malaysian living

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hello expats
have been thinking of spending retirement time in malaysia.
but reading the newspapers seems to be a lot of crime. break ins,even coming thru the roof,hurting people,car-jackings and muggings.is it as bad as reported or just in bad areas.do not know if it is worth the risk.have visited on nuerous occasions and have not come across any of this.
siskin

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hi, siskin,

And welcome to the site.

There's 25 millions folks in Malaysia and a lot of places which are small towns where folks get to know you pretty fast. In these sort of places you can leave your car unlocked and there's a really good chance that it will be untouched when you get back. Same with stuff left in the pannier of a motorcycle, or the motorcycle itself.

Houses get broken into just like anywhere else. I've lived in a rented house for 10 years. This has been left vacant for weeks, months, and for most of 2008. No break-ins, nothing stolen, nothing removed. It could be the old motorcycle outside or my leaving a couple of pairs of knickers and socks on the washing line - a deterrent if ever there was one. Or it could be that the incidents of break-ins, burglaries etc is not so high.

You need to compare Malaysia with where you come from.

I'm from London, England. In the space of 5 years my house in Dalston was broken into 4 times. My office in central London got just 1 break-in. My push bike was stolen although it was chained to a lamp-post.  The car had it's 1/4 light smashed.

A total of 14 years in Malaysia and zip, zilch, nothing, crime-free.  London, a victim 5 times (excluding car), Malaysia a wonderful 0.

In 2008 I stayed in England for several months. I felt threatened from pushy deadbeats asking for cash, 5 pound notes that is, to nutters in-my-face agro just for walking out of a public library.

It was along the lines of "do you think that you're better than me 'cus you read books." I guess the guy was drunk or using.

I was told by my family and friends to avoid the town centre after 10pm. I have never been warned to avoid anywhere in Malaysia.

The Malaysian newspapers highlight crime. I guess in the UK crime doesn't make the headlines as it's such a common event.

Malaysian newspapers like the incidents where armed robbers make the mistake of firing at the police and end up being shot dead.

I like that as well.   

So, compare Malaysian crime figures with those of your home town/country. In my case Malaysia is very safe as compared to the UK which as a place to live I consider to be worryingly aggressive regarding random physical violence, let alone the break-ins.

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I agree with Scott. Malaysia is just like any other country. The newspapers like to sensationalize crime, but I don't think there is more crimehere than in the west. It is safe living here unless you are really stupid or naive and go where you shouldn't, just like the rest of the world.

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hello scott and steveso
thanks for the replies.it is helpful information.
another question as you are english speaking
could you tell us what englis tv channels are available there
also any english radio channels over there.
thanks siskin

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Hi Siskin.
There are plenty of English TV channels here. I have the movie channels, HBO, Starz and MAX. There are CNN,BBC and Aljazeera for news, as well as Discovery, The Animal Channel, National Geographic etc. You can check out all of the programs available at Astro.com TV shows from the US, Australia and UK, may however be old or even ancient.
There are many English radio stations here also.

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Regarding the Astro, our reception/image is awful, I've been told by a dealer that Astro in its present format is not suited to a wide screen format, ie:42 inch.,(not enough pixels?) and the radio is pretty bad, all pop and light music, no classical or current affairs channels.
 But a nice jazz channel on Astro radio  :)though. Regards Rob

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I have a 42" Full HD screen and the reception is great. Other friends in the same complex have even larger sets with great reception. Maybe your location hurts reception.

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rjnpenang,

I think your Astro guy is telling porkies!  We have a 52" and the Astro programmes subsribed are transmitting well... except when there is a thunderstorm!!  Then it's time to play Scrabble or Shogun or something!

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Then I think it must be the dish in our condi., I'll check with the management, mind you, will it improve the quality programming of R. Murdochs Astro?. Rob   

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I think your Astro guy is telling porkies! 

No I think Rob's Astro guy is spot on. The transmission could still be OK the picture quality on LCD or Plasma sets is awfull.
The SD quality they are transmitting is best seen on a ordinary Tube.
And indeed the bigger the screen the worse it gets
Hopefully the upcoming HD package will change that.

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thanks for the info on tv.
which area of malaysia do any of you recommend for living in selangor or malacca areas,with not too much worry about crime. does malay have good and bad areas like the uk?. are there less break ins in the good areas? everything is good in malay just worried about the safety,dont want to end up being chopped.
regards siskin.

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Hi

Not trying t be rude (honest).  You seem very worried about crime in Malaysia.  I am not sure any expat could answer your question (or would want to)

Have you spend anytime in Malaysia and if so what was your general 'feel' for the place?


Cheers

JJ

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I was born in Malaysia (I'm an ABWE* but originally a KL girl), so I'll have a go....

At 4:00am on 2 September 2009, three guys with machetes broke into our house. They tied Jacek's and my hands up with wire and proceeded to go through the house, eventually taking most cash and jewellery. I started to raise a fuss when they started pawing our laptops and they fled.

Since that time, we've installed an alarm system, have a dog and are getting a high fence built around our house.

HAVING SAID ALL THAT.....

We have lived in Australia, the United States, Poland and I have friends in the UK. In NONE of those places, had the same thing happened, do I believe we would have got off as "easily" as we did in September. The kids still don't want to move, despite the fact we were in the kids' bedroom, with one thief standing guard, while the rest of our house was being ransacked, during the entire episode.

Are we pissed? Oh God, let me count the ways! I lost the first brooch my husband gave me as a present and our wedding rings. Thankfully, being more geek than chic, almost all the other jewellery was costume.

Are there things the authorities can do and aren't? Absolutely. Only this morning, another neighbour in the estate lost an Olympus digital camera and an Apple laptop from the front room of their house sometime before 9am.

SO YOU SEE, MALAYSIA IS A CRIME-RIDDEN RAT HOLE!!!!

Not so fast. More can be done, but I'd be more afraid of being "chopped" or, at the very least, our house being entirely trashed, if I was in Britain, or getting our heads bashed in while tied up if we were in Australia. What you do is take precautions. Like we originally didn't. If you're not prepared to do that, don't come.

Kaz @ Johor

* ABWE == Asian Born Western Educated

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Hi Kaz

What a shocking story and to add to it crime is everywhere: I was robbed twice one time at gunpoint and one time at knifepoint,
both events happend in the Netherlands. Here in Malaysia we live in Condo. Security was one of the reasons which
made us decide that.
But I feel safe here in Penang, much safer then I felt in Amsterdam.

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Stuurman, you bring up a very good point. We would be safer in a condo complex, of that there is no doubt. The safest we felt when we lived in the USA was in a complex. Right now we're in a bungalow in a new estate with the North-South highway literally a hundred paces from our door. And we're sure our house was "cased" by some workers just two days before. They behaved suspiciously at the time but, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Security is such a complex issue. Jacek's mother's neighbour got broken into in Poland after installing a "thief-proof" triple-layer, metal-core door. The thieves picked the lock. The police later told those neighbours that it was lucky they were asleep during the burglary as those crimes usually end in murder. Britain has CCTV cameras everywhere, yet that has not led to a decrease in crime. The idiot in our estate who had his front room burgled this morning is now ranting about getting a gun licence (in Malaysia? As if!), but has that helped the crime rate in, say, the Philippines or the USA?

I may sound angry as I write this but that's anger directed at ourselves. We should have taken more precautions. We should've installed more than the very very basic of metal grilles, especially considering the geographical factors as noted above.

If siskin is reading this, there is crime everywhere but the level of violence associated with crime is, I still firmly believe, lower in Malaysia than in any other Western country we have lived in. And this is from a victim of aggravated assault in this country.

Kaz @ Johor