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.
2 comments:
Hi Mic,
It's becos M'sia's a 3rd world country and many illegal immigrants from this part of the world try to go over to Europe to seek fortune. Americans and Japanese are less likely to be trying to get into London and 'overstaying' their legal limits. Don't think it's got anything to do with being from Muslim country, we're just from 'developing country'. Unfortunate but true. Discrimination due to statistical results. Sigh...
Huh? Malaysia a 3rd world country? It wasn't last time I went there. It may definitely have a lower GDP than much of western Europe or the USA but I thought KL was pretty sophisticated compared to other Asian capitals, the people seem to be definitely better educated and the country itself is more stable (unfortunately in Asia this appears to be a relativism). Plus certainly in Ireland illegal migration from Malaysians is almost unheard of (such illegal arrivals generally arrive from seaports areas in North Africa and the Middle East or across the borders of Eastern European countries, NOT south East Asia).
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