While some took the opportunity to return to their hometowns to celebrate Chinese New Year with their loved ones, others decided to visit all the popular tourist spots in Kuala Lumpur during the long weekend. However, it seems that some were not expecting KL to be crowded with mostly foreigners.
TikTok user @/fzlmrd or Faizal Murad posted a video over the weekend of him and his driving around KL during the Chinese New Year holiday. As seen in the post, the man felt concerned to have seen so many foreigners walking about in the area. “Tell me you are in KL without telling me you are in KL,” he wrote in the post’s captions, implying that this was a normal sight in the city.
The post then went viral and many discussing how Malaysians would sometimes feel like foreigners in their own country. Those on TikTok expressed how they’d often feel unsafe walking around KL as there’d be too many immigrants in certain areas. Some even added that KL can feel like Dhaka, a city in Bangladesh, due to the influx of foreign workers from the country.
Those on Twitter, however, believed that these foreigners have every right to explore KL as many of them helped build the city into what it is today. Many expressed there is no need for any racist comments as the immigrant workers are the ones willing to accept physical challenging jobs that locals themselves refuse to do.
Another video also went viral over the weekend that showed TBS (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan) overflowing with foreigners waiting in line to buy bus tickets to their destinations. “This is why people don’t use public transport during the holidays. This is at TBS. Foreigners outnumbered the locals. The people are uncomfortable,” the caption reads.
Just like the earlier discussion, netizens were also divided with some being unsatisfied with seeing so many foreigners while others called out racist netizens for their hypocrisy, suggesting that they would not be complaining if the foreigners were mostly caucasian.
Although many have voiced their concerns regarding these foreigners, according to an article by NST last December, most of these immigrants have valid documentation upon inspection by authorities so there’s no need to worry about them being working in the country illegally.
What do you think? Were some of these locals right to be concerned or were they just overreacting? Watch the two viral clips below:
@abangcrime Tell me you are in KL without telling me you are in KL lols #fypシ
