoamérica. Dude had been spending a month in DC every year for five years! The bank’s lawyers weren’t pleased)
I´ve already got plane tickets to visit Kuala Lumpur in March, I hope not to get in a situation like that! :eek:
Oh, cool a Doper in Bangkok, I thought I´d be the only one.