Word: malays
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...RAJA LAUT: With a name meaning "king of the seas" in Malay, Raja Laut is an ironwood schooner that plies the waters of peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. Its six beautiful cabins accommodate up to 12 guests, who are waited on by a multiracial crew that could have stepped out of the pages of Conrad's Lord Jim (indeed, literature buffs can follow in the great author's wake, voyaging through Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak on an itinerary based on his travels). Trips can include spectacular diving, visiting deserted islands with steep karst formations worthy of a James Bond movie...
...aspirations of its Muslim majority and significant minority populations. As Malaysia celebrates a half-century of independence this year, faith-based politics is further dividing the nation's ethnicities. The new mood was on display at the November party conference of Malaysia's ruling political party, the United Malays National Organization, during which one delegate spoke of his willingness to bathe in blood to defend the Malay race and religion. By December, the atmosphere was so tense that Malaysia's usually understated Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called race relations "brittle"-even though a few weeks before he had defended...
...what happens when the state's definition of Islam differs from its citizens'? The Islamic Development Department, which governs Muslim practices on a federal level, deems Shia and Baha'i interpretations of Islam deviant faiths worthy of forced "rehabilitation." Controversy also surrounds Malays who wish to convert to another religion, thus defying the constitutional clause specifying that all Malays must be Muslims. That issue is being tested by the case of Lina Joy, a Malay who has been barred from converting to Christianity by Shari'a courts. Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer who has received death threats for representing...
...profound consequences for the country. But, on a personal level, the parallel universes into which Malaysia's ethnicities appear to be moving is also bad news for my food fetish. Malaysia is home to one of the world's first fusion cuisines, Nyonya, a melding of Chinese cooking and Malay flavors that evolved, in part, from intermarriage between the two groups. To my taste buds, Nyonya is one of the most delicious cuisines ever created. I could write odes to its fish-head curry, and its aromatic braised meats...
...last time I ate Nyonya was at an outdoor food court in Kuala Lumpur. The dish was Chicken Kapitan, a coconut-laced curry redolent with tamarind, turmeric and shrimp paste. The waiter who delivered the bowl of curry was Malay. With me were TIME's Malaysia stringer, an ethnic Indian, and our taxi driver, a Chinese. Both snuck spoonfuls of gravy from my dish. I didn't mind. There was more than enough for all of us to share...