WEALTH AND POVERTY. POVERTY AND WEALTH.

Selamat Pagi Malaysia.

We live in interesting times. There are possibilities for change. There is hope for a better, fairer and more inclusive society. There is a belief that anything is possible. A readiness to embrace new beginnings, new horizons and even new ways of doing things. Anything is possible. For as long as we dare to hope, hope itself will give us the reason to believe that the future for our children and ourselves, can be better.

With all this in mind, I made the decision to go back to KL a few months back….to see for myself …what is truth and what is fiction. Two things hit me hard in the first few days of being in KL after over a decade away.

The wealth and the poverty of the people.

Everywhere I looked I could see all the trappings of wealth. The wealth that was owned by the few. Wealth that most Malaysians could see but never dream of attaining. The ostentatious wealth that is the purview of the entitled, the privileged and the very few, jealously guarded by the very few. The wealth that offends rather than compliments any society because you see it all around you while you have nothing.

Meanwhile, besides this wealth, alongside this wealth….maybe the word to use should be among this wealth.... are the poor, the underprivileged and Malaysians living in poverty.

This great wealth and poverty, both live and exist side by side, in KL.

It degrades the poor and it does no good to the wealthy who do not seem to understand that the juxtaposing of wealth and poverty around them only creates resentment for them, from those who do not have that wealth.

But to the people living in KL….wealth and poverty is everywhere - and it becomes them. And life goes on.