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By Mihar Dias January 2025
It takes a special kind of imagination to wake up in Kuala Lumpur, get stuck in traffic on the LDP, order a latte that costs more than lunch in some countries, and then conclude: Yes, this feels exactly like Gaza.
Fortunately, George Galloway was in town to gently—well, not that gently—pop that balloon.
“I didn’t see any tanks,” he said. The Vibes
No guns.
No military trucks.
No segregated roads.
In other words, Kuala Lumpur looked suspiciously like… Kuala Lumpur.
This was apparently disappointing to a journalist who tried very hard to draw a straight historical line from British colonialism to Palestinian apartheid to the lived experience of Malaysian Chinese citizens—presumably somewhere between Pavilion Mall and a durian stall that accepts QR Pay.
Malaysia is not a perfect society. We have our policies, our privileges, our grievances, our eternal debates about who gets what, who deserves more, and who forgot to pay the maintenance fee. But apartheid?
That word is not a metaphor. It is not a vibes-based accusation. It comes with tanks, guns, checkpoints, walls, soldiers, and the daily arithmetic of survival.
When Galloway said he didn’t see segregated roads, he wasn’t being poetic. He was being literal.
In Palestine, segregation isn’t a social-media argument—it’s concrete, asphalt, barbed wire, and armed teenagers in uniform.
Malaysia, by contrast, practises a far more sophisticated system of oppression: paperwork.
Forms.
Permits.
Quotas.
Appeals.
And committees to review the appeals to the committees.
If that’s apartheid, it’s the only one in history where the allegedly oppressed group dominates shopping malls, SMEs, private hospitals, international schools, and half the signage in Mont Kiara—often in three languages, none of which involve being shouted at by a soldier.
Galloway made another heretical observation: the Chinese community in Malaysia appears to be doing rather well.
This, of course, is deeply offensive in a country where success itself is sometimes treated as evidence of victimhood.
How dare he notice thriving businesses, generational wealth-building, and a community that somehow prospers despite allegedly living under conditions comparable to Gaza?
The comparison becomes even more surreal when one considers logistics.
Palestinians queue at checkpoints to cross their own land. Malaysian Chinese queue for bubble tea.
Palestinians worry about drones. Malaysians worry about road tax and whether the toll has gone up again. One is occupation; the other is Monday.
And then there’s the argument that British colonialism is the great equaliser of suffering.
Yes, the British left messes everywhere—but history is not a one-size-fits-all trauma coupon. Colonialism explains context, not equivalence. If colonial legacy alone created apartheid, half the Commonwealth would currently resemble an open-air prison, and Singapore would still be a fishing village with an accent.
What truly embarrassed Galloway, you could tell, was not the question itself but the insistence on forcing Malaysia into a moral costume that simply doesn’t fit. It’s like insisting a papercut is the same as an amputation because both involve blood.
The irony, of course, is that such comparisons don’t help Palestinians at all.
When everything becomes apartheid, nothing is. When every grievance is Gaza, Gaza disappears into noise. Real oppression doesn’t need exaggeration; it needs accuracy.
To their credit, the news portal apologised and disciplined the journalist.The Vibes
That’s another thing Galloway didn’t see in Gaza: an internal investigation followed by accountability.
So let’s keep our metaphors honest. Malaysia has problems worth debating—serious ones. But if you need to invent tanks on Jalan Tun Razak to make your argument work, perhaps the argument is the thing that needs reform.
As Galloway implied, sometimes the most radical act is simply looking around.
And noticing what isn’t there.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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