4 Jan 2018
Kota Bahru is distinctly a religious Muslim area. There
were mosques everywhere. The prayer blasted through the PA systems almost the
entire days with sermons.
Despite all these prayers, the city feels safe for a
non Muslim to walk around. Non Muslim is less than 5% and mostly Chinese. Most
of the Chinese are the older one. I hardly see any young Chinese around.
Despite the religiosity of the Muslim, the Chinese still managed to carve out
an enclave with a huge Chinese arch synonymous with Chinatown as in other part
of the world. There were many Chinese eateries along this street. Though the
Muslim does not consume pork, there is no issue for these eateries selling all
form of pork dishes.
They town is laid back. Cars move at a slower pace
than most cities. There are many street markets, night market and fruits market
selling local produces. Large numbers of shops sell mobile handsets and
garments. Interestingly, there is also a number of goldsmiths shop owned mainly
by Malays. I spoke to an older local Chinese and he lamented that most the
commerce are now in the hands of Malays. The Chinese were slowly being squeezed
out.
I took a public bus that went through the Malay
heartland towards the northernmost part of Kelantan named Pengkalan Kubor. It
sits on the south side of Sungai Kolok which act as a boundary between Thailand
and Malaysia.
It barely takes 5 minutes on powered boat to cross
this river. At the jetty the security is so lax. You could walk around seeing
the loading and unloading of goods. I guess anyone can cross this river to
Thailand with minimum effort. Maybe that is how people are smuggled in and out
of Thailand through this porous border.
They bus was comfortable with air conditioning. The
road condition is good. The driver was courteous. They Malays in northern parts
of Malaysia are known to be very friendly and courteous unlike the urban one
especially from Selangor. A Chinese man in his 60’s I chatted with attest to
this. He was born here and affirmed that there are never any racial distrust in
this part of the world. I have personally asked for direction and too can affirm
the Kelantanese courtesy.
The two Chinese men I spoke to lament on the lack of
job opportunities for young people in Kelantan due lacking of development. That’s
the reason most Chinese move out of Kelantan to seek better economic benefits
elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment