Word: malay
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...risen from what were palm-oil plantations two decades ago. In September, Malaysia's first astronaut blasted into space, his flight mirroring the nation's ambitions. Poverty has been reduced from half the population at independence to just 5% today, as an affirmative-action policy created a prosperous Malay middle class that had never before existed. In Asia, only the nations of Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Brunei rank higher than Malaysia in the U.N.'s Human Development Index. Most impressively, while other multiethnic nations like Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka and Rwanda fractured into conflict, Malaysia has largely kept peace between...
...hills above the Malaysian port city of Johor Bahru, where the Anwar family has been prominent in politics since Malaysia's independence 50 years ago. Shaded by droopy banana trees, and crisscrossed by stray cats creeping through chain-link fences, the landscape lies somewhere between a sleepy kampong, or Malay village, and a soulless American suburb. "There is no culture around," Zakii says...
...Muslims-at what they perceive to be the marginalization of the south (the region is among Thailand's poorest), the insurgents have long despised government schools, whether Buddhist or Muslim. The rebels see them as representative of a Thai state they believe suppresses the culture, language and religion of Malay Muslims, who make up the majority of people in the southern provinces of this otherwise overwhelmingly Buddhist nation. Resistance to Bangkok's assimilation policies-banning Muslim headscarves, closing schools not conforming to the national curriculum, preventing civil servants from attending Friday prayers-has simmered and boiled ever since Thailand, then...
...next morning, his optimism is shattered. Overnight, leaflets are found outside the school. "Warning!" one reads. "Muslim brothers and sisters of Pattani: The Malay people of Pattani are currently at war with the Siamese infidel occupiers. Therefore, we must unite." Without claiming responsibility for the arson attack, the leaflet explains that schools are targeted because they are "symbols of the Siamese infidel occupier." It continues: "This is a warning to our brothers and sisters: do not assist the occupier, or cooperate in terms of labor or goods in kind. To help them with labor, money or goods in kind...
...help. I want to prolong the innocence with which my children view the world, yet warn them of its dangers. This is tricky, particularly in Asia, where children are welcomed and cherished with a delight that is as genuine as it is-from a Western perspective at least-threatening. Malay shopkeepers call children baby-jaan, or "life," and press free candy into their palms. Indian bus drivers clamber out to lift young kids into their vehicles. Wizened Chinese waiters break out into smiles and escort crying toddlers toward the live-seafood tank so that the parents can eat in peace...