Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Random Discrimination

I was excited about my trip to London with another 2 friends of mine. We were going there to meet a Londoner and also to have a final goodbye before our American friend was to leave Europe for good to head back to her Texas hometown. While we were in the plane, the air stewardess gave us a form to fill, probably an immigration form.

The 2 other friends that I was travelling with - one is from Japan, another from America and I am from Malaysia. All 3 of us were lazy so we decided to fill in the form as quickly as possible. One of the question that was to be filled is Address of place of stay. All of us decided to write London.

As we were queing to enter the city, all 3 of us were on a seperate queue. My American friend had no problem passing the immigration officer, neither did my Japanese friend. When it came to be my turn, they stopped me. He said 'London, where in London? London is a huge place.' So he told me to furnish him with the full address.

I was appalled. It was so unfair. Why is it that my friends who originate from other countries do not have this problem. But for me, I had to be questioned about my address, was asked how long I would be staying, what is the reason of my visit ...blah blah...

I wonder if it is because I am a Malaysian? Is it because Malaysia is predominantly Muslim and therefore, everyone from Malaysia could be a candidate for terrorist? It seems that the world is not just an unsafe place anymore, but people seem to all live in fear, discriminating, judging, making sweeping statements, thriving in a society that inflicts paranoia to one another.

Hopefully I am wrong. Perhaps, it was my luck that this officer just happens to be stricter on form filling procedures.