Best Place to Retire??

[Strong Eagle]

Malaysia comes in at number three.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/internati ... 36719.html

[earthfriendly]

It is very attractive for me. They have a good program for retirees (MM2H), affordable standard of living, good infrastructure and I will be close to family. Nice warm weather year round and friendly locals. Would be great if they build a public transit to Singapore.

[Max Headroom]

It is very attractive for me. They have a good program for retirees (MM2H), affordable standard of living, good infrastructure and I will be close to family. Nice warm weather year round and friendly locals. Would be great if they build a public transit to Singapore.

...and get their crime issues sorted.

Malaysia is nice in a lot of ways and it seems poised for a great future too. But they have to reign in their crime. Period.

[the lynx]

...and corruption!



And Penang gets a mention. Woohoo!

[zzm9980]

It is very attractive for me. They have a good program for retirees (MM2H), affordable standard of living, good infrastructure and I will be close to family. Nice warm weather year round and friendly locals. Would be great if they build a public transit to Singapore.

...and get their crime issues sorted.

Malaysia is nice in a lot of ways and it seems poised for a great future too. But they have to reign in their crime. Period.

This seems silly to me; I've yet to see any reasonable statistics to show that Malaysia actually has higher crime or it's riskier to be there than most other developed countries/[countries that aren't Singapore]. It seems to be a combination of 'perception of most crime by its neighbors' and 'most blur neighbors that often visit and make themselves crime victims'.

[zzm9980]

Penang Island, in the north east and Kuala Lumpur, the country's capital in the south

Hmm not sure why we should believe anything in that article...

[Tanuki]

This seems silly to me; I've yet to see any reasonable statistics to show that Malaysia actually has higher crime or it's riskier to be there than most other developed countries/[countries that aren't Singapore]. It seems to be a combination of 'perception of most crime by its neighbors' and 'most blur neighbors that often visit and make themselves crime victims'.

I think you're pretty close on this one, ZZM. Whenever you mention Malaysia around here people all start making faces and going on about how dangerous it is, blah blah blah. BS, I say.

[the lynx]

Malaysia is dangerous enough. Especially in city areas like KL and JB. But just like other cities in the world, if you make yourself an easy prey, an easy prey you will be.

Look at the bright side, in Malaysia, you don't get much gun-related crimes but you do get a lot of blade-related ones.

[zzm9980]

Malaysia is dangerous enough. Especially in city areas like KL and JB. But just like other cities in the world, if you make yourself an easy prey, an easy prey you will be.

Look at the bright side, in Malaysia, you don't get much gun-related crimes but you do get a lot of blade-related ones.

'Dangerous enough' is highly subjective though. Real per-capita crime rates would be nice, and I can't find any types of stats like that for Malaysia. The most I found was something on "Numbeo", the site we all use for CoL comparisons. But then if you read how they calculate their stats, it's all based on 'how worried those surveyed feel' about particular catagories. Respondents feel safer in Mexico than Malaysia, the same mexico where finding 50 headless corpses hanging from a highway viaduct is just another Tuesday morning.

I still maintain it's just local Chinese gossip-culture, myopic views comparing it to Singapore, and blur-like-sotong lack of street smarts allowing themselves to BE the victims when they do go to Malaysia and have someone wave a switch blade in front of them for the 5" Hello-kitty jewel encrusted smart phone they were staring at while walking down a dark alley.

[Tanuki]

'Dangerous enough' is highly subjective though. Real per-capita crime rates would be nice, and I can't find any types of stats like that for Malaysia. The most I found was something on "Numbeo", the site we all use for CoL comparisons. But then if you read how they calculate their stats, it's all based on 'how worried those surveyed feel' about particular catagories. Respondents feel safer in Mexico than Malaysia, the same mexico where finding 50 headless corpses hanging from a highway viaduct is just another Tuesday morning.

I still maintain it's just local Chinese gossip-culture, myopic views comparing it to Singapore, and blur-like-sotong lack of street smarts allowing themselves to BE the victims when they do go to Malaysia and have someone wave a switch blade in front of them for the 5" Hello-kitty jewel encrusted smart phone they were staring at while walking down a dark alley.

It is a little challenging to find trusted numbers about crime in Malaysia. While googling sites, I'd see some that have titles about "Why is violent crime so high in Malaysia?" only to read someone's personal opinions totally fact-free. I like the numbeo site for a chuckle. No info on who was posting their "data" on the site, but they show a large paranoia. Maybe it's all red-dotters adding their "facts" to the database. LOL

http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?f ... sec=nation shows an interesting number of crimes per 100K population with Malaysia not a lot higher than Singapore. I can't vouch for the authenticity myself.

http://www.nst.com.my/top-news/malaysia ... ia-1.56908 says how safe Malaysia is, rather generically.

I've been in a number of places around Malaysia and never felt the least bit of concern for my safety, or that of my family. But then again, having spent a lot of years in Asia, there's only one time I've seen a knife and that was in the PI port of Olongapo back in my sailor days. I feel much safer in Malaysia than I do in downtown Seattle, personally. It's all in our expectations I guess...

[Wd40]

Malaysia is kind of unique situation. Unlike Indonesia for example. Its easy to classify Indonesia, India etc at 3rd world because there is crime, corruption and not good infrastructure and lots of poverty.

Malaysia has good infrastructure and not too many poor people and it import foreigners workers from poor countries like Indonesia. So all that sound like a developed country. But then there is crime rate, which is similar to other developed countries. But the biggest difference is corruption. You just have to cross the causeway to find traffic police there happily ready to take bribes. You wouldn't trust the police in Malaysia as much as Australia for example. So the corruption coupled with the crime rate makes it more dangerous than developed countries. Add to that racism and I guess thats what makes it a bad place.

[livingontheedge]

From a book I read "Bangkok Days" for a number of broke and/or aimless Europeans and Americans............Bangkok would be the retirement place and final resting ground. Depending on what you are looking for in your retirement days, Malaysia is no Bangkok, though it tries in many discreet ways.

[the lynx]

You will never be able to get official 'accurate' stats on Malaysia crime rates. It has been played down poorly by the police force and ruling government party to stay afloat as their popularity index dives down.

So poor that even ministers themselves aren't sure which stats they are supposed to present to the public to pursue their own agenda.

Example: Home Minister wanted to introduced Prevention of Crime Acts (PCA), which really is a shadow of the now-abolished Internal Security Act (ISA) that includes detention without trial, citing the rise of violent crimes. Ironically, the official stats, released by the Malaysia Royal Police Force (PDRM) right before that, indicated no significant change in violent crime rate. (Of course the stats have already been manipulated to avoid representing Malaysia as regressing state in terms of safety). Now he's effed because he can't dismiss the very same stats that he and his party worked in cahoots to 'dress down', nor he can't retract his PCA plan. So he shot himself in the foot for that one, pun intended.

Reputable source about this comedy:
http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/commenta ... truth.html

The real stats (claimed by opposition-led site):http://charleshector.blogspot.sg/2013/1 ... crime.html

zzm, I have nothing further to add to what you say because I essentially agree to it just that you're downplaying crime rates in Malaysia a little.

[bgd]

Malaysia is dangerous enough. Especially in city areas like KL and JB. But just like other cities in the world, if you make yourself an easy prey, an easy prey you will be.

Look at the bright side, in Malaysia, you don't get much gun-related crimes but you do get a lot of blade-related ones.

That’s certainly the message I get from Singaporeans. Many I’ve met won’t go near the place and are surprised anyone returns alive.

On the other hand every day there are thousands of Singaporeans who throw caution to the wind and head across the water. I suspect their biggest threat comes from themselves and other Singaporean drivers.

[Wd40]

I tend to agree with Lynx. You need to be a local to know the truth. I mean, if you remember in the last election, there was widespread rumours that the gahmen there imported Indonesians to cast fake votes for them. If even a bit of that stuff is true then Malaysia is very very far away from being a safe and developed country. To me considering their racist policies, its closer to some of the middle east countries standards.