KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Thousands of Iranians are living in Malaysia to escape the harsh regime in Tehran but just as they see this country as a utopia, they have observed the some of its flaws as well.
Time magazine reported yesterday that Malaysia is becoming, in the words of GEM-TV host Abed Randamiz, “famous as a place to jump” from Iran’s harsh religious regime.
GEM-TV is a privately owned, Dubai-based bootleg satellite station that beams the modern world into Iran from a broadcast station in Malaysia.
A typical day at the station in Mont Kiara here would see some 60 exiles busily dubbing Brazilian soap operas, Japanese cartoons and American music videos into Farsi, according to the Time report.
The Iranian influx is small but growing fast. At present, the magazine reported there are about 60,000 Iranians studying, working or waiting for visas in this country seen as a relatively easygoing, multi-ethnic Muslim-majority nation.
There are also a growing number of clubs dedicating a day each week calling it “Iranian Night” featuring Iranian deejays and music.
“Iranians hold shares in an estimated 2,000 Malaysian businesses and occupy about 15,000 spots in Malaysian universities. Tourist arrivals from Iran jumped 14.3 per cent to 116,000 last year,” Time magazine reported.
In addition to that, words of Persian origin have existed in the Malay dictionary for a long time, such as “dewan” for hall and “anggur” for grapes.
“Most Iranians in Malaysia bask in the comforts of a life free from ideological pressures and from, in one exile’s words, ‘bribing the police every time you want to have a party.’ Malaysia has become the base for frequent ‘Persian Disco Nights’ and glitzy concerts by famed singers — one earlier this year included a rallying cry against the current regime — during the Iranian New Year in March,” according to the magazine.
However, Time noted that life here for the Iranians is not without hassles.
“Many, including Ali Manafi, a radio anchor who recently fled Iran at considerable risk, are exhausted by religious rules. ‘Spirituality should be personal,’ he says. ‘Here there are too many mosques and imams’.”
Few Malaysian mosques welcome Shi’ite Muslims, leaving Iranian Shi’ites to worship at their embassy. Iranian activists have also faced rough treatment for political protests. Five Iranian student leaders were arrested for carrying candles in a memorial for protesters killed in Iran.
In 2009, a protest against Iran’s elections outside the UN mission led to tear gas. “However, most activists say they try to stay away from Malaysia’s current unrests — though they are quietly pleased that the recent July 9 demonstration, in which 1,400 Malaysians were arrested, took place on the 12th anniversary of one of Iran’s largest protests,” it said.
Iranians also told Time that locals often assume the worst of their community, fuelled by among others, the highly publicised arrest of 15 Iranian drug smugglers last year — and several others since.
There has been a steep increase in the number of alleged Iranian drug traffickers caught in Malaysia, with 138 arrested from January to October last year compared with 16 in the whole of 2009.
“Iranians are dirty-minded people — they come here to drink and take drugs and wear their shirts open like women,” scoffed one Malaysia cab driver, as reported in Time.
“Of course, prejudice goes both ways,” the magazine wrote, as GEM-TV’s Randamiz mocked Malaysia as a young nation as compared to Iran’s 2,500 years of culture.
Nafise Motlaq, a photojournalist who explains Malaysian culture to Iranians in a local magazine, Monorail, called Malaysia “the closest I’ve found to a utopia.”
