Final Images and Thoughts from Malaysia

Well, I go home today.  It has been a great course here learning about the political, developmental, and security aspects of Malaysia and how the country integrates into SE Asian.  I have participated in high level briefings from the government, private corporatations, and subject matter experts in the academic community.  I was able to visit 3 off-site locations:  our offices in Singapore, the Malaysia Nation Park (aka the jungle), and the island of Penang (a tourist and economic hot spot of the country).  I visited and attended the American Embassy 4th of July party, met with leaders of every political party in the country, visited the Malaysia Parliment (our Congress), dined with a former Deputy Prime Minister (former Vice President equivalent), and even met the opposition parties leading candidate (very big deal).  Malaysia is a unique country as it has only had its independence for about 50 years now and is going through many of the pains that our country has passed through.  The only difference is that we had the luxury of taking more than 230 years to do it and Malaysia is running at a much faster pace.  This means they regularly go through growing pains.

That said, I will leave you with two final photos that were taken (not sure by who) yesterday.  A few of my classmates and I were eating a fantastic meal (you must try chicken Tandoori and chicken Tikka in the states at an Indian restaurant) for our going home present in downtown Kuala Lumpur.  As we left the area we headed over to a local metro station to buy a few gifts.  We were aware of the planned political rally (or actually the opposition to the government rally) taking place that day and knew we were close, but not too close.  As we passed through a very large underground roadway connecting to the MRT station, we noticed a lot of people walking out with rags over their mouths.  Just then, I started to feel/smell that familiar odor.

I told the other guys that they were about to experience CS gas (tear gas).  It was clearly not going to be that bad since there were no obvious gas clouds, so I knew we could get through without too much trouble.  All in all it was about 1/10th the strength that is normal (clearly residual from earlier canisters) and most who have experienced CS before know this is a very managable level of discomfort.  There is just nothing like finishing a fantastic trip by sucking on a little CS gas.