The airport is new since my last visit, which must be more than ten years ago. A long way from the city and connected by both high speed railway and five lane expressway, it is not inconvenient. Kuala Lumpur is famous for its slow moving traffic, but you wouldn’t know this on your way into town, not at 10.30 p.m. anyway. At just over ten pounds the taxi journey was cheap entertainment. Traveling at over a hundred whilst four feet from the next car produces a stimulating adrenaline rush, sharpening the wits and making sleep impossible. I found myself compulsively reading signposts as I tried not to think about the futility of ending my life on this particular piece of anonymous tarmac.
Signposts for the familiar - Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Perlis - are now mixed with the futuristic creations of Wawasan 2020, former prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad’s vision of Malaysia’s future. In short, Mahathir was determined that his country become part of the developed world in the shortest possible time. To this end he created Putrajaya and Malaysia’s Silicon Valley - the Multimedia Super Corridor. Whilst Putrajaya is an administrative centre, Cyberjaya is a whole city devoted to technology. Reeking of geek-dom, such a city should only have a virtual existence in programmes like Sim City, but no, it is real and more modern, the computer game predating it by fourteen years! At the heart of the new city is MMU, the Multimedia University.
Formal, traditional Malay is not a language noted for its brevity. Names are often cumbersome in their length. The current king, for example is know as Ke Bawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agung Malaysia, Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin ibni Almarhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail, which makes perfect sense if you know classical Malay literature, as oh so many do. Perhaps it is to suggest modernity then that Malaysian universities are know by abbreviations.
In the early ‘90s I studied Malay at USM (University Science Malaysia). There were just a handful of universities then, the oldest being University Malaya, which was established in 1949, shortly before independence. They served a population, still largely rural, of just 19 million.
Today, with a population of just over 24 million, Malaysia now has 19 public universities, 20 polytechnics and 20 private universities and university colleges, all but one of which are known by their initials. You can study engineering at KUKUM or KUKTEM, education at UPSI, science at KUSTEM and personnel management at PMS. LUCT will teach you creative technology and HELP’s ‘peerless experts’ will give you a grounding in psychology. Only Sunway University College goes by its full name. As, amongst other things, it teaches hospitality and tourism management, this is perhaps just as well. Keen to get on board the educational money train, there are 5 branches of foreign universities here, including Monash and the University of Nottingham. With more than 30% of its population below 14 years of age and the population predicted to reach 45 million by 2050, demand for education is set to grow. I wonder if they will all find jobs though. Presently unemployment is about 3.6%, but only half of the population is urban.
Like Cyberjaya, Putrajaya is a planned city, home to the federal government’s administration, although KL is still the national and legislative capital.
Signposts for the familiar - Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Perlis - are now mixed with the futuristic creations of Wawasan 2020, former prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad’s vision of Malaysia’s future. In short, Mahathir was determined that his country become part of the developed world in the shortest possible time. To this end he created Putrajaya and Malaysia’s Silicon Valley - the Multimedia Super Corridor. Whilst Putrajaya is an administrative centre, Cyberjaya is a whole city devoted to technology. Reeking of geek-dom, such a city should only have a virtual existence in programmes like Sim City, but no, it is real and more modern, the computer game predating it by fourteen years! At the heart of the new city is MMU, the Multimedia University.
Formal, traditional Malay is not a language noted for its brevity. Names are often cumbersome in their length. The current king, for example is know as Ke Bawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agung Malaysia, Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin ibni Almarhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail, which makes perfect sense if you know classical Malay literature, as oh so many do. Perhaps it is to suggest modernity then that Malaysian universities are know by abbreviations.
In the early ‘90s I studied Malay at USM (University Science Malaysia). There were just a handful of universities then, the oldest being University Malaya, which was established in 1949, shortly before independence. They served a population, still largely rural, of just 19 million.
Today, with a population of just over 24 million, Malaysia now has 19 public universities, 20 polytechnics and 20 private universities and university colleges, all but one of which are known by their initials. You can study engineering at KUKUM or KUKTEM, education at UPSI, science at KUSTEM and personnel management at PMS. LUCT will teach you creative technology and HELP’s ‘peerless experts’ will give you a grounding in psychology. Only Sunway University College goes by its full name. As, amongst other things, it teaches hospitality and tourism management, this is perhaps just as well. Keen to get on board the educational money train, there are 5 branches of foreign universities here, including Monash and the University of Nottingham. With more than 30% of its population below 14 years of age and the population predicted to reach 45 million by 2050, demand for education is set to grow. I wonder if they will all find jobs though. Presently unemployment is about 3.6%, but only half of the population is urban.
Like Cyberjaya, Putrajaya is a planned city, home to the federal government’s administration, although KL is still the national and legislative capital.
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